Bob Uecker, sports host who became popular at Clubhouse Wit, dies at 90

Bob Uecker, the clubhouse mastermind who turned his tales of inferiority as a major league catcher into a comic tale that animated his second career as a sportscaster and commercial pitcher, died Thursday. He was 90 years old.

His family announced the death in a statement released by the Milwaukee Brewers, saying he had been treated for small cell lung cancer since early 2023. The statement did not specify where he died.

Uecker was undistinguished during his six seasons as a major league player in the 1960s. He had a career batting average of just .197, hit 14 home runs, and drove in 74 runs. A career reserve player, he never started more than 62 games in a season for the Milwaukee and Atlanta Braves, the St. Louis Cardinals or the Philadelphia Phillies.

“To last as long as I did, with the skills I possessed, was a triumph of the human spirit,” Uecker wrote in “Catcher in the Wry” (1982), his memoir with Mickey Herskowitz.

He told self-deprecating stories – some true, some not – as if he had played baseball only to gather material for a stand-up comedy routine.

“I was once named minor league player of the year,” he said. “Unfortunately, I had been in the majors for two years at the time.”

But Uecker’s deep knowledge of the game, derived primarily from the sidelines and bullpen, was evident during his radio broadcasts for the Brewers, where he started in 1971 as a play-by-play voice.

Uecker was beloved in Milwaukee, but he was known nationally for his comedic turns in the popular Miller Lite beer ad campaign in the 1980s, and for his role as Harry Doyle, the fictional voice of the former Cleveland Indians , in the comedy film “Major League”. » (1989).

The Miller Lite ads were built around a debate over whether low-calorie beer tasted good or was less filling and featured many sports celebrities.

In his most famous commercial, Uecker walked to a box at a baseball stadium. But when an usher interrupted him to tell him he was in the wrong seat, Uecker replied, “Oh, I must be in the front row!” » He was instead taken to a seat in a remote part of the stadium.

“Good seats, huh, buddy?” » he shouted amid a sea of ​​empty seats.

The sight of Uecker perched at such a distance became such a part of his image that in 2014, a statue of him was installed in the upper deck of Brewers Stadium.

In addition to calling Brewers games for 54 years, he worked as an analyst for ABC Sports in 1976 on its Monday Night Baseball franchise, where he remained until 1982.

A full obituary will appear soon.