This 90-Year-Old Is Still Sports’ Funniest Person

Creator: @BaseballHistorian

Bob Uecker was one of the worst players in MLB history. He knew this, so he then decided to transition into becoming the funniest man in all of baseball (and maybe in the history of sports)…
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in the history of baseball there’s been nobody like Bob uker he once led the league in pass balls as a backup catcher over six years as an mob player uker hit under 200 at the plate Gaylord Perry said the day uker hit a home run against him was the worst day of his life Bob’s nickname Mr Baseball was given to him as a joke and he was once choked on live television by Andre the Giant and yet for the last 50 years Bob uker has been one of the most beloved Personalities in baseball he’s been the radio voice of the Brewers since the 1970s despite never having signed a contract with the team he’s appeared on The Tonight Show over a 100 times he had his own TV show appeared in movies and he even once hosted Saturday Night Live but wait who is Bob uker and what makes him so special the answer lies as you might have guessed in Milwaukee Bob uker was one of three children to marry and Gus a Swiss die maker by trade nobody would have guessed the young Bob would grow up to become the greatest ball player player in the history of Wisconsin Sports now that could be because he didn’t but let’s not get ahead of ourselves here Bob loved baseball growing up he spent lots of free time at Milwaukee’s borer field home of the local minor league team the Brewers uker never finished high school and listing in the Army at the age of 20 now Bob didn’t want to be sent over seeds those of you familiar with the US military might recognize this as a problem uke wasn’t worried though he had a plan see soldiers who’ played baseball in college were allowed to join the military league as a catcher this seemed like the perfect chance for Bob to avoid getting shipped out of the country the only thing standing in his way however was that he had never been to college so he improvised he told the army that he had played baseball at Marquette University in real uker had never gone to Marquette on top of that Marquette didn’t even have a baseball team luckily the Army never bothered to check either of those things and Bob was allowed to play he signed with his hometown Milwaukee Braves in 1956 I signed a very modest $33,000 bonus with the Braves in Milwaukee which I’m sure a lot of you know and my own man didn’t have that kind of money to put out but the Braves took it he finally made his major league debut against the Dodgers in 1962 entering the game as a pinch hitter against Hall of Fame pitcher Don Dale he grounded out he made his hometown debut a few weeks later as the starting catcher versus the Giants facing Juan Marisha another future h Famer uker wi 0 for three with two strikeouts he did however manage a walk now Bob did have a few highlights at the plate throughout his career notably of the 14 home runs he ever hit in M Mo three of them came off of Hall of Famers Gaylord Perry Fergie Jenkins and Sandy kofax the Braves traded Bob to the Cardinals in 1964 he spent two seasons in St Louis as the backup catcher for Tim McCarver he had a batting average of just 198 but Bob’s teammates praised him for keeping them loose for their World Series run uker could be friends with just about anyone this included his teammate and fellow Bob Bob Gibson if you need proof look no further than this photo this is the official team picture for the 1964 St Louis Cardinals here in the back row is Bob uker and here in the row in front of him is Bob Gibson now you might be wondering what’s so special about this Photograph and the answer is nothing kind of see there’s a Reason by and Bob had to be separated for this photo shoot and that’s because this isn’t the first team photo the Cardinals took this year that would be this this is a team picture that uh once a year they have these team picture days is what they are and uh they had proofed it and everything and then brought it back to the ballpark before they finally caught that scene there what can you come a little closer on that well Bob and I are holding hands Bob Gibson was also once asked about this photo I’d like to say it was a symbol of racial Unity we achieved on the Cardinals or that it represented the connection between pitcher and catcher nah the fact is we were just goofballs of course you already knew that about uker unsurprisingly Bob uker that is was traded to the Phillies after the 65 season if you want an idea of how UK’s time in Philadelphia went just know that he was once fined by a police officer for being drunk in public which also happens to be Philly’s most popular hobby he was then traded back to the Braves who were now in Atlanta like before Bob mainly served as the backup catcher in 1967 playing Just 76 games this didn’t stop him from tallying 27 pass balls that season leading the national league it was the only time yuker led the league in anything during spring training of 1968 Bob was involved in a fight at a nightclub in Florida at the and Bull restaurant in West Palm Beach uker was struck over the head with a beer bottle he needed 48 stitches to close the wound less than two weeks later he was released a few years after that Bob would become the official spokesperson for Miller Light you know one of the best things about being an next big leager is getting freebies to the game call the front office Bingo and once these fans recognize me I probably won’t even have to pay for my like P for biller I love them these fans know I drink light cuz it’s less filling and it tastes great good seats huh in the wrong shap buddy come on oh I must be in front row light beer from Miller everything you always wanted in beer and less good seats he buddy he missed a tag he missed a tag for now though for the first time in years Bob uker had no plan he was also unemployed so he got to work Bob started doing standup quickly turning it into a role as PR Ambassador for the Braves his career really took off though when he was asked to open for comedian Don Rickles at a nightclub owned by musician Al hurt hurt took a liking to uker and introduced him to his friend Johnny Carson we I thought we’ invite Bob to kind of Reminisce about some of the great World Series games he’s enjoyed watching from the grand stands like a lot of us would you welcome Bob Yer by the time Carson retired in 1992 Bob uker had appeared on The Tonight Show roughly a 100 times Bob loved late night especially since Carson allowed him to do pretty much whatever he wanted on his show for an audience of millions despite his Newfound celebrity however Bob never lost his love for baseball and baseball as it turned out wasn’t done with yuker either the year was 1970 the Brewers were in their inaugural season after the bankrupt Seattle Pilots were sold to Bud seig cig a Milwaukee native himself asked Bob to be the team’s official radio voice now this wasn’t UK’s first role with the Brewers before he was their announcer Milwaukee had hired him as a scout as Sil recalled uker was quote the worst Scout I ever had we sent him up to the northern league and the next thing I know Frank Lane comes raging into my office asking what kind of scout I hired the report was smeared with gravy and mashed potatoes on September 4th 1971 the Brewers announced that uker no longer a scout would broadcast games on TV and radio uker had agreed to this Arrangement on one condition it had to be a handshake deal with no contract involved for the next 50 years that’s how every agreement between Bob uker and the Brewers went down for as quickly as uker skyrocketed to fame on television his announcing abilities developed more gradually former Milwaukee broadcaster Tom Collins remembered some of uker early struggles Bob’s problem then was in finding stuff to ad lip he constantly repeat the count in the score and swing his legs like a pendulum and smoke cigarette after cigarette over time though Bob uker grew into one of the most respected Sports Casters in the game one reason for this was that unlike some broadcasters yuker refused to speak poorly about a player on the air explaining that he knew how hard the game was to play he went National in the mid 70s teaming up with TV Legends like Howard coell for Monday night baseball in ABC uker and coell and I are doing a game in I think it was Houston and um kosel says on the air he says okay Yuki you know you don’t have to be so truculent you do know what truculent means don’t you and without hesitating yuker says of course Howard if you had a truck and I borrowed it would be a truck ulent Bob was invited to host Saturday Night Live in 1984 a season that featured one-off cast members like Martin schw Julia Lu Rus and Billy Crystal it wasn’t my fault that the ball took a bad bounce yeah how many times have I told you the ball takes a bad hop on you you take it in the face huh in 1985 he landed his first major acting role in the ABC sitcom Mr badier and he Bob uker had already uh was a was on a successful standup show called Mr badier which starred uh Christopher huitt who studied at the Oxford Academy as Mr Bel badier the the butler to to Bob UK’s character and he said to me he goes hey man you no badier he goes I’ll tell you something about badier you might not know I go what’s that he goes he loves fried mozzarella I go oh how do you know that he goes well in the back of these TV shows they have little things where you can get food in that little stove you know with a a skillet man I’d put mozzarella on there and I’d feed it to him and uh then one time I got called into a big meeting and all these muckety mucks were were sitting around they said you got to stop feeding Bader I said man he likes it in 1987 Bob made maybe the most bizarre TV appearance of his career as the ring announcer for Wrestlemania 3 the fans must have liked him too since he returned for Wrestlemania 4 in ‘ 88 1989 when the movie Major League was released a bit outside he tried the corner and miss the major league series cemented uker as a household name introducing him to an entirely new generation of Baseball fans by the mid 90s though uker had become so successful that he had actually considered leaving broadcasting altogether to pursue acting in the end Bob decided to stay in Milwaukee in 2001 he was IND inducted into the national radio hall of fame then in 2003 Bob won the Ford SE Freckle wood the most prestigious achievement possible for a baseball journalist when it came time for his speech in Cooperstown he delivered it in classic yuker fashion I remember Jee mock doing things to me at Philadelphia I’d be sitting there and he’d say uh grab a bat and stop this rally uh in 2010 Bob received my favorite honor of his a spot in the WWE Hall of Fame uker took a cut to his workload in 2014 due to health issues that hasn’t stopped him from calling Brewers games every season since then including this one when he kicked off his 54th year as a broadcaster this April he was showered With Love by the Milwaukee crowd one of a kind is he he hasn’t lost a step behind the mic either R deep get up get up get out of here G for gar Mitchell he just hit a walkoff out of here and the Brewers have swept the New York Bob uker has two statues at the Brewer stadium the first is this one a larger than life Monument installed directly outside of Miller Park Now American Family field back in 2012 the second tribute to Bob is a little less obvious the next time you go to a Brew’s home home game take a look up behind home plate there you will find section 422 home to the worst view in maybe any m o ballpark they have been dubed lovingly of course the uker seats it’s up here in all his glory that you’ll find Bob uker with a permanent seat in the front row