Remembering Bob Uecker: The Legendary Broadcaster Who Defined Humor, Authenticity, and Baseball Broadcasting

FansFirstUeckerShort

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Jim Powell: [: 00:00:00

We had needed to do some liners for our various affiliates on the Brewers Radio Network, um, as well as many other recordings. And before the gentleman who was going to sort of run all this, Uh, this whole process of all these recordings got there, Bob and, uh, Kent Summerfeld, who's our longtime producer engineer, a great man.

to help us is really good at [: 00:01:00

And so everybody was having fun in their own way, except this gentleman didn't, we were careful not to insult him. But, um, anyway, so we, we did some recordings and then we decided we were going to take a break. So the gentleman left the room, uh, from the brewers and it was just the three of us. And we chatted for a little bit and then we went back to the recordings.

But when he came back in, the, uh, representative from the brewers, um, I wandered over by him and I said, Hey, uh, I just chatted with him for a second and I said, Hey, I'm gonna get a breath mint here. I happen to have some in my pocket. Would you like one? And he said, sure, that'd be great. Unbeknownst to me, cause I wasn't, I was petrified to look at.

Kent and Bob, those two are [: 00:02:00

And he, he said something to me that I've never forgotten and that he truly lived the whole time I knew him in his life. And that is, he said. It's a baseball game. We're just going to have a few laughs. We're just going to have some fun. I don't care about nothing. So you just relax. We're going to have a good time.

Enjoy yourself. And that's pretty much the edict that I took as my marching orders throughout my 13 years with Bob Ueker. And, um, boy, he was, he was true to his word the whole time. One thing I had to learn right away was what life was going to be like with Bob Ueker as my partner. Obviously nobody knew who I was.

didn't know until we went on [: 00:03:00

And I'm sitting in the back with Kent Sommerfeld. We're not going anywhere. We're waiting for everybody else. And after a while, we realized that all the players had gotten off. There's huge throng of people. There's, there's autograph seekers, there's cameras. Um, the fans are all over the place as they always are in New York.

And, um, so the players were going out, but I noticed they were just kind of walking by the fans. They weren't really stopping. And then at some point I realized all the players were off the bus and I knew what the fans were waiting for. They weren't waiting for the players. They weren't looking for the players autographs or the pictures.

aukee where everybody in the [: 00:04:00

We knew other teams had been trying to lure Bob away from the Brewers thinking the Brewers are paupers and they don't have enough money and we can certainly outbid them and we'll get Bob Uecker, George Steinbrenner being a notable example, we'll get Bob Uecker here to New York and he'll come work for the Yankees and he'll be my guy.

And he asked Bob repeatedly and Bob was always polite and he always turned them down because one thing Bob never did was he never forgot his roots. He was born and raised in Milwaukee. He's from a blue collar background. And, you know, in this day and age, people are busy and they're on their phones and they're not paying attention.

ecause those were his people.[: 00:05:00

He loves the blue collar people. He doesn't care if you're rich or you're poor. If you're in a wheelchair or you're walking, um, he doesn't care if you're a Brewers fan or not. If you meet Bob Ueker, you are instant friends with him. And that's how I know for sure, Bob, when his spirit passed yesterday, which, uh, is still a little fresh for a lot of us, that he went straight to heaven.

Because, nobody can influence that many people on a constant basis, day in day out, making the world a better place, and not end up in heaven. Plus, I know that God is sitting up there, probably already mad at himself for making Bob wait almost 91 years, and he's, uh, he was ready for his turn, so I'm sure Bob went right to the left hand side of, uh, our heavenly father.

hen you're working with Bob, [: 00:06:00

That's coming in the very near future in which we deal with nothing, but Bob Ueker stories from the people who know him best. So look for that. episode to be coming up down the road. Um, I want to leave you with this also more of a personal note. Bob was by far the best broadcast teammate that I ever had, but more importantly, he was one of my very best friends in my life.

He was also one of my most important and trusted confidants and someone who loved my wife, Emmy, and my three daughters unconditionally, always welcomed them into our booth. And also, by the way, just as a sidebar, kind of a little bonus. He's the funniest son of a gun. In the entire world, no one has ever graced this planet who has more natural humor than Bob Euker.

what I loved best about Bob? [: 00:07:00

And never utter a profane word, unlike all the other comics that I see anyway. The F bombs flying everywhere. That was not Bob's style, and I think he was very proud that not only was he good at comedy, but he could do it in the right way. But, uh, please, if you have time, go on the internet. If you haven't, if you're a little, uh, older, you're a little younger, and maybe you're, you didn't, weren't around when Bob was in his heyday, do some searching.

uch for indulging me. To let [: 00:08:00