AS the tributes pour in for the late Bob Uecker, the wonderful and funny "Mr. Baseball," we decided to post up a reminder to everyone that before he became a legend, Bob Uecker really was a ballplayer. Here he is, second from the left in the top row (not the "front rooow") with the World Champion St Louis Cardinals of 1964.
No, the ol "Ueck" didn't get to play in that Series, but he did get the ring, even if he'd later tell America, as a favored guest on the "Tonight Show," that he'd stolen it. He made himself a career as the archetype of an irresistible, wholly American story, the regular guy toiling in obscurity among and alongside the greats, the immortals, while hoping just to stay in the game a little longer. It was such a perfectly relatable tale that we ourselves adopted it back in our stand-up days, claiming to be "The Bob Uecker of Rock & Roll." And please let's not forget he did play twelve years in professional baseball, six of those years in the major leagues. Who among us-- of a certain age, perhaps-- wouldn't trade a whole lot of what we have now for what he had then?
Bob Uecker never had to. He stayed right in the game, becoming the voice of his home-town Milwaukee Brewers for over fifty years, and the voice of baseball itself for countless millions. He represented the best that baseball has to offer, a warm, hearty, self-effacing ambassador, carrying a simple joy that was rooted in his love of baseball, his love of life, and his love of people.
And so, the world inside and outside of baseball has loved him back. That world has gotten juuuuust a bit smaller and sadder today.
