You might know him as Harry Doyle. Or perhaps the "I must be in the front row!" guy from those classic Miller Lite ads. Bob Uecker, who kept Milwaukee Brewer fans happy listening to baseball with his quick wit and iconic voice, died Thursday at the age of 90.
His humor made him a celebrity. But it started on the baseball field. Uecker hit .200 over his six seasons playing catcher with the Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves, Philadelphia Phillies and St. Louis Cardinals and he never missed an opportunity to poke fun at his foibles on the baeball diamond.
He turned that career into a broadcasting run with the Brewers going back to 1971, one of the longest runs for a broadcaster with one team in baseball history.
But fans outside of Wisconsin also knew Uecker. His level of celebrity wasrarely experienced by typical baseball radio broadcasters.
He was on your television, appearing with Johnny Carson regularly on "The Tonight Show." Uecker had a starring role on the 1980s sitcom "Mr. Belvedere." You saw him constantly on those Miller Lite commercials that are still memorable decades after they aired.
And of course, many fans still recite Uecker's best lines from his character Harry Doyle in "Major League," a comedy about the hapless Cleveland Indians released in 1989. "Just a bit outside" is such a famous phrase, it's uttered by people who probably never saw the movie.
But at his core, Uecker was just a Milwaukee guy. It was his hometown. He came back for over five decades to call games on WTMJ radio for those Brewers teams. As great baseball broadcasters do so well, when the Brewers were bad, he could carry an entire season with his entertaining stories between play-by-play.
Uecker was given the nickname "Mr. Baseball" as a dig at his playing career. But after a lifetime in baseball, can you think of a better way to describe Uecker?
His broadcasting earned him the prestigious Ford Frick Award in 2003, and a spot in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown alongside other great baseball voices like Vin Scully, Ernie Harwell, Herb Carneal, and Mel Allen.
His speech at the Hall of Fame was legendary, and he ended that speech with gratitude, something baseball fans can relate to looking pack on the amazing life and career of Bob Uecker.
"No matter what else I ever did, baseball was the only way I wanted to go. I thank you very much for your attention today, thank you for having me, and congratulations to everybody here. Thank you very much everybody, thank you."