Today, we learned that the Brewers plan to honor broadcasting legend Bob Uecker with a statue outside Miller Park. Uecker will join Hank Aaron, Robin Yount, and Bud Selig as people depicted in bronze near the stadium. Uecker will be portrayed standing up, with his hands in his pockets, like so many players have apparently seen him around the batting cage.
This is actually a pretty big story, and we’re all genuinely excited for Ueck, even if the statue was long overdue. However, it’s hard to sum up all the things Uecker has meant to Brewer fans over the years, and it’s darn near impossible to bring up his career without being facetious in some way (see my previous failed attempts to put together a decent tribute). So, I thought of a few more Uecker moments that we might be able to reenact in statue form:
— Uecker’s playing career isn’t exactly rife with highlights, but we did manage to find one: His 1965 Topps baseball card.
Don’t see it? Uecker is posing left-handed in this photo. Uecker did not hit left-handed.
— Actually, we managed to find two, even if we already shared this one on Ueck’s birthday. Here’s Mr. Baseball attempting to catch fly balls with a tuba during the 1964 World Series. This is the series where Uecker claims his teammates celebrated their victory by throwing his World Series ring into Busch Stadium’s vast outfield. True or not, it’s painful to see Mr. Baseball in a Cardinals uniform.
— Obviously, there are a lot of Major League quotes we could mention here, but we’ll limit ourselves to one. Here’s broadcaster Harry Doyle signing off to Indians’ fans: “Today’s postgame show is brought to you by… Christ, I can’t find it. The hell with it!”
— This doesn’t always get remembered, but Uecker also had cameos as a Wrestlemania ring announcer in the late 80s. Of all the pictures you see here, this is the one that really needs to be made into a statue.
Or, I suppose, this one.
In all seriousness, congratulations to Ueck and best wishes for the coming season. The pleasure has been all ours.
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