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Bob Uker and his career so much and
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today he was honored in Milwaukee.
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Brewers fans obviously considered him
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part of their family. He called games
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for generations. I mean they all grew up
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with Bob Uker as the voice of Brewers
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baseball, but also that he became the
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most famous person within the
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organization. He was Bernie Brewer. He
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was the logo. I mean, there's a statue
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to him and Uker's charisma and sense of
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humor and zest for life is his legacy.
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So, talk about popular. He was not just
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a broadcaster calling baseball games
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balls and strikes. He was he was a
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cultural icon. And what I have
0:50
incredible respect for when it comes to
0:52
Bob Uker, why he resonated so deeply,
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most people will not spend their entire
1:00
professional lives at one job.
1:03
Almost nobody will. Bob Uker did in our
1:06
industry, the broadcast industry. It
1:09
almost never happens. He is a dinosaur,
1:13
a legend, an icon from a different
1:15
generation because of that. But it
1:18
wasn't just that his longevity was so
1:23
It was that he, despite being a legend,
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could laugh at himself.
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Dial up after you're done on this show
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any of Bob Uker's performances,
1:36
appearances on the Tonight Show with
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Johnny Carson back in the 70s and 80s
1:41
and watch a ball player do nothing but
1:46
Watch his Hall of Fame speech. This is
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the highest honor that a baseball
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player. He was a player or a broadcaster
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could possibly have. He's at Coopertown
1:58
giving a speech and it's all about how
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Not only is that charming, but it says
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so much about a person when they don't
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have to remind you about all the good
2:10
things that they did. when actually they
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can do the exact opposite to remind you
2:14
about all the bad things that they did
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and still be considered a successful
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Pair that with all the ego in sports
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today, all of the ego with players, the
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ego with so many broadcasters, the ego
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with so many people on social media
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trying to prove that they know more or
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they're cooler or they have it all
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figured out or you're wrong, they're
2:36
right. players and I don't blame a lot
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of players for thinking that a lot of
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the stuff on social media is annoying,
2:43
ill-informed, etc. But everybody is
2:46
about proving that they were right.
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And here's Bob Uker walking in and
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saying, "I'm the joke. I'm the joke."
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It is so unbelievable to watch him do
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that every step of the way while being
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not only not a joke at his profession,
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but unbelievably good at the profession.
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Bob Uker was a really good actor. Bob
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Uker was a really good broadcaster. Bob
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Uker was an elite play-by-play guy, an
3:19
elite play-by-play guy. And Bob Uker was
3:21
an incredible character. Yes, some of
3:24
that was natural, but he also worked on
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phrasing and timing and jokes and
3:31
delivery. This was not just luck of the
3:33
draw, a shucks, look what I landed into.
3:36
He was that good at everything that he
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did. Everything besides playing. And
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even being bad as a professional
3:45
baseball player, you still had to be a
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professional baseball player.
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Even if you hit 200, as he made fun of
3:52
himself so often of doing, you still had
3:55
to make it to the bigs to hit 200 there.
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I love Bob Uker because he turned all
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ego on its ear. Here was a guy that was
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a legend and he kept reminding you why
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Never going to be another like him. Just
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think he's the best. I remember driving
4:17
with my my family on a summer vacation.
4:20
We were the classic Griswald family, the
4:22
Amendos packed into a 1990 Chevy
4:26
Suburban. And me, my brother, my sister,
4:29
mom, and dad would take off and drive
4:32
anywhere. My dad loved driving. We
4:34
couldn't afford plane tickets, so we
4:36
just drove. We were driving through
4:39
Wisconsin one summer and I said, "Can I
4:43
try to find the ball game?" This is well
4:46
before the internet, well before cell
4:47
phones, well before streaming. And I
4:50
found the Brewers game. And I just
4:53
wanted to hear Bob Uker because I never
4:55
got a chance to listen to Bob Uker
4:56
growing up in New York. When would I
4:57
ever listen to a Brewers radio
5:01
I just wanted to hear Uker. And I
5:03
remember sitting in the back of the
5:04
Suburban, huddled next to the speaker
5:06
because nobody else in the Suburban
5:08
wanted to listen to Brewers baseball
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and just listening to the legend. I'll
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never forget that. Honor Bob Uker. He
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was the man. And I love that Milwaukee
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loves loves him as much as they do.
