(low-frequency music) - [Jim] This was my guest in the 1960s, and here he is today, Mr.

Baseball himself, Bob Uecker.

He's my very special guest next right here on, "I Remember Milwaukee."

- [Announcer] "I Remember Milwaukee" is brought to you in part by Elsa's On the Park, named in honor of Elsa Kopp, a German immigrant who started her own business in 1950.

Elsa's On the Park has been serving Milwaukee since 1980.

(upbeat orchestra music) (upbeat orchestra music continues) - I'm Jim Peck.

Welcome to "I Remember Milwaukee."

Joining me tonight out here at County Stadium is Bob Ueker, now a nationally recognized radio announcer and the voice of the Milwaukee Brewers.

This former player is a man of many talents.

Take a look.

(triumphant music) - [Narrator] A mug like this should need no introduction, but just in case you don't care for our national pastime and haven't watched television since they canceled "My Mother the Car," it is Bob Ueker.

Bob Ueker, former alleged catcher in the major leagues is a major personality in radio and television today.

For years he has been the play-by-play announcer for the Milwaukee Brewers.

He has starred in a television series, a few movies, and pulled out a rather hefty salary for his national TV commercials.

Despite all of the fame and success, Bob Uecker is the same regular guy he was when he had a catcher's mitt with a large hole in it.

He is and always will be to the world at large Mr.

Baseball.

- Here's the two-one.

(bat cracking) Line to left.

Get foul, baby.

It is a foul ball in the left field corner.

That one hit off the fence out there.

- You weren't born in Milwaukee, but you grew up here, is that right?

- No, I was born in Milwaukee and grew up here.

- Oh, okay.

- I really did.

- [Jim] As I said then- - I was born in the city, and I don't know why that ever came about, Jim, that a lot of people didn't think I was born in the city of Milwaukee.

I've been born in West Allis.

I've been born just about every place here, but I was- - Well, I read that you were born on a highway.

- Well, you know what?

The highway goes right past the area where I was born right now.

You're exactly right.

It's I-43 heading up north near Old Borchert Field.

It cuts through the middle of almost downtown, and that was the area that I grew up in.

I moved in my early teen years to an area right near here, up on 47th and Galena, which used to be the area for the old zoo.

- [Jim] Yep, Washington Park.

- Yeah, Washington Park.

I lived right across the street from the bear cages, as a matter of fact.

And Sunday afternoons, Saturdays and Sundays, but Sundays mostly, was big time, if you'll remember, at Washington Park at that time.

And they used to have all those band concerts and stuff out there.

It was a nice area, and it was a nice place to be brought up.

And I've loved Milwaukee.

I've never had any ideas, entertained any ideas of ever leaving here.

You know, I get around and move around, but I always like coming back here.

- What was it like the first time you stepped up to play here at County Stadium, being from this town?

- Well, I think even before that, when I was being scouted, I had worked out with the Braves in my later teen years.

I was a pitcher at that time, and I came down here to work out, and I was kind of a hotshot pitcher in the sandlot leagues here.

And I had been scouted by a couple of clubs, and the Braves invited me down here for a tryout.

And in those days, they had a home plate area which is behind the original home plate now, a home plate and a little mound where the starting pitcher used to warm up.

And that's where I threw, and Johnny Cooney was the Braves' coach at that time.

And I must have thrown for 15 minutes, you know, and I mean, I was really airing it out.

- You were popping 'em.

- Yeah.

And he said, "Now let me see your good fastball.

You know, I said, "That was my good fastball."

You know, I was shot.

This is exactly what he said.

He said, "Kid, I'd advise you to get a job."

That's exactly what he said.

(Jim laughs) And I continued to play sandlot baseball, and we were playing a game up here at Wick Field, which is up on Vliet Street, excuse me.

And the catcher that particular Sunday afternoon was having kind of a bad day, probably more so because I was having a bad day myself pitching.

And he got on me, and I told him if I couldn't do better than that, I'd quit.

And he said, "If you think you can do better than this, put this stuff on," so I did.

And in a sandlot game here, I put the catcher stuff on, and I enjoyed it.

I really did.

I liked it, and that was my introduction to catching.

- What did you like about it?

It's an uncomfortable position.

You're wearing a lot of equipment.

What would appeal to you?

- Well, you're in the action all the time.

You know, you're not an outfielder standing around.

If there's nothing going on, all you do is stand out there.

I mean, any of those other guys, all they're doing is standing around.

I mean, what if a guy throws a no-hitter?

You know, he strikes out 15 guys.

Nobody's moving around, you know?

It's the pitcher and catcher all the time.

So I enjoyed that, I really did.

I enjoyed the action part of it and the fact that, you know, you were really in the game.

Who knows, I probably never would've played baseball had I stayed with pitching, but I was originally signed as a catcher.

I tell a story that I was originally signed as a pitcher.

And pitching my first professional game, the manager came out to take me out, and I told him I wanted to stay in the game because I was embarrassed.

My folks were there and all my relatives, and my dad had spent a lot of money on getting me through high school.

And you know, I didn't want to come out of the game, and he said, "Well, I'm taking you out."

And I said, "Well, let me pitch to this guy one more time," because I had struck him out the last time I faced him.

And he said, "I know, but it's the same inning, so we gotta get you outta here."

You know, that was kind of... (Jim laughs) You know, that was a little tip-off I better move out, you know, move on to something else, you know?

- You said when managers traded you, in your book "Catcher in the Wry," which I don't know if it's still in print.

It's a wonderful book.

- Yeah.

- I hope it is.

- I hope people are reading it.

It's a great book.

But you said that managers had different ways of telling you when you were traded.

- Yeah, there's always little tips that you pick up.

You might come into the clubhouse, and somebody else is wearing your uniform number.

You might look down at the third base coach for a sign, and he turns his back on you.

- [Jim] (laughs) These are giveaways.

- Yeah, these are little tips that, you know, they might tell you're playing a night game, and you get to the park and find out they played that afternoon.

Those are all little things, you know, that lead you to believe you might be moving on.

Start paying you by the day instead of every two weeks, you know, that's- - [Jim] You said Lum Harris had a peculiar way of letting you know?

- Yeah, I walked into the clubhouse one day, and he told me there were no visitors allowed, you know?

So that was a little bit of a shock, you know?

But, you know, I never let things like that bother me.

The Dodgers did a thing to me one time that kind of aggravated me.

I came up to bat in the ninth inning of a game.

Bases were loaded.

There were two out, and we were down by a run.

And I looked in the Dodger dugout, and they were all sitting in their street clothes, you know?

Gee, this is kind of aggravating, you know?

This upset me a little bit.

- Wasn't there an opposing manager when you hit a home run off someone, and he took the pitcher out?

- Yeah, that was Herman Franks with the San Francisco Giants.

I hit a grand-slam home run off of Ron Herbel, and as I got to home plate and was running into our dugout, I saw Herman Franks coming out to the mound.

And he had Ron Herbel's suitcase with him, you know, so that was his last...

I guess he figured if I hit a home run off of Ron Herbel, that guy can't pitch in the big leagues, you know?

That was it.

- You have a section in that book, and I guess this brings us into a serious side because you talk about your father, and that part really got to me.

He was quite a guy.

- Yeah, you know, he had a lot of problems.

He had a lot of health problems, excuse me, later in life, and he ended up losing his legs.

And I think, you know, when I look back at it, even at the time when he was really getting ill and really starting to sink, his death to me was not as tough as the day they took his legs off, you know?

I was with him at the hospital.

I watched him go in, and I watched him come out, and there was no legs there, you know?

And that to me was worse than than him dying, honestly.

When you have to... My mother wasn't at the hospital that day, and I had to sign a permission sheet to take his limbs, you know?

He had vascular problems, and he had clotting.

He had clotting problems in his legs, and they told me that they had done what they called at that time, they had done a sympathectomy where they open veins to try and allow, cut your sympathetic nerves to allow more blood to go to your legs and everything.

It worked for about a day, and then he started clotting, and the doctor...

I was there, it was early in the morning, real early in the morning.

And the doctor came in, and he told me, he said, you know, "He's in bad shape, and he's clotting, and if we don't do this right now, he'll die now."

So, you know, to sign that paper, and then know you did that, you know, you signed that paper to allow them to remove his legs.

But you know, he battled back.

He got some artificial legs, and he tried.

He tried to walk again.

He never did make it on the big ones, but he had some friend of his.

I don't know how guys operated in those years, but he went and got a pair of legs.

They were only about this long, you know?

And they had a rocker on 'em, and they weighed about 20 pounds a piece.

I don't even know how he could move with those things.

And they were too heavy, so he had a friend of his drill holes in these things to take some of the weight off.

And that's how he got around.

He shuffled around.

He kind of looked like Tolouse Ueker, you know.

I mean, he was... (Jim laughs) He was a funny guy.

A lot of people think it's strange that I talk that way, but I'd come home, and I hadn't seen him for a while.

And he'd open the door, and he's only about, you know, this big.

I'm looking down at this guy who was a six-footer at one time, and I could push him, and he'd rock back and forth, you know.

He'd go back on that rocker back and forth.

But that was the way he got along, and he accepted that.

And he went on.

You know, the one thing that I was always glad for was that he got to see me play in the big leagues, you know?

He got to see me play baseball in the big leagues.

My mother lived long enough for me to become a broadcaster, and that was satisfaction for me, you know, and for them too, I'm pretty sure.

- You caught some of the greatest pitchers of all time, and I'm thinking of Warren Spahn.

- Yeah.

- And Bob Gibson.

- Bob Gibson, Lew Burdette.

- Yeah.

- Jim Bunning.

- [Jim] Gibson was a scary guy.

- Oh man, I'll tell you, he was much scarier to hit against, you know?

I mean, he was as good a competitor, Jim, as I've ever seen in my life.

I mean, you know, I think if you ask if any player to pick one pitcher with the World Series on the line, you know, I could name a couple of guys too, Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax, I mean, from the time that I played, Spahn, Gibson, for sheer power.

I mean, Bob Gibson was, he was very intimidating.

He was mean on the mound.

I'm not talking about outside of the game.

- He always looked angry out there.

- He was.

I mean, he didn't... You know, on days that he pitched, if you were a visiting player, you know, you're standing out on the field and walking around and say, "Hey, Gibby, how you doing?"

he'd glare at you.

He didn't even talk to his own team.

On the day he pitched, he was as tough as anybody I've ever been around in my life and today still is, you know.

We used to have these old-timers' games, which would feature, you know, guys like Bob Gibson pitching and whatever.

If you got a hit against Bob Gibson in an old-timers' game or hit a ball back through the middle on him, I mean, he'd throw at you.

He really would.

I mean, that was something that was acceptable, I guess.

But he was a great competitor, but, you know- - What did Spahn bring?

- Well, Spahn was not a hard thrower.

He was another guy who'd compete with anybody.

He had a great screwball.

He had no curve ball anymore.

He hurt his arm after he came out of the service.

You know, here's a guy that went into the service in World War II and fought in Europe and was in the action at the Remagan Bridge.

- Yeah.

- Which was heavy action.

- Battlefield commission.

- Right.

And came back, and Warren Spahn was a hard thrower before he went to the service, came back and developed a screw ball.

He threw a screw ball, a slider, and a fastball.

That was it, but his control was so unbelievable.

I mean, we talk today about some of the umpires who have wide strike zones.

When Warren Spahn pitched a game, if he started to pitch this far outside, that was ball one.

Ball two, strike.

Well, that's where he'd stay all day long, you know, I mean, against right-handed or left-handed batters.

His control was that good.

- Did you ever go out there and give him advice?

- Yeah, you know what he told me one day?

I went out there to talk to him, and he said, "The only thing you know about pitching is you can't hit it."

(Jim laughs) So I turned around while I said, "See you later, buddy," you know?

"Nice talking to you."

- I often wondered if pitchers appreciate the catcher coming out.

- Well, you know what, I think most of the time, catchers go out there to give a guy a breather, you know, what I mean?

I think a pitcher can tell if things aren't going real good because his family usually sits behind home plate, and if they're getting beat up by other fans, he knows things aren't going real well, you know.

You might, you might go out there and remind him that, you know, "If you take a look behind me, man, your folks are really getting smoked back there.

You know, you ought to start trying to do a little bit better, you know?"

and then leave, you know, just walk back.

You know, this game doesn't really change, you know?

I mean, it goes on and on and on.

It's just the players and the salaries, of course, which are so exorbitant today.

- But the players don't seem to have any fun anymore.

I mean, there were people that you played with.

Bo Belinsky was a character.

You were a character.

- Yeah.

Well, you know, I was a teammate of Bo Belinsky's in Philadelphia.

Bo Belinsky was a very shy kind of a guy outside of this image that he had, you know?

Bo Belinsky, I remember him.

He was a single guy at that time, and he would never ask anybody for a date because he was afraid he'd be turned down.

That's the truth.

Some car company in Philadelphia gave him a Lincoln Continental, and they put his name on the side.

Now, who would drive something like that?

I mean, you gotta be an idiot to do that, but Bo did it, you know.

He drove that thing all over Philadelphia, you know.

I mean, why give people, you know, a target to shoot at?

You know, at least you should be behind trees and bushes.

I mean, they ain't got a clear shot at you.

- You would not have had Ueker-mobile.

- No, uh-huh.

I mean, but he did it.

He was a dandy.

I mean, the guy pitched a no-hitter in the big leagues.

Bo Belinsky was an average pitcher.

I saw him not too long ago.

I mean, he's still the same guy, you know?

He had that image.

He was pitching in California, right, with the Angels, Hollywood and all that other stuff out there.

And Bo, Bo accepted it very well.

He took to it very well.

He's a good guy, though.

I liked him.

- You talked about catching Warren Spahn and that it was a joy to do.

- Yeah, you know, I tell you, we had such good times then as players and individuals after the game.

You know, I mean, there was guys and guys and guys.

I mean, you know, you went around.

You hung around together as a team.

Today, it seems like once the game is over, everybody on the road, you know, when we're on the road, everybody (imitates swooshing) gone.

And at that time, you were a team.

I mean, you really were a team.

You know, guys didn't make a lot of money except the bigger guys like Spahn and Mathews and Burdette.

- And what they made compared to what is going on today is- - Well, you couldn't pay those guys today, Jim.

You know, I mean, it's sad sometimes, I guess.

I mean, that's a sign of the times.

But, you know, when I first joined the Braves, and when I got into a game, a spring training game, you know, and I was able to catch Warren Spahn, and I mean, what a thrill that was, you know?

I mean, to me, that was the epitome of everything I ever wanted to do.

I mean, you have no idea you're gonna be a big league player, you know?

- So few people make it, and when you were playing, a lot fewer.

- Yeah, well, you only had 16 teams.

- Yeah.

- And- - You could hit Koufax though.

- Yeah, I really did.

I wanna apologize for that.

I think I kept him out of the Hall of Fame a couple years.

You know, I never wanted to do that to anybody.

You know, I mean, he... - [Jim] But think of the careers you extended.

- No, we used to laugh about that.

The Dodgers laughed about it.

He'd be out.

I mean, he threw hard, he really threw hard.

And he'd be out there throwing, and I mean throwing so hard his hat is cocked off like this, and he'd go (imitates swooshing) like this.

And the harder he's throwing, I'm pulling.

I'm pulling him up in the seats up there, you know?

He'd throwing me a nasty old curve ball, and I'd that some.

I hit home runs off that guy.

That's how embarrassed I was, you know what I mean?

I'm sorry for that, I really am.

But when I see Sandy to this day, we laugh about that.

We really do.

It was fun to look in that Dodger dugout and see those guys laughing at him because he couldn't get me out, you know?

I mean, I don't know why.

I have no idea why I hit him the way I did, but it was good for a laugh.

- You saw Henry Aaron as he was coming up.

- Oh, yeah.

- Did you know how good he was gonna be?

- Well, you know, something that I don't think a lot of your viewers and maybe a lot of people around the country know, some may know it now, but Henry Aaron, when Henry was playing in the Negro leagues before he came to professional baseball in the Braves organization, Henry Aaron hit cross-handed.

He hit this way- - Really?

- Instead of like this.

- Good grief.

- He hit this way.

And he was hitting like 380- - [Jim] (laughs) Yeah.

- And having no problems hitting home runs and everything else, and when they signed him, you know, the scouts said, "You can't hit like that.

You know, you don't hit like that.

You hit like this."

He said, "No, I hit like this."

And they changed Henry.

I mean, he changed because they wanted him to change, but he actually hit cross-handed.

I mean, when he was a young player, he hit the opposite of the way you're supposed to hold your hands.

I mean, he was such a natural hitter and a natural at... Henry could run.

He could throw.

- If he'd played in New York, he'd have had a bigger name than anybody.

- Oh, there's no telling what would've happened to Henry.

- But watching him break in, 'cause I was a kid during that time, and I watched all those games, he wasn't the home-run hitter.

Eddie Mathews was the home-run hitter.

- Well, you know, he really changed, Jim, and Eddie Mathews had a lot to do with that.

Eddie Mathews, excuse me, was a power-hitting third baseman.

Everybody knows that, or everybody that followed baseball here.

He's a Hall-of-Famer, and he hit home runs big time.

And Henry Aaron, Henry hit more home runs to right field than he did to left field at that time.

Henry hit balls to right, center, wherever.

All of a sudden, he knew, he realized that, you know, by becoming a home-run hitter and strictly a power hitter and a pull hitter, he was gonna make a lot more money.

And he changed his whole style of hitting.

Henry Aaron, I mean, there were times when Henry would stand up there and take three pitches.

If you didn't throw him what he was looking for, he'd take 'em, but if you did throw him what he was looking for, he'd get you.

And in his earlier days, he hit everything.

I mean, he didn't look for pitches.

What you threw, he hit.

But as he changed into a power hitter throughout the latter part of his career, he became a guess hitter.

He'd looked for pitches.

Oh, all guys look for pitches at certain times, you know?

- How did the broadcasting thing start for you, Bob?

- Well, I was asked to quit as a player and... (Jim and Bob laughs) - [Jim] You didn't wanna leave the stadium entirely.

- When I was released by the Braves, I joined the Braves a second time in Atlanta, and I guess they didn't believe I was as bad as I was the first time around, so I proved it.

And Bill Bartholomay, who at that time was the president of the Braves, told me that when I was through as a player, the Braves wanted me to work into the front office and eventually work into the broadcast.

And that's what I did.

He kept his word, and I worked with Milo Hamilton and Ernie Johnson for a couple of years there and then Bud Selig.

I met Bud Selig.

I was doing a New York Writers' Dinner, and Bud Selig was there.

And we went out after the dinner, and he offered me a job to come back here.

He wanted me to come back to Milwaukee the following season, and I did.

I had been working...

Prior to doing the broadcasts, I had started doing standup comedy and club work, Playboy Clubs.

- Al Hirt had a hand in that if I remember correctly.

- Yeah, the great trumpeter.

He's the guy that got me my first "Tonight" show.

And I actually started working with Al in between his shows.

And I'd go up and do maybe 20 minutes to a half hour of standup and then- - That's the scariest thing I can imagine, doing standup comedy.

How did you have the nerve to do it?

- Well, you know, I think I always made fun of myself and my career.

I think the message that I always left with, whether it was a nightclub or a banquet, wherever it was, I mean, "If that guy played baseball, our kid's got a chance, you know?"

And that to me is all I wanted to convey.

But I've worked some good places as a standup comic and worked Vegas, did jobs in Vegas.

I mean, I'm not bragging.

I'm just telling you what I did.

- How'd "The Tonight Show" gig happen?

- Al Hirt said...

He had a manager at that time, a guy by the name of Jerry Purcell, and he told me when Al opened a nightclub in Atlanta, a new club, and I had met Al a couple of days before, and we became instant friends real quick.

And he asked me to do his show, you know, so I did, on opening night.

And after the show, his manager came up, and he told me, he said, "You're wasting your time doing this is what you're doing."

He said, "How'd you like to do a 'Tonight Show'?"

I said, "Oh, yeah, sure."

Well, three days later, they called, and that was in 1969.

And I went to New York, and I did the first one.

And I remember Johnny after the show, Johnny said to Ed McMahon, he said, "Did that guy really play baseball?"

'cause, you know, all the stuff I did.

- And what was the answer?

Nevermind.

- Well, he didn't say guy either.

That's not what Johnny said.

(Jim laughs) I did three shows in the next two weeks, and- - [Jim] Did you like working with him?

- Oh yeah, he was great.

I mean, we had a great relationship.

We had a lot of good times, not only him, the whole band, Doc Severinsen.

- I don't think people realize how good he was.

- Well, you know what he is?

He loves to be a straight guy.

He loves to make you good.

He really does.

- [Jim] But he's a very funny guy himself.

- Oh, he's great.

I don't think a lot of people ever saw Johnny do standup.

I mean, he's big time.

- Yeah, he would do those little dialogues in the beginning, and they used to write clinkers for him.

- Oh, I know, that's what made him so good.

The looks, he did those things on purpose.

You know, he dropped those bombs on purpose to look bad and give himself a chance to do those expressions.

He told me a long time ago when I first started...

I did some 84, 85 shows.

- Wow.

- And, you know, if you would do a line, say something funny, he'd say, "You know, this might be funny too."

You know, he did stuff like that.

He always wanted you to do good.

He wanted to make you look good out there.

And I had a great relationship with him for a long, long, long time, yeah, from 1969 until his last show.

And I think I was on their last show.

You know, I was included in the last show, so I guess I did okay, you know?

- I think he was misunderstood because he was very private and very quiet when he wasn't on the air.

- He still is.

I see Doc Severinsen from time to time.

We stay in touch a lot.

And I ask him, you know, "You see Johnny?

He said, "Yeah."

I said, "What's he doing?"

He said, "Nothing, playing tennis."

That's all he does, and he goes out in LA once in a while.

I used to see him at a couple of restaurants there, but he's very low key, you know, but a good guy, man.

You know, he helped a lot of comics.

- Yes, in about 20 seconds, what would you like people to remember about you?

- You know, as a guy that had a good time and enjoyed people.

I enjoy people, you know, I really do.

I love this area.

I love Wisconsin.

I love Milwaukee.

And you know, someday I'm gonna take a dive, and maybe it'll be in the broadcast.

They'll roll me down the screen here and onto a wagon and out the warning track out the right field gate.

(whistles) See you later.

- Put you into that new stadium.

Bob, thank you very much.

- Good seeing you, Jimmy.

- It's been a pleasure.

Thank you, hope we'll see you next time right here on "I Remember Milwaukee."

That was wonderful.

- [Announcer] "I Remember Milwaukee" is brought to you in part by Kopp's Frozen Custard stands, where a portion of the Thursday's child-flavor-of-the-day receipts is donated to the healthcare needs of the world's most disadvantaged youth.

Kopp's has served Milwaukee-area neighborhoods since 1950.

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