Anderson's call

[superfly]

80% of what's been said about Ueck in this thread is nonsense. Way to nitpick a 80+ year old man who's still far more enjoyable to listen to than 90% of the rest of the league's radio guys.

 

Yeah, he never tells you the score mid- inning and he has trouble seeing things clearly at times. But I think he's earned the right to call games as long as he'd like.

 

So because he was good at his job at one time he should be given slack because he's bad now? I guess we might as well bring back Lohse and Wolf to round out our rotation.

 

I get to hear him about once a month living in Minnesota now and he's plenty enjoyable to me. I don't like it when he's not on the broadcast. Provus is good as we know for the Twins but there are some total hacks calling games out there...enjoy the last couple years of Ueck while we can because he's like no other.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

I enjoy Uke. I just said he's bad at play by play. He is and always has been.

[82brewcrew82]

80% of what's been said about Ueck in this thread is nonsense. Way to nitpick a 80+ year old man who's still far more enjoyable to listen to than 90% of the rest of the league's radio guys.

 

Yeah, he never tells you the score mid- inning and he has trouble seeing things clearly at times. But I think he's earned the right to call games as long as he'd like.

 

So because he was good at his job at one time he should be given slack because he's bad now? I guess we might as well bring back Lohse and Wolf to round out our rotation.

Yes, he should. Period. Which has nothing to to do with on field performers. Horrible analogy.

[B-Train]

What we need is Virtual Reality play by play with Ueck in his prime with Pat Hughes.

[pacopete4]

I hope that when Ueck passes, they create a hologram of him saying his iconic sayings.

[Madhawk23]

As a 40 year old, who's been a diehard Brewer fan my entire life - Bob Uecker is Brewers baseball to me. It's going to be an extremely sad day when we no longer have him calling Brewer games. I understand that his game calling has declined quite a bit in recent years (and to baseball purists - maybe he's never been in the top echelon of "game callers"), and I'm sure he's probably a bit embarrassed about his call of that big Braun HR on Friday night. But, as other's have pointed out - he is absolutely a national treasure that we need to enjoy while we still have him. I've heard Bob say more words than probably anybody else in my life, and the game just won't sound the same when I have to turn on a Brewers game without his voice and his stories.

[DuWayne Steurer]

, and I'm sure he's probably a bit embarrassed about his call of that big Braun HR on Friday night.

 

 

Listening Saturday night, when Villar ripped the single down the left field line, they mentioned how he didn't run immediately, and had looked toward right field. Levering said "it looked like he wasn't sure where the ball was, like he didn't know it was a fair ball". Bob chuckled a bit and said "watch it there, you're leading me into dangerous territory here!" (paraphrasing). Got a laugh out of that.

 

Like many others, I grew up with Ueck. It'll suck when he's no longer calling games. I'm not at all saying he shouldnt be behind the mic.... just that there's a noticeable drop off in his game calling. I'd love it if he was color man for all or most of the game, instead of trying to carry the action. That's just me. I don't want the guy off the radio, but I don't think it's unfair to say that he's not the most attentive game caller.

[Madhawk23]

, and I'm sure he's probably a bit embarrassed about his call of that big Braun HR on Friday night.

 

 

Listening Saturday night, when Villar ripped the single down the left field line, they mentioned how he didn't run immediately, and had looked toward right field. Levering said "it looked like he wasn't sure where the ball was, like he didn't know it was a fair ball". Bob chuckled a bit and said "watch it there, you're leading me into dangerous territory here!" (paraphrasing). Got a laugh out of that.

 

Like many others, I grew up with Ueck. It'll suck when he's no longer calling games. I'm not at all saying he shouldnt be behind the mic.... just that there's a noticeable drop off in his game calling. I'd love it if he was color man for all or most of the game, instead of trying to carry the action. That's just me. I don't want the guy off the radio, but I don't think it's unfair to say that he's not the most attentive game caller.

 

RoCo - I'd be all in favor of him simply doing color and giving up the pbp, but you and I both know that there is probably no chance that he would ever accept that. I think he pretty much runs the show and calls the shots, and I'm guessing his demands are probably a big reason why guys like Powell, Block, etc. have all moved on for other opportunities that would provide them more air time.

[CheezWizHed]

80% of what's been said about Ueck in this thread is nonsense. Way to nitpick a 80+ year old man who's still far more enjoyable to listen to than 90% of the rest of the league's radio guys.

 

Yeah, he never tells you the score mid- inning and he has trouble seeing things clearly at times. But I think he's earned the right to call games as long as he'd like.

 

So because he was good at his job at one time he should be given slack because he's bad now? I guess we might as well bring back Lohse and Wolf to round out our rotation.

 

That would be the equivalent of Bob going crazy and talking about crayons the whole game... actually that still would be better.

[TJH123]

If I had to pick one person who is my favorite at calling home runs, it would have to be Gary Thorne of the Orioles. I never get tired of him saying goodbye, home run! BA is alright but nothing special to me, his excitement sounds forced a lot of the time. But I loved his call of this Braun home run. Matt Vasgersian is one of my favorites too, I loved his call of Shaw’s walk off homer vs the Cubs last year.

[timpep]

I have to admit all of this talk about Bob Eucker really brings back some memories. As another poster said above Bob is Milwaukee Brewers baseball to me. Every great Brewer memory I have includes his voice.

 

I have vivid memories of a Dave Nilson homer while raking leaves with my dad when I was living at home. I remember the radio I was sitting next to in bed while my wife was nursing our son downstairs when the Brewers won the division.

 

I tried to name my son after him. We decided to name him James after my dad but his middle name was going to be Eucker. After he was born my wife decided that was too odd and we were going to name him James Robert but then we realized Jim Bob was a thing and named him after Robin Yount instead.

 

I wish there was a cd compilation of Eucker stories you could buy. I would listen to that for hours on end.

 

Sorry for my rambling, but I feel like Bob is one of those guys that once he's gone a lot of the people who don't appreciate him now might one day look back and realize how amazing he really was.

[TJseven7]

80% of what's been said about Ueck in this thread is nonsense. Way to nitpick a 80+ year old man who's still far more enjoyable to listen to than 90% of the rest of the league's radio guys.

 

Yeah, he never tells you the score mid- inning and he has trouble seeing things clearly at times. But I think he's earned the right to call games as long as he'd like.

 

100% agree. The nitpickers need to be quiet. The man is a national treasure, and the team is lucky to have him.

 

But come on. Played the call for the GF and she just shook her head and said... oh poor Bob. I don't want him out of the booth until he wants to be but I remember at least 3 games last year where I was yelling at my radio... whats going on... what is going on... pulling up mlb.com to find out what is happening in a tight high pressure game. We're talking... uh "stammer" lookout wow... then no explantaion of what happened as if I can see with my radio. Don't worry they didn't collide and the ball was caught... via brewerfan.net and mlb.com.

 

2 games in and he'd have given me a heart attack with that one. He has to step over to color. Humility to crack jokes about it is awesome, endearing... but take that 1 more step. You need help on pbp.

[jerichoholicninja]

Bob should be on TV where he can riff about whatever he wants while totally ignoring the game but people can actually see what's going on.

[StearnsFTW]

Oh come on folks, don't act like you haven't absolutely whiffed on something obvious. If he's doing it on a daily basis then yeah the "yikes" is warranted, but the guy has about 50 years worth of calls. Cut the poor man a little slack.

 

He's been horrible for a decade or more. He's a legend and my favorite broadcaster ever, but he's been really bad for a while. Edit: Period ( when did that become a thing on here?).

[Mike2k33]

80% of what's been said about Ueck in this thread is nonsense. Way to nitpick a 80+ year old man who's still far more enjoyable to listen to than 90% of the rest of the league's radio guys.

 

Yeah, he never tells you the score mid- inning and he has trouble seeing things clearly at times. But I think he's earned the right to call games as long as he'd like.

 

100% agree. The nitpickers need to be quiet. The man is a national treasure, and the team is lucky to have him.

 

But come on.

 

I will not come on. I also have no sympathy for you or your girlfriend. When Bob blows a call we are all in the same boat. If I have to look up the box score to find out exactly what happened, I'm ok with that. A minor trade off for years and years of entertainment.

 

You can always pay $20 on the AtBat App to listen to every teams radio calls and then you won't have to listen to Hall of Fame broadcaster Bob Uecker.

[superfly]

I will not come on. I also have no sympathy for you or your girlfriend. When Bob blows a call we are all in the same boat. If I have to look up the box score to find out exactly what happened, I'm ok with that. A minor trade off for years and years of entertainment.

 

You can always pay $20 on the AtBat App to listen to every teams radio calls and then you won't have to listen to Hall of Fame broadcaster Bob Uecker.

 

 

As if people aren't already doing that probably multiple times a game (or hour) of the Brewers, or the Cubs, etc. Don't see what the big deal is if you don't get a score 3 times an inning, you hear it at the commercial break.

[FVBrewerFan]

I rarely listen to the games on the radio, so I don't have a dog in this fight. However, it sounds like the biggest complaint about Uecker is not mentioning the score, inning, etc. often enough. If that's the case, I lay the blame on the producer not Uecker. Doesn't take much to talk in his ear or slide him a note whenever he needs a reminder to drop in that info.

[MrTPlush]

As someone too young to have a really homer view on Bob....he is pretty bad. I try to listen to him on a rare occasion, but man it’s hard when you care about the important details.. If you just like listening to him, great. I don’t really care because I am rarely ever in a situation to turn the radio on to him. All I hear are his calls on big plays, which is great! Usually...haha.

 

I assume he is still kicking to call a Brewers WS...but man his health and quality just keeping going down.

[pacopete4]

After listening to other teams broadcasts (I suggest you all try it), you'll realize that Bob isn't that bad. While he has more errors these days, he's not even close to the worst around the league. There are some flat out crap broadcasters in TV and radio.

[Samurai Bucky]

I think the Brewers have been blessed with some very good broadcasters. Merle Harmon was a great broadcaster with Uecker early on. We have Brian Anderson (does national broadcasts), Matt Vasgersian, Pat Hughes, and Len Kasper.

[Patrick425]

When I was younger, in the 70 and 80's there were only about 20 or so Brewer games on TV a year, so most of the time I was listening to games on the radio. I grew up listening to Uecker and as they were playing some highlights from him yesterday morning on WTMJ I realized how sad it will be when he is no longer the voice of the Brewer radio broadcasts.

 

Having said that, I would agree that his playcalling in recent years has slipped. If he gets excited about a ball off the bat, I have learned to tamper my excitement as I have been fooled to much by the get up, get up......get off that wall.....caught type calls. The link that was posted in one of the first posts in this topic gives me an error message and I did not hear Uecker's call of the Braun HR and am having trouble finding the full call. What happened? Did he originally announce it as a strikeout?

[DuWayne Steurer]

The braun homerun ueck initially thought he swung and missed. Then he thought it was a foul tip. Braun had turned around and looked at/near the catcher, so that could have played a role in ueck's confusion thinking it was a foul tip or swing and miss.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

IMO Uecker's stories aren't just "I was bad at baseball." He has a window to hundreds of baseball players and executives that nobody else does. He tells amazing, often funny stories about these people. It's worth listening to him just for that. Like I said, I can google the box score as he's talking. I never need the game details from him other than what's actively happening, this instant during a play. But in a vacuum, I don't think he's a very good announcer as he doesn't seem in-tune with the fact that most of his viewers aren't listening from start to finish. They're jumping in at random spots and he isn't aware he hasn't said the score in 30 minutes.

[bucks2281]

After listening to other teams broadcasts (I suggest you all try it), you'll realize that Bob isn't that bad. While he has more errors these days, he's not even close to the worst around the league. There are some flat out crap broadcasters in TV and radio.

 

Yes — if you think Uke is bad, try tuning into a Cardinals or White Sox radio broadcast.

[Madhawk23]

I think a lot of what has been said in this thread (on both sides of the issue) have been pretty accurate. As I mentioned earlier in this thread, I've been listening to Brewer games for well over 30 years of my life now, and Bob Uecker is Brewers baseball to me. Players have come and gone, but the one constant has always been Ueck on my radio every spring and summer. It'll be an incredibly sad day for me when Bob is no longer the voice of the Brewers, as it'll honestly feel like I have lost a family member. That might sound crazy to some, but I've most likely heard Bob's voice more throughout my life more than some of my family members.

 

With that said, I also understand that he's clearly not a great PBP guy at this stage in his life/career, so I get why some of you (especially those under the age of 30) may have a higher level of frustration when listening to Uecker call games. As other's have stated - it would be great if they could work out an arrangement where he could shift more into a color role and have Levering/Grindle split the PBP, but I just can't imagine a scenario in which Bob would ever allow that to happen. I think he'd retire if the Brewers forced him down that path.

 

Trust me though - Bob Uecker is an absolute baseball icon, and there's a reason why he's in the HOF. I think we need to just understand and deal with some of his shortcomings at this stage in his career and enjoy him while we have him. I too have listened to many of the other radio voices in MLB through my XM radio over the years, and Bob at 60% is still better than the majority of them that are working for other teams.