Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Options Author
Baseball. Beer commercials and late-night tv. Main League and Mr. Belvedere.
Bob Uecker turned a pop-culture fixture to a number of generations, going from a back-up catcher to a broadcaster, pitchman and actor, amongst many wide-ranging roles.
Add the Milwaukee Admirals to that listing as effectively.
When it got here to a self-described “ex-big leaguer” like Uecker, the Admirals had been at all times within the entrance row with him.
Uecker, a Milwaukee native, handed away final Thursday at age 90 at his dwelling in Menomonee Falls. His demise prompted a flood of recollections for followers in Milwaukee, throughout Wisconsin, the sports activities world, and with the Admirals.
The Admirals’ relationship with Uecker went again greater than three a long time.
Whereas enjoying within the Worldwide Hockey League within the early 1990’s, the Admirals discovered themselves on the lookout for a option to generate publicity. Then-owner Lloyd Pettit, a former Chicago broadcaster who referred to as video games for the Blackhawks, Cubs, White Sox and Bears, and the entrance workplace reached out to Uecker. Would he be fascinated by starring in a industrial for the crew?
Uecker was already the star of Miller Lite advertisements (“I should be within the entrance row!”), and was only a few years faraway from his iconic function as broadcaster Harry Doyle within the 1989 hit film Main League (“Juuust a bit exterior”) in addition to 5 seasons starring as George Owens on the ABC sitcom Mr. Belvedere. But when it meant serving to Milwaukee and its hockey crew, Uecker was on board.
“Bob was very, very open to the thought of being a part of the marketing campaign,” stated Admirals president Jon Greenberg. “A part of his complete deal was, ‘I’m a Milwaukee man. If I can do one thing to assist Milwaukee, I’ll do this. That is enjoyable. I’m completely into this.’
“He stated it by no means felt like work.”
Regardless of his fame – together with nationwide broadcast work for ABC and NBC and greater than 100 visitor appearances on the The Tonight Present Starring Johnny Carson – Uecker’s ties to Milwaukee by no means wavered. After a six-year MLB profession that started with the Milwaukee Braves, he returned to the town in 1971 as a broadcaster with the Brewers. His irreverent humorousness had already attracted consideration throughout his enjoying days, and he settled into the Milwaukee broadcasting sales space, a job that he would maintain for 54 seasons. In 2003, Uecker was honored by the Nationwide Baseball Corridor of Fame with the Ford C. Frick Award for his contributions to the game.
The primary Admirals industrial went over effectively, and the crew had themselves some of the well-known pitchmen in sports activities promoting them. A collection of spots adopted, dubbed “The Adventures of Lloyd and Bob.” Pettit performed the low-key, deadpan function to Uecker’s wise-cracking comedian foil. Lloyd’s spouse, proprietor Jane Pettit, and coach Phil Wittliff additionally participated.
Like Uecker, Greenberg’s Milwaukee roots are deep. In 1984 he turned a bat boy for the Brewers; he ultimately turned the crew’s media relations director. When Harris Turer, who held minority possession within the Brewers, bought the Admirals in 2005, Greenberg was tapped because the AHL crew’s president.
In 2006, the Admirals took to the ice for a pair of video games clad in jerseys harking back to the loud, plaid, 1970’s-era sport coats that had develop into one in every of Uecker’s emblems. Greenberg nonetheless has a type of jerseys signed by Uecker hanging in his workplace. By means of the years the 2 turned buddies; Greenberg nonetheless thinks again greater than 40 years in the past as he bought to know Uecker.
“That’s as little as you may go,” Greenberg joked of being a bat boy. “However he handled the bat boys remarkably effectively. Bob was larger than life for lots of us. To really feel like we had been simply one of many guys was a giant deal.”
The Admirals need to be certain to thank Uecker for all that he did for the crew and the town. This previous weekend in Texas, the gamers’ helmets had been adorned with a “Ueck” sticker. Milwaukee can even maintain a second of silence at this Wednesday’s dwelling recreation, because the crew works on methods to pay additional tribute to Uecker.
In any case, Greenberg defined, “Bob was all about Milwaukee.”
On the American Hockey League beat for 20 years, TheAHL.com options author Patrick Williams additionally at the moment covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is an everyday contributor on SiriusXM NHL Community Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for his excellent protection of the league in 2016.
