Bob Uecker wasn’t a very good baseball player. The Milwaukee native hit .200/.293/.287 over parts of six seasons, and even in the lower-offense 1960s, that was pretty bad.
Bob Uecker To Get Statue At Milwaukee’s Miller Park
The man dubbed “Mr. Baseball” by Johnny Carson will be honored by his hometown Brewers in August.
Uecker has made an entire career as an entertainer and broadcaster out of those six seasons; he was a frequent guest on the Tonight Show when it was in its Johnny Carson heyday (it was Carson who dubbed Uecker "Mr. Baseball"), he was a sitcom actor in the show "Mr. Belvedere", and since 1971 he has been the popular voice of his hometown Brewers on WTMJ radio in Milwaukee.
Now, the team is going to honor Uecker:
#Brewers announce Bob Uecker statue to be dedicated outside Miller Park on August 31.
— John H. Steinmiller (@jstein1981) March 21, 2012
Several other teams have honored longtime broadcasters with statues, including the Cubs (Harry Caray and Jack Brickhouse, though Brickhouse's statue is near the studios of WGN radio rather than at Wrigley Field), the Cardinals (Jack Buck), the Mariners (Dave Niehaus) and the Tigers (Ernie Harwell). The Reds honored Joe Nuxhall as one of their Crosley Field-era players with a statue in 2003, and Nuxhall also broadcast for the team for more than 30 years. The same was done for the late Richie Ashburn by the Phillies; Ashburn, a Hall of Fame player, also broadcast Phillies games for over three decades.
Uecker's statue, to be dedicated before a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, will join three other statues outside Miller Park:
The Uecker statue will join Robin Yount, Hank Aaron and Commissioner Selig statues outside Miller Park.#Brewers
— John H. Steinmiller (@jstein1981) March 21, 2012
Three of those four statues, at least, should be pretty popular in Milwaukee.
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