Welp.
That was a masterpiece of a tribute. Brian Anderson wrote it, and then to get all of those voices that worked with Uecker over the years to contribute a line or two was perfect. And they even got Pat Hughes! A lot of the guys that worked with Ueck went on to great things with other teams, but Hughes joined Ueck as a Ford C Frick award winner at the Baseball Hall of Fame when he was inducted in 2023.
A few other things in no particular order:
- The part that got me the most choked up was the line from Uecker himself, but I started down that path when I saw Kent Sommerfeld’s name. If you’ve listened to the Brewers on the radio over the years, you know how many times Ueck would reference Kent. He never spoke, but he was this presence in the background of every single broadcast. I had a working theory for a while that Uecker made him up just to entertain himself, and there was no Kent Sommerfeld, but a few years ago a local TV station did a feature on him and his years working for the Brewer Radio Network. I can’t imagine the type of stuff that Kent heard off-of-the-air or when the ‘cough’ button was engaged. What a privilege.
- I thought it was perfectly appropriate that the Public Address Announcer, Mark Richards, had a little hitch in his voice when he asked for a moment of silence. Perfectly encapsulated the emotion of the moment.
- I also thought the, “WE LOVE YOU UECK!” from the crowd during the moment of silence was perfect. Generally speaking I HATE it when somebody does something like that during a moment of silence. But for whatever reason, as it relates to Uecker, it felt perfect.
Unfortunately the team couldn’t put together a decent game yesterday and got boat-raced again en route to an 0-4 start (first since 2015)(they also started 0-4 in 2011 and made the NLCS). It is almost poetic that they had that type of game for the first home-opener without Mr. Baseball, because THAT is the type of game where Uecker was at his best. Nobody was better at keeping you engaged in a radio broadcast where your team was getting blown out than Bob Uecker. He’d start down a rabbit hole of story time, or come up with situation comedies starring Wile E. Coyote, whatever came to his brain. In a way he was almost better when the game was a blowout. Those types of games will never be the same.
Now, in regards to that 0-4 start:
- It’s their first 4-game losing streak since July of 2023. That’s pretty damn good.
- They are DECIMATED with injuries to their pitching staff, and that got even worse with Civale going on the IL yesterday. I’m sure they don’t want guys like Elvin Rodriguez (who wasn’t horrible all things considered) or Chad Patrick starting games. But that’s the spot they’re in right now. Hall, Ashby, Myers, Woodruff are all on the IL, and Quintana isn’t ready yet. Mix that in with playing last year’s AL Pennant winner on the road to start the season, then hosting a team that was a playoff team last year for the home opening series, and torpedo bats, and it’s been a recipe for a bad start.
- Once they get healthy, they’ll be fine.
- It’s just sports, if your whole life revolves around the team you love winning or losing, seek help (or start an internet blog).
PS: I talked about this on the podcast and on the air, but I ended up having to have a dentist appointment during the game yesterday. They did set me up by having the game on the TV right on top of my head during the appointment. But between my teeth getting drilled and the Brewers getting drilled, it wasn’t my favorite Monday afternoon. HIT ME WITH A LITTLE MORE NITROUS DOC!
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