Remembering Mr. Baseball: Bob Uecker's spirit lives on in Brewers radio booth during home opener

MILWAUKEE, Wis. — For more than 50 years, Bob Uecker was the soundtrack of summer for the Milwaukee Brewers.

As the Brewers' radio broadcast team continues to navigate the booth without their legendary partner, Mr. Baseball, who passed away in January, his presence was felt across the ballpark at Monday's home opener against the Kansas City Royals.

"This is kind of the day that normally is your favorite day of the year, but there's a little bit of dread in it because of the fact that you know you're going to experience it without your great friend for the first time," Brewers Broadcaster Lane Grindle expressed. "But we love him, and the best thing we can do to honor him is to do the job to the best of our abilities."

Grindle joined the radio broadcast team in February 2016 and shared the booth with Uecker for several seasons.

He was on the call for this year's Opening Day broadcast against the New York Yankees and paid tribute to Mr. Baseball after Vinny Capra hit the Brewers' first home run of the season.

"We collectively talked as a group maybe a week and a half ago before it that we wanted to honor him in some way with that first home run and that naturally is how we were going to do it by using his call," Grindle explained. "It's his call and forever will be, so it goes back in the vault now forever."

Watch: Bob Uecker's spirit lives on in Brewers radio booth during home opener

The radio broadcast team reached out to Uecker's family beforehand to ask if they were comfortable with using Mr. Baseball's signature home run call.

"They were very quick to say yes, and so we were honored to be trusted by them to do it in that moment," he added.

Jeff Levering splits duties as a play-by-play announcer on Bally Sports Wisconsin and the Brewers radio broadcast team. He shared the booth with Uecker for his last broadcast, which was Game 3 of the Wild Card Series against the New York Mets.

"A lot of emotions as you walk into the booth for the first time," Levering expressed pregame. "We've had our first spring training game without him. We've had a first opening day without him in New York, and now we have our first regular season home game without Bob. I know there's going to be a lot of emotion sitting in that booth being surrounded by nothing but Bob, but that's how it's going to be, and he's always going to be with us no matter what."

The Brewers will hold a public celebration of life for Bob Uecker at American Family Field sometime in August.

It’s about time to watch on your time. Stream local news and weather 24/7 by searching for “TMJ4” on your device.

Available for download on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and more.

Report a typo or error