The Bob Uecker feature story actually predates the From the Press Box column. The Phillies Report had been sold by this time, but I still had a season press pass and attended some games in 1998. By the time this story appeared, approval had been gained for my new column, but the launch was delayed until the beginning of the 1999 season.
Nevertheless, I just happened to be sitting in the press dining room at Veterans Stadium reading a newspaper while waiting out a rain delay when Uecker came in for a cup of coffee. It dawned on me then that the man is known for many things but that few people may know that he once played in Philadelphia before he hung up his spikes.
Despite the fact that the Milwaulkee Brewers had just been swept by the Phillies in the weekend series preceding the all-star break, Uecker was in a jovial mood on that late Sunday afternoon and was happy to reminisce with me about his playing days in the City of Brotherly Love.
Baseball fans in Philadelphia have reason to be more optimistic about the Phillies at the midway mark of the 1998 season than they did at the same time last year.
The three-game sweep of the weekend series against the Milwaukee Brewers put the team one game over .500 (43-42) at the All-Star break. In 1997, the Phils were 37 games under .500 (24-61) heading into the midseason classic, and there were no indications that a hot second half was about to unfold.
The weekend series also marked the return to Philadelphia of an offbeat former player. Bob Uecker has been one of the radio voices of the Milwaukee Brewers since the team's inception in 1970. Although he is affectionately called "Mr. Baseball," Uecker is known for just about everything else but his playing career.
Just as his broadcasting career was beginning, the former catcher made the first of many appearances on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, and a star was born. Uecker's self-deprecating humor eventually led to a five-year stint on the ABC sitcom Mr. Belvedere, a series of popular television commercials for Lite Beer from Miller, and roles in the film Major League and its sequel, Major League II.
His star also rose in the broadcast booth as ABC Sports hired him as an announcer for its coverage of Monday Night Baseball, the League Championship Series and the World Series. Uecker currently teams with Bob Costas on NBC's telecasts of major league baseball.
Before all of this, of course, was a playing career noted only for its futility. In six years, Uecker never amounted to much more than a second-string catcher, and he retired with a lifetime batting average of .200.
Although he played with some great players while he was with the Milwaukee Braves and won a World Series championship with the St. Louis Cardinals (1964), the former catcher was more than happy to reminisce about his short tenure with the Phillies in 1966 and '67.
"I had a good time in Philadelphia," Uecker said after Sunday afternoon's game at Veterans Stadium. "We had a good group of guys here. There was Richie (Allen) and Johnny Callison, Cookie Rojas, Tony Taylor, Bill White and Dick Groat. I've always had fond memories of Philadelphia, and I enjoy coming back. I've been back for some postseason games with the networks, and I came back for an old-timers game a while back."
Uecker's memories seem to focus on the friends that he made in baseball, including a relationship with the current Phillies manager that began many years ago.
"I've known Terry Francona for a long time because I played with his dad, Tito," said Uecker. "I've known Terry since he was a fetus."
Tito Francona played for 15 years in the major leagues, including a brief stint with the Phillies. The elder Francona and Uecker were teammates in Philadelphia for a few months in 1967.
"I played with him in St. Louis, too," said Uecker. "Tito was a good hitter. I think he led the American League in hitting one year."
Tito Francona hit .363 for the Cleveland Indians in 1959, but he did not have enough plate appearances to qualify for the batting title.
"Tito was a good hitter and a good first baseman with some power, and he was a good guy, too," continued Uecker. "Terry's a lot like his dad. He's a good guy and an easy guy to get along with, and when he has to toughen up a little bit, he does that, too. He's done a good job here, and I'm happy for him."
While this year's team may be up and coming, the 1966 squad was the last team of that decade that had a legitimate chance to win a National League title before the club sunk to the low point of 99 losses in 1969. Having just missed a pennant in 1964, the team dropped to sixth place in 1965, and manager Gene Mauch was convinced that a few more veteran players would help put the Phillies over the top.
Uecker was part of that veterans movement. He arrived in a trade with St. Louis that also included first baseman White and shortstop Groat. The Phils gave up outfielder Alex Johnson, pitcher Art Mahaffey and catcher Pat Corrales in the deal.
"And then (the Phillies) went out and got (pitchers) Larry Jackson and Bob Buhl (from the Chicago Cubs shortly after the season began)," said Uecker. "They gave up Ferguson Jenkins and Adolfo Phillips, who turned out to be a pretty good player for the Cubs, along with Johnny Herrnstein.
"At the time, nobody thought that it was going to be that big of a deal. I mean, Ferguson Jenkins was looking like he was going to be a pretty good pitcher," Uecker said, recalling the future hall of famer, "but Gene thought (the Phillies) would (contend) with the acquisition of a couple of guys like Buhl and Jackson. Larry had won twenty-some games for the Cubs a couple of years before that, and they thought he was going to do the same thing here. And with (Jim) Bunning and Chris Short, Ray Culp and Gary Wagner, we had a pretty good (pitching) staff.
"And we had good power with Callison, Dick Allen and Bill White. We had a good club. I still can't figure out why (we didn't win the league). Tony Taylor was a solid player. Bobby Wine was an outstanding shortstop. Clay Dalrymple was the other catcher. He did most of the catching, which was fine with me. We had a good club, but it just didn' work out."
Dalrymple was the starting catcher for 114 games in 1966. Uecker appeared in 78 games that year.
"That was enough," he deadpanned. "That was enough. I didn't want to put too much pressure on myself."
In those 78 games, the backup backstop had 43 hits, including six doubles and seven home runs, drove in 30 runs and finished with a .208 average.
"That's why I was afraid to come back (to Philadelphia) when (Milwaukee) joined the National League," Uecker said. "I thought there would still be some people here who saw me play, and I thought they'd still be upset."
Despite going 87-75, the Phillies finished fourth that season. Uecker appeared in 18 games in 1967 before he was traded back to the Braves, who had moved to Atlanta the previous season, for another catcher, Gene Oliver.
"It was right before the June trading deadline," Uecker recalled. "I came back here three days after the trade. Phil Niekro made his first start in the big leagues against the Phillies and beat them, 1-0."
Uecker caught Niekro's first big-league game?
"Yeah," he recalled. "I caught Phil Niekro all through the minor leagues, so that was really the purpose for getting me back to Atlanta — so I could become sort of his personal catcher, personal clown, I guess. If I missed (catching Niekro's knuckle ball), it was funny, but if somebody else missed it, it was terrible. If I missed, it was good for a laugh."
Uecker retired as a player after the 1967 season and began working in the Braves front office, which eventually led to his second career in the broadcast booth. All kidding aside about his own ability, Uecker played with some great players during his six-year career, including Hank Aaron and Warren Spahn in Milwaukee and Bob Gibson in St. Louis.
"Absolutely," he said. "And Eddie Matthews, Tim McCarver, Bill White and Kenny Boyer. I was on some pretty good teams, and we won a world championship in 1964. And look at some of the guys that I played with here (in Philadelphia). Jim Bunning is in the Hall of Fame."
But there is a generation of TV fans who know him primarily as George Owens on Mr. Belvedere.
"Yeah, but that's OK if people know you from other things that you've done — The Tonight Show, the (Mr.) Belvedere series and the Miller Lite commercials," Uecker said. "At least they remember something. It's better than a stick in the eye, I guess.
"But I've been a broadcaster for twenty-eight years in Milwaukee, and I still get a kick out of coming to the ballpark. This is my job. The other stuff is fun, but this is what I do best."
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