Bob Uecker at 90

Happy 90th birthday today to Bob Uecker, who long before morphing into clownish radio man Harry Doyle in the movie Major League and before becoming a Hall of Fame announcer with the Milwaukee Brewers actually is a real-live major league catcher.

Among Uecker's stops in six seasons in the majors from 1962-67 are Milwaukee, St. Louis, Philadelphia and Atlanta.

Uecker – a .200 lifetime hitter with more career strikeouts (167) than hits (146) – also is a member of the World Series-winning Cardinals in 1964, when he starts 36 of 162 games as Tim McCarver's backup.

Naturally, the Cardinals are smart enough to banish Uecker to the bench for the entire ’64 Series against the Yankees.

Undeterred, Uecker returns to the Cardinals in 1965 and hits two homers that season – both Hall of Famers, Gaylord Perry and Sandy Koufax.

Uecker later apologizes to Koufax.

“The highlight of my career?” Uecker rhetorically asks. “In ’67 with St. Louis, I walked with the bases loaded to drive in the winning run in an intrasquad game in spring training.”

Bob Uecker as “Harry Doyle” in the movie Major League