Moving day for Bob Uecker
St. Louis does a little house cleaning 58 years ago today as they send backup catcher, class clown and wannabe musician Bob Uecker – yes, that Bob Uecker – to the Philadelphia Phillies in a six-player trade that ships outfielder Alex Johnson, pitcher Art Mahaffey and catcher Pat Corrales to the Cardinals.
Bob Uecker with the Phillies
Philadelphia does just fine with the rest of the deal, too, as the Phillies also acquire first baseman Bill White and shortstop Dick Groat from St. Louis.
Uecker spends a season-plus playing for Philadelphia, where he hits seven of the 14 homers he accumulates during six seasons in the majors.
Uecker, a career .200 batter, hits – at least for him — a robust .202 in 96 games for the Phillies, who flip him to the Atlanta Braves midway through the 1967 season for utility player Gene Oliver.
Oliver, too, eventually gets flipped after the 1967 season, going to Boston in another trade that brings longtime catcher, and later coach Mike Ryan to the Phillies.
“My managers didn’t want me in the game,” Uecker once tells author Curt Smith. “Heck, they didn’t want me on the bench. Kids ask which club I played for. Nobody, but I sat for a lot.”
Bob Uecker with Johnny Carson
Uecker goes on to become a regular guest on “The Johnny Carson Show,” where his brilliant, self-deprecating humor finds a national audience.
That exposure eventually leads Uecker to star in television, commercials and motion pictures.
All, of course, showcasing his comedic side.
“I think my top salary (in baseball) was maybe in 1966,” Uecker once says. “I made $17,000, and 11 of that came from selling other players’ equipment.”
Along the way, Uecker – now three months shy of his 90th birthday – spends 53 seasons, including 2023, broadcasting games for the his hometown Milwaukee Brewers. He does take time out in the middle of the 2003 season to be inducted into broadcast wing of the Hall of Fame.
“I could have left (Milwaukee) a long time ago, but no matter what I do, I’m staying,” an out-of-character-serious Uecker tells the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. “All the television stuff, the movies, the sitcoms, the commercials, that’s all fun. All I wanted to do is come back to Milwaukee every spring to do baseball.”
(WTMJ photo)