Remembering Bob Uecker

(Milwaukee WTMJ-TV photo)

Today marks what would have been the 91st birthday today for the late, great Bob Uecker.

Long before morphing into clownish radio man Harry Doyle in the movie Major League and before becoming a Hall of Fame broadcaster with the Milwaukee Brewers, Uecker actually is a real-live major league catcher.

Uecker spends six seasons in the majors from 1962-67 with 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 the backup to Tim McCarver.

Naturally, the Cardinals are smart enough to banish the light-handing 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 off Hall of Famers, Gaylord Perry and Sandy Koufax.

Uecker later apologizes to Koufax.

“The highlight of my career?” Uecker rhetorically once 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.”