“So give a cheer
Let ‘em know that you are here
Make a sound
Let’s all rock this town”
“Turnin’ Up the Heat” - Terry Sweet

Many sports teams have musical anthems related to the team. “We’re Gonna Win, Twins” is a common refrain of Minnesota Twins fans that is played often during radio broadcasts. Written in 1985, Wauwatosa, Wis., composer Terry Sweet used a group of studio musicians to launch “Turnin’ Up the Heat,” upbeat tribute to the Milwaukee nine.

While the Milwaukee Brewers weren’t exactly tearing up the standings in 1985, they did still have the remnants of the “Harvey’s Wallbangers” club that lost in seven games in the 1982 World Series. Future Hall of Fame players Robin Yount and Paul Molitor were the stars of the team, but many All-Star caliber players put on the iconic glove-shaped MB logo cap and suited up for the Brewers in the 1980s.

Those 1980s Brewers also had another major attraction - Bob Uecker.

If you aren’t aware of Bob Uecker’s name, you certainly know him as his fingerprints are across the media landscape.

Uecker was born in Milwaukee the son of a Swiss immigrant father and made his Major League Baseball debut in his hometown, with the Milwaukee Braves in April of 1962, after spending six years after his Army service ended working his way up the minor league system.

There was a reason for that, and Uecker said it best, “In 1963, I was named the minor league player of the year. It was my second year in the bigs.”

His self-deprecation and humor about his own struggles on the field made him an excellent candidate for the broadcast booth, and he immediately joined the Braves’ broadcasts as a frequent guest in the booth on television broadcasts. In 1971, he took over as the play-by-play announcer with the Brewers, a position he held through 2024, though he had tapered off his duties significantly since 2014.

Uecker was much more than a broadcaster, however.

He became the face of Miller Brewing Company’s advertising campaign in the early 1980s, when the company was focusing advertising on its Lite line of beer with the “tastes great, less filling” campaign. In a 1983 commercial, Uecker stars with John Goodman, at that time an unknown actor before his role as Dan Connor in “Roseanne” would launch his career.

I first knew of Uecker not from baseball, but from television, where he was one of the stars of the series “Mr. Belvedere.” He would go on to star as play-by-play announcer Harry Doyle for the ill-fated Cleveland Indians in the “Major League” series of films, where the iconic line at the head of this piece came from.

Uecker’s success on the screen allowed him to have nearly five decades of handshake deals as the Brewers announcer before changes to his health insurance through the Screen Actors Guild required him to have a formal contract with the Brewers in 2021 in order to be covered under the team’s health insurance.

Uecker influenced dozens of future broadcasters, including current Twins play-by-play announcer Cory Provus. One of his best relationships in the broadcast booth dated back to his playing days, when he and Tim McCarver were both members of the St. Louis Cardinals.

When recalling their shared time in St. Louis, Uecker joked, “Bob Gibson famously told Tim that the only thing he knew about pitching was how hard it was to hit. And I was his backup!”

Uecker’s playing career also influenced one of the most iconic home run calls in baseball history. Uecker stated that as a player, when a ball is hit up in the air, the players would stand and start hollering at the ball to “get up; get out of here!”

Bob’s death was announced on Thursday by his family and the Brewers organization. He was 90 years old.

Thanks for bringing humor and love to every game, Mr. Baseball. Godspeed.