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Just a Bit Outside
Baseball’s resident jester Bob Uecker became one of the sport’s most beloved figures—and an entertainment star along the way.
Showcasing a bone-dry deadpan style in dozens of appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, he parlayed minor celebrity into bona fide stardom through a series of bombastic Miller Lite commercials. Uecker steadily morphed into an increasingly manic presence, best displayed in a 1984 commercial in which he plays up his inflated sense of importance, strolling into a ballpark with a ticket he brags is a “freebie” for an “ex-big leaguer.” As he walks to what he claims is his seat, somebody offscreen yells “Down in front!”, and a beat later an usher who doesn’t recognize him insists that he relocate to where he belongs. )During that tenure — among the longest for an announcer with a single team in baseball history — Uecker infused his commentary with the same wit he’d deploy on late night shows, filling idle moments with self-deprecating anecdotes from his time in the game.
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