Bob Uecker has made a career out of making fun of his baseball career.
It got him to the Hall of Fame, but as a broadcaster. “I still think I should have gone in as a player,” he said when he won the Ford Frick Award.
“Mr. Baseball” received a standing ovation this season as he began his 54th season broadcasting Milwaukee Brewers games. As an accommodation to his age — he turned 90 on Jan. 26 — Uecker has limited himself to broadcasting home games.
Uecker only played in the majors from 1962 to 1967, but he worked as a national color commentator for ABC (Monday Night Baseball) and NBC telecasts. His deadpan delivery, honed through years of speaking during the offseason banquet circuit, endeared Uecker to late-night television hosts, particularly Johnny Carson.
He was a staple in Lite Beer commercials (“I must be in the front roooow …”), starred as George Owens in 118 episodes in the ABC sitcom “Mr. Belvedere” from 1985 to 1990, and had a memorable role as play-by-play broadcaster Harry Doyle in the 1989 movie, “Major League” (“Juuuust a bit outside.”) He would reprise his role as Doyle in the 1994 sequel, “Major League II.”
Between 1956 and 1961 he played for 10 different minor league teams. And on April 13, 1962, Uecker made his major league debut, going 0-for-1 against the Los Angeles Dodgers. He entered the game in the ninth inning as a pinch hitter and grounded out to second against Don Drysdale.
Uecker only hit 14 home runs during his career, but three came off future Hall of Famers – Gaylord Perry, Ferguson Jenkins and Sandy Koufax.
For a backup catcher, Uecker did find himself on plenty of baseball cards. There are plenty of Ueckers that have been graded through the years, but surprisingly only seven have reached the PSA 10 level.
Here is a look at the cards of “Mr. Baseball.”
1962 Topps (No. 594)
Uecker’s first card was a shared one, but a high number. He was part of the Rookie Parade series and was on a short-printed card that featured four other catchers – Doc Edwards, Ken Retzer, Don Pavletich and Doug Camilli.
Edwards would play five seasons in the majors with four different teams, and later managed in Cleveland from 1987 to 1989. Retzer played four seasons, all with the Washington Senators.
Pavletich enjoyed a 12-year career in the big leagues, mostly with the Cincinnati Reds. Camilli, the son of 1941 National League MVP Dolph Camilli, spent nine seasons in the majors. Like his father, he played for the Dodgers. He finished his career with the Senators. He caught one of Sandy Koufax’s four no-hitters, a 3-0 gem against the Philadelphia Phillies on June 4, 1964. The only baserunner against Koufax was Richie Allen, who walked in the fourth inning. He tried stealing, but Camilli threw him out.
As for Uecker, he hit a respectable .250 in 33 games with the Milwaukee Braves in 1962. However, newspaper accounts in 1962 noted that Uecker “figures to grow old” behind Braves catchers Del Crandall and Joe Torre. He would hit his only home run of the season on Sept. 30, 1962, a two-run shot off Diomedes Olivo in the second inning of a 4-3 loss to Pittsburgh.
More than 1,300 of Uecker’s rookie card have been submitted to PSA for grading. The highest is a PSA 9, and there are only 11. Today, it’s among the more expensive–and popular– cards in the set. Expect to pay at least a few hundred dollars for a crease-free copy.
Uecker’s photo from his 1962 rookie card would be full-blown in the 2001 Topps Archives set.
1963 Topps (No. 126)
“Every club needs a clown,” The Palm Beach Post noted during spring training in 1963, “and Uecker provides some of this comic relief.” An example: Uecker noted during spring training that he and his roommate, Eddie Mathews, had combined for 400 home runs. He conveniently left out the fact that Mathews accounted for 399 of them. Both of them hit those home runs on the same day.
The 1963 set was Uecker’s first solo card. He shows some pretty serious intensity as he strikes a batting pose.
Uecker hit .250 again in 1963, but only appeared in 13 games with the Braves. He spent much of the season in Triple-A with the Denver Bears, where he hit .283 with eight home runs.
Nearly 1,000 cards have been submitted to PSA, and again, no 10s. There are nine rated Mint 9.
This one is fairly plentiful and can be had for $25-$50 in reasonably good shape.
1964 Topps (No. 543)
Uecker’s 1964 Topps card was another short-print. A generic photo of the catcher could not mask the fact that while he was with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1964, he was wearing a Milwaukee Braves uniform. For Topps, such photographs were not unusual. There was no biographical sketch, mostly because the back of Uecker’s card was filled with his year-by-year statistics from his minor league career. He made several stops — Eau Claire, Wisconsin; Boise, Idaho; Evansville, Indiana; Atlanta; Jacksonville, Florida; Indianapolis; Louisville, Kentucky; and Denver.
But 1964 was the season when Uecker came to the majors to stay, albeit in a backup role. He played 40 games and was part of the Cardinals team that won the World Series that year. Uecker did not play in the postseason that year.
“Bing Devine, who was the Cardinals general manager at that time, asked me if I would do him and the Cardinals in general a favor,” Uecker recalled. “And I said that I would, and he said, ‘We’d like to inject you with hepatitis. We need to bring an infielder up,’ and I said, ‘Will I be able to sit on the bench?’ and he said, ‘Yes. We’ll build a plastic cubicle for you, because it is an infectious disease.’”
More than 750 of Uecker’s 1964 Topps cards have been submitted to PSA for grading. The highest grade is PSA 9, with 38 cards at that level.
As a high number, this one takes on a little more value with better ungraded copies typically running $25-$60.
1965 Topps (No. 519)
For his 1965 Topps card, Uecker had some fun at Topps’ expense. The card depicts Uecker eagerly striking a batting pose in a close-up shot. The problem? Uecker is batting left-handed, and he was a right-handed hitter. It was not a case of a flipped negative. Uecker merely pranked the Topps photographer. Considering that Uecker only had 146 hits over his six-year major league career and no more than 43 in a season, perhaps the career .200 hitter should have tried crossing to the other side of the batter’s box and hit as a lefty.
“I’m happy even when I hit a hard grounder,” Uecker said after a 1967 game.
The back of the card is full of references that could have been written by Uecker himself.
“Bob may be second-string catcher to World Series hero Tim McCarver, but his funny-man antics keeps teammates loose,” the written biography begins.
And this: “Although he didn’t play in the Series, he picked up a winner’s full share.”
Finally, there is a PSA 10 version of a Uecker card — but only one. There are 69 that graded PSA 9.
Another high number, you’ll spend $30-$70 or so for a better copy.
1966 Topps (No. 91)
The variation for this card is a no trade statement. Topps had a few players with the variation that either included a trade or sale statement or omitted it. Examples include Merritt Ranew (No. 62), Dick Groat (No. 103) and Alex Johnson (No. 104).
As a rule, the card without the trade or sale statement has a higher value, and that is the case with Uecker’s 1966 card.
The regular issue card has a line squeezed in at the bottom of his card that notes “Bob was traded to Phillies, Oct. 27, 1965).
The “trade statement” card produced one PSA 10 specimen. There are none for the no trade card, and together there are 13 PSA 9s between both cards.
Issued in the 1st series, this one is Ueck’s cheapest issue.
Uecker’s No. 91 card is also featured in the 1966 Topps Venezuela series.
1967 Topps (No. 326)
Another generic photograph by Topps, with Uecker featured as a Philadelphia Phillies player. He would be traded during the midseason back to the Braves, who by this time were into their second season in Atlanta. The facsimile autographs that were such an endearing part of the 1967 Topps set has Uecker signing it as “Robert Uecker” in a beautiful script.
When Uecker was traded from the Philadelphia Phillies to the Atlanta Braves on June 6, 1967, he noted it was the third time in his career that he had been traded.
“I ought to be used to it,” he said. “Hell, I got sent from Legion ball to the Police Athletic League.”
On June 21, 1967, Uecker hit his first career grand slam, connecting off San Francisco’s Ron Herbel in Atlanta’s 9-2 victory against San Francisco.
“It must have been a mistake,” Uecker said after the game. “Either I made a mistake hitting it or Herbel made a mistake throwing it.”
Uecker’s 1967 card has the most graded gem mint cards, with five. Fifty others are PSA 9s.
This one, too, is pretty easy to locate for under $30.
1988 Blue Cross
Uecker has had several cards printed since his retirement — a 1993 Action Packed card and a 2001 Topps Archives card come to mind.
But to commemorate a June 5, 1988, bicycle ride for the United Performing Arts Center in Milwaukee, a special card was printed by Blue Cross and Blue Shield United of Wisconsin. The front depicted the design from Uecker’s 1963 Topps card — his first solo card — while the back publicized Uecker’s Ride for the Arts.
The Ride for the Arts began in 1981, and by 1988 had raised more than $315,000. Uecker was the honorary chairman for the 1988 event and greeted riders at the start of each of the event’s four starting points.
Uecker has always joked about his abilities as a player, but he has always been sincere about his love for the game.
“It’s been a great run, but No. 1, has always been baseball for me,” Uecker said at his Hall of Fame induction. “No matter what else I ever did. Baseball was the only way I wanted to go.”
