Bob Uecker Quotes

#1. I did stand-up, weird and ignorant stuff about my career - anything for a laugh.

Bob Uecker

#2. I think my top salary was maybe in 1966. I made $17,000 and 11 of that came from selling other players' equipment.

Bob Uecker

#3. You throw batting practice, you warm up pitchers, you sit and cheer. You do whatever you have to do to stay on the team.

Bob Uecker

#4. When I looked at the third base coach, he turned his back on me.

Bob Uecker

#5. They have Easter egg hunts in Philadelphia, and if the kids don't find the eggs, they get booed.

Bob Uecker

#6. My kids used to do things to aggravate me, too. I'd take them to a game, and they'd want to come home with a different player.

Bob Uecker

#7. Let's face it. Umpiring is not an easy or happy way to make a living. In the abuse they suffer, and the pay they get for it, you see an imbalance that can only be explained by their need to stay close to a game they can't resist.

Bob Uecker

#8. People have asked me a lot of times, because I didn't hit a lot, how long a dozen bats would last me. Depending on the weight and model I was using at that time - I would say eight to 10 cookouts.

Bob Uecker

#9. When I came up to bat with three men on and two outs in the ninth, I looked in the other team's dugout and they were already in street clothes.

Bob Uecker

#10. I used to soak my mitts in a bucket of water for about two days. Then I'd put a couple of baseballs in the pocket and wrap it up with a rubber band. Today you don't have to do that, because catchers' mitts are more like first baseman's gloves.

Bob Uecker

#11. Hey, I think it's easy for guys to hit .300 and stay in the big leagues. Hit .200 and try to stick around as long as I did; I think it's a much greater accomplishment. That's hard.

Bob Uecker

#12. We were on for six years. We were in syndication for a while. It had its run. I still see the people from 'Mr. Belvedere,' too. We stay in touch.

Bob Uecker

#13. The highlight of my baseball career came in Philadelphia's Connie Mack Stadium when I saw a fan fall out of the upper deck. When he got up and walked away, the crowd booed.

Bob Uecker

#14. On TV the people can see it. On radio you've got to create it.

Bob Uecker

#15. When I played baseball I got death threats all the time
from my mother.

Bob Uecker

#16. Career highlights? I had two - I got an intentional walk from Sandy Koufax and I got out of a rundown against the Mets.

Bob Uecker

#17. You know, I was once named Minor League Player of the Year ... unfortunately, I had been in the majors for two years at the time.

Bob Uecker

#18. Anybody with ability can play in the big leagues. But to be able to trick people year in and year out the way I did, I think that was a much greater feat.

Bob Uecker

#19. I didn't get a lot of awards as a player. But they did have a Bob Uecker Day Off for me once in Philly.

Bob Uecker

#20. If a guy hits .300 every year, what does he have to look forward to? I always tried to stay around .190, with three or four RBI. And I tried to get them all in September. That way I always had something to talk about during the winter.

Bob Uecker

#21. I knew when my career was over. In 1965 my baseball card came out with no picture.

Bob Uecker

#22. I hope the fans have enjoyed listening as much as I've enjoyed doing the games. I don't ever go to the park where I don't have a good day. I don't like losing. But I don't think I ever go to the park where I have a bad day. I don't think once.

Bob Uecker

#23. Phil Niekro and his brother were pitching against each other in Atlanta. Their parents were sitting right behind home plate. I saw their folks more that day than they did the whole weekend.

Bob Uecker

#24. I had slumps that lasted into the winter.

Bob Uecker

#25. I had a .200 lifetime batting average in the major leagues, which tied me with another sports great averaging 200 or better for a ten-year period: Don Carter, one of our top bowlers.

Bob Uecker

#26. In 1962 I was named Minor League Player of the Year. It was my second season in the bigs.

Bob Uecker

#27. Any teammate of mine that had a kid and a boy that was capable of playing baseball, I think I set a terrific example of 'Don't do this' and 'Don't do that.' And that's one of the things that I'm most proud of.

Bob Uecker

#28. I just grew the hair on my back. Facial hair just wasn't appealing to me. I liked it on my back, though.

Bob Uecker

#29. The way to catch a knuckleball is to wait until it stops rolling and then pick it up.

Bob Uecker

#30. I make fun of situations and try and find the humor in things, but it's never at the expense of the other guy.

Bob Uecker

#31. I remember one time I'm batting against the Dodgers in Milwaukee. They lead, 2 - 1, it's the bottom of the ninth, bases loaded, two out and the pitcher has a full count on me. I look over to the Dodger dugout and they're all in street clothes.

Bob Uecker

#32. Where would I be without baseball? Who am I without baseball?

Bob Uecker

#33. I hit a grand slam off Ron Herbel and when his manager Herman Franks came out to get him, he was bringing Herbel's suitcase.

Bob Uecker

#34. Not bragging by any means, but I could have done a lot of other stuff as far as working in films go and working in television ... I had chances to do that stuff, but I like baseball, I really do.

Bob Uecker

#35. Between me and my roommate, we've hit 400 Major League home runs.

Bob Uecker

#36. People don't know this, but I helped the Cardinals win the pennant. I came down with hepatitis. The trainer injected me with it!

Bob Uecker

#37. I signed a very modest $3,000 bonus with the Braves in Milwaukee. And my old man didn't have that kinda money to put out.

Bob Uecker

#38. I would order a dozen bats and there were times they'd come back with handles at each end.

Bob Uecker

#39. I had been playing for a while, and I asked Louisville Slugger to send me a dozen flame treated bats. But when I got it, I realized they had sent me a box of ashes.

Bob Uecker

#40. I spent three of the best years of my life in 10th grade.

Bob Uecker

#41. Baseball hasn't forgotten me. I go to a lot of old-timers games and I haven't lost a thing. I sit in the bullpen and let people throw things at me. Just like old times.

Bob Uecker

#42. Sure, women sportswriters look when they're in the clubhouse. Read their stories. How else do you explain a capital letter in the middle of a word?

Bob Uecker

#43. I was acting when I was playing baseball.

Bob Uecker

#44. I had a great shoe contract and glove contract with a company who paid me a lot of money never to be seen using their stuff.

Bob Uecker

#45. I led the league in go get 'em next time.

Bob Uecker

#46. I set records that will never be equaled. In fact, I hope 90% of them don't even get printed.

Bob Uecker

#47. Anyone with talent can play in the Major Leagues; for someone like me to stay around as long as I did, I think that's a much greater acheivement.

Bob Uecker

#48. After getting out of the service and going into baseball I never wanted to do anything else.

Bob Uecker

#49. Sporting goods companies pay me not to endorse their products.

Bob Uecker

#50. How do you catch a knuckleball? You wait until it stops rolling, then go pick it up.

Bob Uecker

#51. Before broadcasting for 50-some years, I did TV, played 10 years in the big leagues, won a world championship - and played a big part in that, too, letting the Cardinals inject me with hepatitis. Takes a big man to do that.

Bob Uecker

#52. I signed with the Milwaukee Braves for three-thousand dollars. That bothered my dad at the time because he didn't have that kind of dough. But he eventually scraped it up.

Bob Uecker