Bob Uecker died last week at the age of 90; according to reports, he had been battling small cell lung cancer for about 2 years. In addition to being the voice of the Milwaukee Brewers, Uecker was a comic. He appeared as a guest with Johnny Carson more than 100 times; Carson nicknamed him “Mr. Baseball” and the moniker stuck. He was in the TV series, Mr. Belvedere; he was in the movie, Major League; he made about a dozen outstanding ads for Miller Lite; he was a natural entertainer.
As a baseball player, his career was pedestrian. He spent 6 years in the major leagues with 3 teams; his career batting average was .200 and his career home run total was 14. Nevertheless, his comedic talent turned that career into an asset. Much of his humor was self-deprecating and all of it was entertaining. Bob Uecker brought smiles to the faces of many people many times.
Rest in peace, Bob Uecker.
Moving on … According to reports over the weekend, Rob Ryan is going to be the Defensive Coordinator for USC next season except his official title will be “Assistant Head Coach for Defense”. If the negotiation over his title lasted more than 10 seconds, that would be 9 seconds too long. Ryan has an extensive résumé as a defensive coach, and he comes by it naturally; his father was Buddy Ryan. Since 2000, he has been employed by 8 different NFL teams; his last involvement with a college football team was in 1999 when he was the defensive coordinator at Oklahoma St.
Ryan will not have a high hill to climb next year. The Trojans’ defense was mediocre at best in 2024 ranking 77th nationally in Total Defense and 56th nationally in Scoring Defense.
Switching gears … The Miami Heat find themselves in the middle of a spitting contest between the team and its best player, Jimmy Butler. The seeming basis for the contretemps is that Butler wants a big money contract extension, and the Heat have not offered him one. The team suspended Butler for 7 games for “conduct detrimental …” and – – not surprisingly – – that action has not let peace and harmony abound… I really don’t care a whole lot about Jimmy Butler’s contract situation, but there is something weird going on in Miami if you take a long-term view of the Heat franchise:
- The Heat had Shaq about 20 years ago. Things got crosswise and Shaq wound up with the Suns.
- The Heat had LeBron about 10 years ago. Things got crosswise and LeBron left for the Cavs.
- The Heat had Dwayne Wade about 10 years ago. Things got crosswise and Dwayne Wade wound up with the Bulls.
- Now, here we are in the present tense with Jimmy Butler and the Heat. Things got crosswise and Butler wants to be traded out of Miami.
I am not going to pretend to be an “insider” here; I have exactly no direct knowledge of whatever is ongoing between Jimmy Butler and the team. Having said that, there is something strange about that pattern of friction between the Heat and their “franchise players”. I don’t believe those recurring instances are caused by some sort of impurity in the air or water supply in Miami; I suspect that there is something about the way the team handles its business off the court that is an irritant for “star players” but not so much for “other players”. Now, if that suspicion is even close to correct, it would seem to be beneficial for the Heat’s braintrust to identify the irritant and either remove it or modify it to some degree.
As of today, the Heat have played exactly half of their regular season games. The NBA trade deadline is February 6th at 3:00PM ET; expect this saga to continue over at least the next 16 days and well beyond that if the Heat do not find a trading partner to move Butler out of town.
Finally, since I began today with the news of Bob Uecker’s passing, let me close with a few of his self-deprecating comments:
“You wait until it stops rolling and then pick it up.” [When asked how you catch a knuckleball.]
And …
“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.”
And …
“Gene Mauch once told me to go grab a bat and pinch hit to kill a rally.”
And …
“Career highlights? I had two. I got an intentional walk from Sandy Koufax, and I got out of a rundown against the Mets.”
And …
“I signed with the Milwaukee Braves for $3,000. That bothered my dad at the time because he didn’t have that kind of dough. But he eventually scraped it up.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………
If there’s an afterlife, Bob Uecker is sitting on the front row.
Doug:
Totally agree …
My wife loved Bob Uecker so for our 13th anniversary I bought her a Bob Uecker baseball card. She cried when she saw it.
It has sat on our mantle for the past 27 years.
RIP Bob