Bob Uecker is a Milwaukee legend who seemingly did it all. He was a Major League backup catcher, Hall of Fame sports caster, comedian and actor. For more than six decades, "Mr. Baseball" made us laugh and kept us company on the radio and at the ballpark.
Uecker passed away at age 90 in January of 2025. A new documentary aptly called UECK is a testament to his continuing legacy. It gives audiences an intimate look into his life, work, family, friends and what he meant to all the generations of people who knew his voice.
The film is co-directed by Milwaukee-based filmmakers Michael Vollmann and Steve Farr, who will be premiering UECK for the opening night of the Milwaukee Film Festival on April 16.
Farr's first memories of Ueck was watching him on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson in the early 70s when his dad would let him stay up late to watch him. "I was already kind of a big baseball fan and I think I already knew it was kind of weird that the baseball announcer was on The Tonight Show," says Farr.
Vollmann says that he grew up following baseball and really "got hooked" into the Brewers after their 1987 winning streaks and connected most with Ueck as a broadcaster. "When I was a kid, I would listen to every single radio broadcast pretty much. And one thing I used to do is I had a boombox with two tape cassette recorders in it and I would try to record the ambient audio of the crowd between Uecker's announcing and then try to like tape it to the other tape. So there'd be like a string out of ambient audio and I would then play it back and try to impersonate Uecker," he recalls.
UECK was filmed over what would be the last three years of Uecker's life. Vollmann & Farr's production company, The September Club, had first brainstormed ideas for local documentaries in 2022. Uecker naturally came up as a local legend to dive into, but they weren't sure if it was even attainable.
"I almost felt like it was almost something that was just a dream project," says Vollmann.
"I had a connection with Bob Uecker having done a PSA for ALS... and we had done that during COVID, so I knew I could get through to him or at least his people. And so [Bob] took the call pretty quickly," recalls Farr.
They flew to Arizona to meet with Uecker for what they assumed would be a quick lunch. Four hours, and many stories later, Uecker had vetted the team and was willing to work with them. "[The lunch] wasn't four hours because we had to convince him, it was four hours because we had a great time," Vollmann recalls fondly.
They ran some filming scenarios past Uecker that they hoped to do over two years, but unfortunately early on in the filming process Uecker was diagnosed with small cell lung cancer. "He let us know that there weren't many people that knew about it, and he just said he would continue to do what he could with us for the documentary and honor some of these things. But we weren't able to shoot everything that we wanted to, but that was fine. It was just amazing that he was still committed to doing it," says Farr.
In addition to working with Uecker, the other critical relationships the filmmakers formed was with his family and the Brewers. "[The Uecker family has] really been supportive and encouraging, and we really appreciate it," says Vollmann. "We wouldn't have been able to make the film without all of their help."
While Ueck is perhaps better known for his career moves that came after his time as a professional player, Farr says the documentary is still very much a baseball movie, with the 2023 Brewers season serving as the backbone of the film.
"Baseball really was Uecker's first love. That was definitely what he always came back to," notes Vollmann. "He said, of all the things he did, everything else was for laughs. Being a comedian, being on Johnny Carson, doing Major League, all that stuff. But what he really loved doing was being in the booth, being around the baseball team and the community."
What [Bob Uecker] really loved doing was being in the booth, being around the baseball team and the community.Michael Vollmann
Getting to know Uecker on a personal level was also "an amazing experience," according to Farr. "They always say you don't want to meet your idols and in this case, I'm really glad I did... There was no negative. It was kind of what you hoped it would be – that he was going to be this funny, bright, energetic guy somehow at age 90 and he was that."
Vollmann hopes that audiences will feel comforted by hearing Uecker's voice and seeing him again, but he also thinks they can take away some new perspectives of our local legend.
"The interesting thing about Ueck is that he plays everything as a joke, but he actually had a lot of perseverance," notes Vollmann. "He maybe wasn't the best baseball player, but he persevered... He just kind of keeps going forward, moving forward, and doesn't fall into things as much as he just is a hard worker and disciplined. And I think we could all take something from that."
Standby tickets are available for the two screenings of UECK on April 16, but if you don’t get a chance to see it during the Milwaukee Film Festival, a wider release of the film is planned for this summer.
