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MILWAUKEE — Bob Uecker, the voice of his hometown Milwaukee Brewers who after a short playing career earned the moniker “Mr. Baseball” and honors from the Hall of Fame, has died. He was 90.

The team announced Uecker died Thursday morning, calling it “one of the most difficult days in Milwaukee Brewers history.” In a statement released by the club, Uecker’s family said he had battled small cell lung cancer since early 2023.

“Even in the face of this challenge, his enthusiasm for life was always present, never allowing his spirit to falter,” the family said.

“Bob was the genuine item: always the funniest person in any room he was in, and always an outstanding ambassador for our National Pastime,” MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. “We are grateful for this baseball life like no other, and we will never forget him. On behalf of Major League Baseball, I extend my deepest sympathy to Bob’s family, his many friends across the game, Brewers fans, and the countless baseball fans who admired him.”

Uecker was best known as a colorful comedian and broadcaster who earned his nickname during one of his numerous appearances on Johnny Carson’s late-night show.

Born and raised in Milwaukee, Uecker was a beloved member of the baseball community and a pillar of the sport in Wisconsin.

When the Brewers clinched the NL Central title in 2024, manager Pat Murphy threw an arm around Uecker in the locker room, pulling him in tight as players white-knuckled their corks, ready to shower him in champagne.

“There is no one — there is no one — who epitomizes a champion the way this man does right here,” Murphy proclaimed as the players chanted “UUUUUECK.”

“What an example for us to be with every single day — Bob Uecker.”

Uecker signed his first professional contract with the Milwaukee Braves in 1956 and reached the majors in 1962. He’d last six seasons in the big leagues as a backup catcher, finishing with a .200 average and 14 homers.

He won a World Series ring with St. Louis in 1964 and also played for Atlanta and Philadelphia.

“Career highlights? I had two,” he often joked. “I got an intentional walk from Sandy Koufax, and I got out of a rundown against the Mets.”

Uecker also befriended former Brewers owner and MLB commissioner Bud Selig, who initially hired him as a scout. Selig liked to joke about how Uecker’s initial scouting report was stained with mashed potatoes and gravy.

Selig eventually brought Uecker to the broadcast booth. Uecker became the voice of the Brewers in 1971, in the second year after the team moved from Seattle.

Uecker remained with the club from that point on and became one of the Brewers’ most indelible figures. Brewers manager Craig Counsell grew up in the Milwaukee area and remembered spending summer days throwing a baseball against the roof and catching it while listening to Uecker’s broadcasts.

“There’s no single person in this franchise’s history who has been as iconic and as important as Bob Uecker,” said Jeff Levering, a member of the Brewers’ broadcast team since 2015.

Even as his celebrity status grew nationwide, Uecker savored the opportunity to continue calling games to fans in his hometown.

“To be able to do a game each and every day throughout the summer and talk to people every day at 6:30 for a night game, you become part of people’s families,” Uecker once said. “I know that because I get mail from people that tell me that. That’s part of the reward for being here, just to be recognized by the way you talk, the way you describe a game, whatever.”

Uecker was honored by the Hall of Fame with the Ford C. Frick Award in 2003 and spent nearly 20 minutes keeping the Cooperstown, New York, crowd of about 18,000 in stitches.

“I still — and this is not sour grapes by any means — still think I should have gone in as a player,” he quipped.

“Ueck” got his big break off the field after opening for Don Rickles at Al Hirt’s nightclub in Atlanta in 1969. That performance caught Hirt’s attention, and the musician set him up to appear on “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson. He became one of Carson’s favorite guests, making more than 100 appearances.

Carson was the one who dubbed Uecker “Mr. Baseball.” And the name stuck.

But Uecker’s comedy was just a part of his abilities. His warm storytelling and delivery made him a natural to become one of the first color commentators on network TV broadcasts in the 1970s with ABC. In the ’90s, he teamed up with Bob Costas and Joe Morgan for the World Series.

From there, Uecker reached most households as one of the Miller Lite All-Stars in popular commercials for the beer brand based out of Milwaukee and he later launched his TV acting career in 1985 on the ABC sitcom, “Mr. Belvedere.”

Uecker played George Owens during the successful 122-episode run of the series that lasted six years, as the head of the family and sportswriter in a home that brings in a butler who struggles to adapt to an American household.

In a bit of casting that kept things pretty close to home, Uecker also played a prominent role in the movies “Major League” (1989) and “Major League II” (1994) as crass announcer Harry Doyle for a down-and-out Cleveland franchise that finds a way to become playoff contenders.

“I’m part of American folklore, I guess,” Uecker told The Associated Press in 2003. “But I’m not a Hollywood guy. Baseball and broadcasting are in my blood.”

His wry description of a badly wayward pitch — “Juuuust a bit outside!” — in the movie is still often-repeated by announcers and fans at ballparks all over.

Uecker’s acting left some to believe he was more about being funny than a serious baseball announcer, but his tenure and observations with the Brewers were spot on, especially when games were tight. Equally enjoyable were games that weren’t, when Uecker would tell stories about other major leaguers, his own career and his hobbies as an avid fisherman and golfer.

“I don’t think anyone wants to hear somebody screwing around when you got a good game going,” Uecker said. “I think people see ‘Major League’ and they think Harry Doyle and figure that’s what Bob Uecker does. I do that sometimes, I do. But when we’ve got a good game going, I don’t mess around.”

In his later years, he took a serious approach to his health, swimming daily leading up to heart surgery in April 2010. Very soon after the procedures, doctors said Uecker returned to walking several miles and was ahead in recovery.

Uecker pushed to return to the booth and began calling games again in July, saying he bribed the doctors by allowing them to throw out the first pitch.

“You talk about all the things Bob has done, he never wanted to leave Milwaukee,” Selig said. “Above all, he made himself into a great play-by-play announcer. That’s what he did. He’s everything to this franchise and loves every minute of it.”

Uecker’s own career provided him most of his material. His former teammates said Uecker would do impressions of other broadcasters on the bus, but Uecker turned the spotlight on himself after his playing career was over.

“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,” he said. “But he eventually scraped it up.”

Another classic: “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.”

Uecker also presided over the stirring ceremony that closed Milwaukee County Stadium in 2000. When the Brewers’ new stadium opened as Miller Park in 2001, the team began selling “Uecker Seats” high in the upper deck and obstructed for a $1.

The stadium, now known as American Family Field, has two statues in Uecker’s honor. There’s a statue outside the stadium and another one in the back of Section 422, a nod to the Miller Lite commercial in which he famously said, “I must be in the front row!” while getting taken to one of the worst seats in the ballpark.

After the Brewers were eliminated from the playoffs in 2024, Uecker’s last season, he made sure to visit the locker room and offer support to players in a way only he could.

“That was kind of tough. All the other stuff, it is what it is. … Talking to Ukie, one on one, was tough,” outfielder Christian Yelich said at the time. “He means a lot. He means a lot. I’ve gotten to know him pretty good over the last seven years. … He’s right over there. Just a great guy, a great guy.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Granlund OT goal gives Finland 1st 4 Nations win

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Granlund OT goal gives Finland 1st 4 Nations win

MONTREAL — Mikael Granlund scored the overtime winner, and Finland beat Sweden 4-3 Saturday in an instant classic, back-and-forth game between the bitter rivals at the 4 Nations Face-Off.

Granlund scored 1:49 into 3-on-3 OT, sending fans in Finland’s blue and white at Bell Centre to the exits cheering and chanting, “Suomi!”

“It’s always great to beat Sweden,” Granlund said in his postgame media availability.

Anton Lundell and Mikko Rantanen also scored for Finland, and Kevin Lankinen made 21 saves in his debut at the NHL-run international tournament, including a pad stop on Mika Zibanejad seconds into overtime. Coach Antti Pennanen switched from Juuse Saros to Lankinen after his team lost 6-1 to the United States on Thursday night.

“I don’t think we needed to do much, we knew that there was a lot of good things we did in the game against USA,” Finland captain Aleksander Barkov said in his postgame interview on SportsNet. “Obviously, the result, 6-1, was not great, it did not look good. But I thought we did a lot of good things. And same thing today.”

Knocking off Sweden puts the Finns right back in it with one game for them left in round-robin play. The top two teams among the U.S., Canada, Sweden and Finland meet in the championship game next week in Boston.

Despite goals from Zibanejad and Rasmus Dahlin, the Swedes are in trouble and now might need some help to make the final. Filip Gustavsson was pulled after allowing two goals on four shots in the first period, and Linus Ullmark allowed two on 17 the rest of the way.

Finland also has a potential injury situation to monitor after Barkov came up limping from blocking a shot late in the second. The reigning Stanley Cup champion from the Florida Panthers continued playing through it.

“We got a little better, and played for a full 60-something minutes,” Barkov said. “We knew, playing against Sweden, even if it’s 4 a.m., it doesn’t matter. Everyone is going to be fired up. We came out hard, and we played really well.”

The U.S. faces Canada on Saturday night in the most anticipated game in Montreal, but Sweden and Finland put on quite the show in the matinee. Facing off 19 years after Sweden defeated Finland in the 2006 Olympic gold medal game in Turin, this time the Finns were on the winning end of an entertaining game featuring a blend of speed, skill and physicality — and some pushing and shoving after the whistles, which was expected of players from countries that do not like each other.

The tournament shifts to Boston, where Finland faces Canada on Monday afternoon at 1 p.m. ET and Sweden plays the United States at 8 p.m.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Finland sits Saros after giving up 6 in loss to U.S.

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Finland sits Saros after giving up 6 in loss to U.S.

MONTREAL — Kevin Lankinen will start in net for Finland against Sweden in the 4 Nations Face-Off on Saturday after Juuse Saros allowed six goals on 32 shots in a 6-1 loss to the United States in each team’s tournament opener, coach Antti Pennanen said.

“We have three good goalies,” Pennanen said after practice Friday. “It’s a good situation for us. Juuse, I think he was really good the first 40 minutes, but 6-1, so we need to do something. And Kevin, he has played good games lately, so that was behind that decision.”

Saros’ struggles stretched into the 4 Nations from his rough half-season-plus in the NHL with the Nashville Predators. The 29-year-old has lost 29 of his 41 starts, ranks 38th among goalies in goals-against average with a 2.95 and is 33rd in save percentage with an .899.

Asked how he would evaluate his performance against the U.S., Saros said: “Obviously you always want to help your team even more on games like that.”

Saros’ new, eight-year, $61.92 million contract does not even kick in until next season.

Lankinen is 19-8-7 for the Vancouver Canucks with a 2.53 GAA and a .905 save percentage, making just above the league minimum at $875,000. A late bloomer who was never drafted, he grinded through minor leagues in Finland and North America before breaking through.

“I feel like there’s still more — a lot more — to accomplish, so many more levels to step up to, and I feel like every single season so far has been good progress,” Lankinen said. “Some of the pieces are coming together, but at the same time I recognize there is so much more to achieve.”

Pennanen hinted at making other lineup changes after scratching Kaapo Kakko and Juuso Valimaki on Thursday night but would not reveal much. Valimaki said he was not playing.

“Could be, but tomorrow you will know about those,” Pennanen said. “Again, 6-1, I think you need to do something but I know more exactly tomorrow, and those changes are public tomorrow.”

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‘No bigger rivalry’: USA, Canada to renew history

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'No bigger rivalry': USA, Canada to renew history

MONTREAL — The storied USA-Canada hockey rivalry will be reintroduced — and reignited — when the two countries take center stage at the 4 Nations Face-Off on Saturday night.

It can’t be defined as an ordinary game — not for players who have waited a lifetime to be part of best-on-best hockey against their nation’s greatest on-ice foe.

“This one’s a big one, the biggest of my career,” USA forward Dylan Larkin said. “Just watching [international games] as a kid with my family, it’s like a holiday, it’s like the Super Bowl for us. To be able to be a part of it, on a Saturday night in Montreal, it’s perfect. It’s just great.”

The opportunity for NHL skaters to be involved in events such as the Olympics came to a halt after the 2014 Sochi Games and the 2016 World Cup of Hockey. Many of the league’s current top stars were left wondering if they’d ever go toe-to-toe against the world’s greatest players in tournaments like the ones they were raised on.

It’s a reality now.

“I think it’s going be the biggest game that I’ve ever played in my career,” USA forward Brady Tkachuk said. “I’m really looking forward to that. There’s a big buildup to it. USA vs. Canada is bigger than just the guys on the ice. There’s so many people past, present and down the road [that it affects]. We’ve been talking about this game especially. It’s going to be a long couple days [waiting] until it happens, but it’ll be exciting.”

Canada and the USA will enter Saturday night with one tournament win apiece — the U.S. pounded Finland 6-1 on Thursday, and Canada outlasted a stubborn Swedish team 4-3 in overtime Wednesday.

Those appetizers will be nothing like the upcoming main event, though. There’s unmatched history between these two countries that has found its way into the 4 Nations discourse already.

The most memorable chapter — at least for most skaters now — was the 2010 Olympics. Canada and the U.S. faced off in the gold medal game, and Canada let slip a 2-1 lead with less than a minute to play. In overtime, it was Sidney Crosby — captain of Canada’s 4 Nations team — who scored the winner to down the Americans and send Canada home with gold.

Canadian forward Connor McDavid claims that as his favorite moment produced by these rival countries. He watched it happen then as a junior hockey player; now, for the first time at this level, he’ll be counted on to help lead his nation to victory.

“It’s what you dream of,” McDavid said. “It’s big; it’s exciting. It’s playing the Americans in Montreal. That’s a big game.”

Defenseman Drew Doughty was part of Canada’s 2010 and 2014 gold medal Olympic teams. That has done nothing to dampen his passion for what’s coming Saturday.

“The wait has just amplified [the rivalry]. It’s made you more hungry. And I know that the Americans are feeling the same way about playing us. It’s going to be a hard-fought game. I suggest everyone watches that one.”

Canada defenseman Drew Doughty

“When you play the Americans, you want to beat them so bad,” Doughty said. “And I still have this feeling at 35 years old, how bad [I] want to beat the Americans. They’re a really good hockey team. … It’s going to be a tough battle. But this is probably the most exciting matchup of the tournament.”

The world junior championships have provided a dose of elite-level best-on-best hockey in the years since that latest World Cup. But the men’s rivalry was still simmering beneath the surface just waiting to be released again with this generation of talent.

“The wait has just amplified [the rivalry],” Doughty said. “It has made you more hungry. And I know that the Americans are feeling the same way about playing us. It’s going to be a hard-fought game. I suggest everyone watches that one.”

“There’s no bigger rivalry than Canada-USA in hockey,” Canada’s Brad Marchand added. “They’re the games that everybody dreams about playing growing up. They’re memories that will last a lifetime. We’re all really looking forward to it. Can’t come quick enough.”

Canada will have a distinct hometown advantage, a reaction the U.S. anticipated for every game it will play this tournament.

Still, there was some surprise that fans at Bell Centre booed the United States anthem when it was performed ahead of Thursday’s game. That has become more of a trend around the league since President Donald Trump threatened — and subsequently enforced — significant tariffs on Canadian imports.

“I’m not going to get into that,” Crosby said. “We respect the anthems; I’ll leave it at that.”

“I just kind of stay out of it,” Doughty said. “I know what’s going on, and I understand the Canadians’ frustration, but I think we should respect the anthems. I don’t think anyone should be booing.”

Some fans might save that reaction for what happens during the game. Coaches, like players, are expecting to see the best out of their lineups for what is projected to be a tournament highlight. And no amount of practice time or conversation can prepare players for a potentially emotional night.

“There’s a lot of pride,” USA coach Mike Sullivan said. “There’s a lot of familiarity on both sides. These guys play with and against each other in the NHL all the time. An event like this where it’s best-on-best, I think it brings out the competitive spirit of both sides. The biggest difference is when you have the privilege to play in an event like this and represent your country, it has become something that’s bigger than any individual. There’s a responsibility to bring your best when you have the privilege to participate in these types of events.

“I would envision it being a real competitive hockey game.”

That might be an understatement.

“Saturday night in Canada, against Canada — I don’t think there’s much better than this for a hockey player of this level,” Jake Guentzel said. “The crowd’s going to be intense, it’s going to be hostile, it’s going to be all of the above, and it’s going to be a lot of fun.”

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