July 2009 – Brewers at the Reds

To say I was a fan of baseball movies would be accurate. Back in the day you had the greats… and everyone remembers the classic moments like those of field of dreams, bull durham and others. Perhaps though one of the most remembered baseball movies, which also spawns one of the most used catchlines, is Major League. Anyone who pays half attention to baseball in the slightest knows that “Mr. Baseball” himself, Bob Uecker does the commentary for the Milwaukee Brewers.

You might remember a previous blog of mine from this year in which I talked about seeing him, and how I geeked out. Someone had told me “aww he’s a jerk, don’t get so excited” and you think to yourself, ‘alright.. that person just had a bad experience, that’s all’. But then you keep hearing the small trickling of stories like the one I am about to tell you.. and it all comes so clear.

Before that though, lets talk about the meat and potatoes of why I even write… and that’s the Reds themselves. Coming out of the all star break I was feeling a little indifferent to things. Co Co Cordero was the Reds only selection for the all star team, which surprised no one. Votto had been out chasing demons, Bruce has been slumping.. the pitching staff in general hasn’t been as great as they should be this year, and Phillips… well why he didn’t make it no one really knows, but at the same time no one was really concerned it seemed. The reds were where they had been the entire season, right around the .500 mark and in need of some serious boost. Looking at the schedule though was frightful… with the way that the roster has been injury plagued, (including the latest incidents with Hernandez and Bruce), and the opponents they were going to face, it looked like that wildcard prediction I made was dismal.

And so it goes that they split the series including a great night on Friday in which they shut the brew crew down 4 to nothing. Thursday was Homers first loss, but probably only because of the way that the pitching goes and how they classify winners and losers,… because Homer has had some bad days. Saturday was a bust.. and Sunday was great. Its always strange how the play is so up and down from day to day..
Alright Alright.. I know.. Bob Uecker.

It was Friday night when me and my friend Stagg came out of the control room to go home and got onto the elevator with Bob Uecker. Now I don’t usually like to bother people or talk to them if they have some kind of status. Not because I think they are better than me, but because they have better things to do. I will preface this by saying that there are genuine nice guys. Jeff Piecoro for one,.. the guy who does the Reds stuff from the stands and on field correspondence and all that stuff,.. he’s a super nice guy. Sunday when he saw me wearing my Austin Kearns jersey, he made conversation about how him and Kearns had attended the same high school. We also joked about Mario Soto, and he asked me about where I was from… pretty awesome.
Then theres George Grande, who is like everyones grandpa. He always has a smile on his face, and is always more than happy to take a few moments to engage you in conversation.

You say “Bob, those are smaller time guys.. not like Bob Uecker”

ok then, how about Chris Welsh who commentates the Reds game. Hes a former Red, Yankee, etc… a career ERA under 5.00, and was in all those hamburger commercials. That guy is the definition of nice and doesn’t care who you are, he will talk to you about anything and everything.. even in the bathroom.


Even Marty Brennaman is a nice guy who is generally talkative…. But Bob Uecker I can now say from personal experience is an out and out jerk. So there we are on the elevator and I said “Mr Uecker, how are you?” without even acknowledging me he mumbles something to the effect of what I think was ‘good’, and I said “I’m a big fan of your work.. and really enjoy listening to you on Sirius radio when the brewers play the reds in Milwaukee” to which he didn’t even bother looking at me and shrugged it off and said something like “yeah ok”.


All week in the press dining room he was wearing his sunglasses and being generally ignorant of everything and everyone around him. I mean its not like I said something like “gee Mr. Uecker, I really liked when Andre the Giant choked you out at Wrestlemainia” or anything. I didn’t try to get him to say “JUUUUUUST A BIT OUTSIDE..”,.. I was simply cordial and friendly, and in return got one of the coldest shoulders from a sports Icon that I think I could have gotten. So sorry if you like Mr. Bob Uecker or think of him as a great person, because apparently what happened to me, has happened to a lot of people.. and apparently Bob Uecker is just a total jerk.


Other than that, theres not too much that’s interesting to talk about. Another homestand with a rain delay, another homestand with a bobblehead night,..oh and the one out of the ordinary thing would be brewers fans that are completely abnoxious and have no respect for the law or any kind of authority. I mean seriously, it’s one thing if you drove all the way from Milwaukee to get drunk and get yourself thrown out of a ballpark while making yourself look like a total moron in front of the 35 thousand people,… but to actually put on a brewers shirt in the town you live in, drive 15 minutes to the stadium and do it is another. I will never understand people who live in this town that root for other teams and come to the stadium to make such fools out of themselves. It has to be embarrassing for the whatever team they are rooting for I would think… I mean yeah, I am not into some teams here and there, but if I lived somewhere like Boston and didn’t like the Red Sox, I wouldn’t go to their stadium and make a complete jerk out of myself and make whatever team I was rooting for look even worse to the locals… come on.


Friday night was another fireworks night in a series of them this year. I have included some
images to go along with this blog, as well as the return of my ride videos from my bike to and from the stadium. That’s about all I have for this update on the short 4 game run.. coming up at the end of the month is another 10 day stretch in which the Reds are going to need a fire lit underneath of them to get back on track,… and with a July 31st trade deadline, who knows whats going to happen.

heres another riding video,... theres more on my youtube which you can find at youtube.com/bobandthereds
you can also email me or comment as well.. its always appreciated. thanks.