Bob Uecker's broadcast booth partner shares details of emotional last meeting

Milwaukee Brewers play-by-play broadcaster Jeff Levering first shared a booth with Bob Uecker in 2015. The first 10 years of his major league career overlapped with the last of Uecker's 54.

Baseball's last crossover celebrity broadcaster died Thursday at age 90.

While tributes poured in from in and around the sports and entertainment worlds for Uecker, those who worked closely with him were aware of his failing health for some time.

Brewers manager Pat Murphy told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel that Uecker "was in considerable pain throughout the (2024) season but wanted to call games as often as possible."

Levering was aware, too. According to the Journal-Sentinel, he and Brewers radio announcer Rob Grindle were among the last people to visit Uecker at his home in Menomonee Falls only hours before he died.

“Judy (Uecker's partner) sent a note to me and Lane saying he had taken a turn for the worse,” an emotional Levering told Tom Haudricort. “I said, ‘I need to go over there and be there for Judy and see Bob one last time.' I’m not sure how aware he was but he said a few words and squeezed my hand and that was enough. He was surrounded by people who loved him and that’s the way he wanted to go."

After his brief playing career for the Milwaukee Braves, Philadelphia Phillies and St. Louis Cardinals, Uecker carved a unique path in baseball broadcasting and acting.

In addition to his role on the 1980s sitcom Mr. Belvedere, Uecker portrayed fictional Cleveland baseball broadcaster Harry Doyle in the 1989 movie "Major League" and its subsequent sequels.

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