Like all of you reading this for the first time today, I’m saddened at the death of Bob Uecker this morning at the age of 90.

I carried this old Uecker baseball card in my college bookbag or my Franklin Planner. His baseball career was modest but his broadcast career and sense of humor was something with which I connected. I wanted to be a baseball play-by-play guy in the mold of Jack Brickhouse with the sense of humor of Bob Uecker.

As a kid living in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, I watched WGN and listened to WGN on the radio to keep up with the Cubs, but at night I had my choice of night games because Cub games were typically on during the day (unless they were on the road). We got a pretty good signal from Milwaukee, Detroit and St. Louis and I frequently landed on a Brewers broadcast. Later, working in Gurnee, IL, our warehouse had a ballgame on during the afternoons whenever possible and when it wasn’t a Cubs game it was a Brewers game. Uecker’s call was clear and, when the moment called for levity, nobody was more entertaining than Uecker.

Uecker was bigger than just a broadcaster because he showed up on Johnny Carson and he once was a regular on a TV sitcom. And the Lite Beer commercials and the Major League gig – and his occasional appearances on other national telecasts.

Uecker just made baseball more fun.

God bless Mr. Uecker and the family and friends and fans that will miss him.