Interlude: Gratitude for Bob Uecker

Sorry for sharing a baseball post, y'all. Of course, it's still steeped in meaning and playfulness.

Hoping to return to more regular posting next week. I have a sermonette in my heart about Jesus the Teacher, and I'll have content to share from my Forma workshop and a recent publication! Having trouble finding focus and balance amid all that's happening in the Saylor-Oliver household during this season.

I was a little kid "who didn't need much sleep," according to my parents. So to keep me in my room at night, they gave me a clock radio and a tape recorder.

During our years in Florida, I would listen to the Pittsburgh Pirates, whose Grapefruit League home was Bradenton, plus the Orlando Magic on the radio. When we moved to Milwaukee, it was Brewers all the way: the games, of course, and also "Talkin' Baseball" (once a week?) on WTMJ. (I could still sing you the theme song.)

Bob Uecker taught me more than anyone but my father about baseball. Probably about humor too, though I might not have realized that.

My gratitude for his good-natured accompaniment over probably thousands of hours is most especially acute when I think of my first year of graduate school. "Problem sets, problem sets, I'm drowning in problem sets" had been my overwhelmed refrain during undergrad, and it only got worse when the course numbers hit the 500s.

That was the 2007 season, a year they took a big step forward after 14 seasons at or below 0.500. "The Bums," we called them in our household. They hadn't been in the mix to win the division since 1992, the very first year we lived in Milwaukee.

I may have taken in 100 games that year, most of them on the radio while the math was slowly mathing across my notebooks and, increasingly, my computers.

I was, in retrospect, pretty miserable. But Bob was there almost every night, sharing excitement in wins and magnanimity and composure in losses. And always, always, that sense of humor.

My mom said yesterday we'll miss him most during blowouts. Amen. During one this year I got to hear him telling stories about playing on military baseball teams while he was enlisted during WWII. An instantly cherished baseball memory.

My whole life I've enjoyed few things more than listening to friends yap on the radio, and its various descendants—about sports or really anything at all.

Nobody did it better than Ueck, now outa here, gone. The game, and the city of Milwaukee, will never be quite the same. Thanks for everything, Bob.