Brewers’ Struggles Send Uecker Into Full On Harry Doyle Mode
by S. Grant McGlynn
Anyone who listened to the early innings of Wednesday’s rubber match between the Brewers and the L.A. Dodgers is well aware that Milwaukee owner Mark Attanasio was extremely candid in his comments about the teams struggles as of late:
“First of all, it’s a team-wide problem,” Attanasio said Wednesday. “It’s not any one handful of players, and it’s not any one discipline, although I will say the relief pitching has been good. The hitting has been good, but not situationally. And the starting pitching hasn’t been good. …Our starting pitching has put us in too big a hole, too many times. Too many big innings.”
“But you know, we had this record last year. That doesn’t make it better, but we had exactly this record and we did come within a game and a half of a playoff spot.”
“So there’s some reason for optimism, but I want to be honest with our fans – I don’t like what I’m seeing right now.”
Apparently neither does longtime Brewers radio announcer, Bob Uecker. As Wednesday’s contest spun out into oblivion, another side of Uecker began to emerge, an alter-ego of sorts, that of Cleveland Indian’s broadcaster Harry Doyle.
“Just a bit outside, he tried for the corner and missed.”
“Ball Four.”
“Ball Eight.”
“Well, you can close the book on Peralta…(whispered) thank God!”
Things only became more interesting as the game moved on into the later innings:
“Hello, Brewers fans, welcome back to Major League Baseball…sort of. The attendance today was 36,963. Most of them left after that 5 run 2nd inning the Dodgers put up. Take over Joe, I’m in the bag.”
Was this a harbinger of darker days to come? Have fans seen the last of the fun loving, wise cracking Uecker? Is the hardened, bitter Harry Doyle here to stay?
I’ll let you, the fans, decide for yourselves based on these closing comments:
Uecker – “That’s all we got, two goddamn runs?
Block – “You can’t say goddamn on the air.”
Uecker – “Don’t worry, nobody is listening anyway.”
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