MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN – OCTOBER 03: Milwaukee Brewers radio announcer Bob Uecker throws a ceremonial … [+] first pitch before Game One of the Wild Card Series between the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Milwaukee Brewers at American Family Field on October 03, 2023 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)

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Summertime in Milwaukee will never be the same.

For the last 54 years, Bob Uecker’s voice let Milwaukeeans know that another long, cold winter had come to an end, that spring had finally arrived and with it, Milwaukee Brewers baseball and another summer of sunshine and warmer weather.

Uecker provided the soundtrack for those months, bringing Brewers games to fans as they made their way to summer cottages, enjoyed days on the lake or just relaxing in their own backyards.

This summer, though, will be different after Uecker passed away Thursday at the age of 90, following a brief and private battle with cancer.

“He’s really the heart of Milwaukee baseball,” Brewers owner Mark Attanasio said.

That might be an understatement because in many ways, Uecker epitomizes Milwaukee baseball.

Long before he called his first Brewers came in 1971, the Milwaukee native was a standout prep baseball player for Boys Tech High School. After graduating in 1956, he became the first local player signed by the hometown Milwaukee Braves, who brought him to the big leagues in 1961.

Uecker would spend six seasons in the majors and was part of a St. Louis Cardinals team that won the World Series in 1964. After closing out the 1967 season in Atlanta, where the Braves moved following the 1965 season, Uecker retired and started his broadcast career with WSB-TV.

Milwaukee, though, was always home and Uecker return to the city where he became a scout for the fledgling Brewers franchise, which Bud Selig had brought to town after a one-year run as an expansion team in Seattle.

While scouting wasn’t Uecker’s forte, Selig knew where his friend would shine and sent him up to the broadcast booth where he joined Merle Harmon and Tom Collins, a spot he’d never relinquish.

Along the way, Uecker’s natural gift for entertaining and comedy led to more than 100 appearances on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, who gave Uecker the nickname “Mr. Baseball,” syndicated shows like “Bob Uecker’s Wacky World of Sports,” a starring role in the ABC sitcom “Mr. Belvedere” and starring roles in classic films like “Major League.”

Oh, and enshrinement in baseball’s Hall of Fame.

But no matter where Uecker’s fame led him, he never strayed too far from his hometown and never considered giving up his “real job” with the Brewers, so much so that up until recently, he never worked under a contract.

“Every year we asked,” said president of business operations Rick Schlesinger. “And every year he said, ‘No, a handshake is good enough for me.'”

Uecker called some of the franchise’s greatest moments, including it’s first — and to this date, only — trip to the World Series in 1982 but was also behind the mic during a lot of forgettable years, during which his humor kept fans tuning in every night.

When the franchise’s fortunes started to turn for the better, Uecker was still there helping teach a new generation of players what it meant to play in Milwaukee and brining their successes to a new generation of fans.

“He had the unique ability to relate to all of us,” former Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun said. “He’d lived the game through our eyes. He understood how challenging a season could be at different times. And so to be able to go to him just to talk about life more so than baseball, was something that I think we all looked forward to. The season can get challenging. It can feel stressful at times. I think he was just a source of consistency and calm for all of us, and we valued his opinion, right? He just always had a unique ability to say the right thing, to give good advice, to make you laugh, to not take things as seriously and to just bring joy to our lives.”

The Brewers never made it back to the World Series before Uecker passed away and it will be somewhat bittersweet if they get there without him making the call, but time marches on and as different as it will be, so will the Brewers, who are planning ways to honor their franchise icon this season.

“Bob Uecker is not replaceable,” Attanasio said. “He was a true man of the people, without saying he was a man of people.”