Welcome back to the booth, Mr. Baseball!

When Bob Uecker was on the mend, I came up with an idea to invite him to Time Warner Cable Field for a rehab stint in our radio booth before he got back to Miller Park. He didn't need it.

Mr. Baseball is back in the booth tonight for the Brewers game against the Nationals.

SportsCenter took a break from their Yankees/Red Sox/LeBron coverage to put together a nice video of some top Uecker moments in Milwaukee (Final out of the '82 ALCS, Sveum's homer to beat the Rangers on Easter Sunday in '87, Robin Yount's 3,000th hit, Braun's homer in '08). Unfortunately, I cannot find that video anywhere.

So, here is a video that I stumbled on last night for Rain Delay Theater. Bob Uecker with Howard Cosell in Casey at the Bat.

Why we love Bob Uecker

The man is 75 years old and facing heart surgery. Here is how he opened his press conference announcing that he would miss 10-12 weeks of the baseball season.

"A lot of you don't know, and some do, I have been added to the active roster of the club," said Uecker.

That is the humor that has gotten so many Brewers fans through so many summers over the years.

It didn't matter if the year was 2008, 2000, 1987, 1982, or 1976. We keep coming back to listen to our team because of him.

He is one of the reasons that I love baseball so much.

A summer night on the porch with my dad listening to a west coast game against and struggling to stay awake long enough to hear what George Scott or Darrell Porter would do against the Swingin' A's.

Soon after getting my license driving around in the Chevy Chevette that only had an AM radio and listening to the Rene Lachmann team.

Living up in Superior in the mid 90's and listening to those teams on the affiliate up in the Northwoods and a little piece of home just before or just after the Dukes season.

Take care and get well soon, Mr. Baseball.

Spare a thought for Bob Uecker

Uecker to have heart surgery

Hall of Fame Brewers broadcaster Bob Uecker will undergo heart surgery on Friday and will miss the next 10-12 weeks of games.

The Brewers made the announcement on Tuesday afternoon and plan to provide further details about Uecker's health in a 3:30 p.m. CT press conference at Miller Park.

That conference was supposed to start seven minutes ago.

Checking the twitter feeds of several who are there. Adam McCalvy, Doug Russell, Drew Olson, and Drew Wagner the bottom line is that he will be doing the game tonight and tomorrow. Then, he will have an enlarged aortic artery replaced.

Drew Olson adds this note.

Hoffman, Weeks, McGehee, Counsell, fielder, and Edmonds on hand.

Drew Wagner has this from Mr. Baseball:

"I hope to be back in a very short period of time. I'm looking forward to getting it done and get back to work."

I am thinking good thoughts for one of my broadcasting role models.

Get well and take care, sir.

UPDATE:

Tom Haudricourt has this update after the press conference.

Dr. Jim Klezca of Froedtert Hospital announced that legendary Brewers radio voice Bob Uecker needs the aortic valve in his heart replaced and also a repair of the enlarged aorta.

That surgery will be performed by Dr. Alfred Nicolosi at Froedtert on Friday morning.

Klezca said a heart mumur was detected in a test last September and also the aorta was discovered to be enlarged. The conditions were monitored but they grew worse in recent weeks.

"Something needs to be done," said Klezca, who participated in a news conference at Miller Park along with Uecker.

"He's at high risk of something bad happening."

Klezca said the most recent heart scans "showed the aorta has grown larger. It could potentially rupture before the end of the season."

Uecker said his heart condition had been monitored since last September by Klezca. He said he hoped to wait until after the season but "things changed dramatically" after the team's last road trip.

"I've known about this a long time," said Uecker. "I was given the OK to travel and exercise, everything I do healthwise, but some of the health problems have become a little more evident.

In another century...

...Mike Blowers, a Seattle Mariners radio commentator, would have been burned at the stake as a witch, er, warlock.

Too dark?

How about, in the last century, Houdini would have tried to debunk The Amazing Blowers power of foresight.

Why do I say that?

Click on this link to Shannon Drayer's page for 710 ESPN in Seattle.

The cast of characters are Blowers, Ford C. Frick Award Winner Dave Niehaus, and Matt Tuiasosopo ('05). There are a pair of audio links click them both in order.

Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of pitchers? The Blowers knows.

Thanks to Dan over at The Daily Drink for the tip on this one.

The most accurate description...ever

This is from a story in the Dayton Daily News. The most accurate description ever is of Jeff Brantley and I have highlighted said description in italics.

Jeff Brantley spoke at Fifth Third Field today, Sept. 15, on the concourse of the field where so many current Cincinnati Reds played early in their careers.

Prior to his speech before a group gathered by Progressive Printing for a noontime luncheon, he spoke about some of the former Dayton Dragons now in the big leagues.

He was brutally honest.

He even said as minor leaguers Yonder Alonso (one of the few non Dragons among the prospects) and Juan Francisco develop, if first baseman Joey Votto doesn’t return to mid-year form with his hitting, he’d trade Votto and go with the slightly younger players.

Also an example...

Catcher Ryan Hanigan: “I love his skills. When it’s all said and done, he’s a .250 hitter in the big leagues. He’ll figure out how to knock in runs. If I was pitching to him, he’s not an automatic out. Drew Stubbs is an automatic out. (Shortstop) Paul Janish is an out, from now until the day is over.”

Congratulations, Mr. Kubek

The Prodigal Beat Writer was not at Friday's Timber Rattlers game.

He can be forgiven due to the reason for his absence. He was talking with Tony Kubek about his induction into the Broadcasting wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.

Here is the result.

There's a perception in baseball land that Tony Kubek no longer wants anything to do with our grand game.

That the pastime, once the everything of a dream life glazed with legends and pinstripes and rings and cathedrals, tugged no more at his 72-year-old heart.

That the game was dead, and as such, carried no significance.

You should have heard him on Saturday, gushing and giggling and revering.

"I never fell out of love with it," Kubek said by phone on the eve of his enshrinement into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.

Kubek, an Appleton resident whose entire nine-year major-league career — a glittering resume that includes six World Series appearances and three championships — was spent with the New York Yankees, will be honored today as the recipient of the annual Ford C. Frick Award, which is given to a broadcaster deemed to have made major contributions to baseball.

The award is presented in conjunction with the hallowed Hall's induction ceremony, and Kubek was having a blast reminiscing with old pals, recalling old games and rekindling an old flame.

"The passion from the people who come here for the game of baseball, it's unlimited," said Kubek, whose nearly 30-year broadcasting career included a 24-year stint as an analyst with NBC Sports and its longtime "Game of the Week" series. "Even with all the scabs and sores and the warts and everything else that baseball is going through, they're here to have a good time. This is a marvelous place."

Go. Read.

"I think you'd be crazy not to go for it."

I think that is going to join WWMRD? , "What are you prepared to do?", and "Get off my Lawn" in my pantheon of quote checks that get me out the door in the morning.

Here is where it is from?

When Milwaukee Brewers broadcaster Jim Powell was wondering if he should try for an opening in the Atlanta Braves radio booth, the first person he turned to for advice was his partner of 13 seasons, Bob Uecker.

"He told me, 'I think you'd be crazy not to go for it,' " Powell said.

Tip of the cap to The Daily Drink.

62 dies insquequo Oris Dies

Congratulations, Mr. Kubek

I completely whiffed on this yesterday and I shouldn't have.

Tony Kubek is heading to the Hall of Fame as the latest Ford C. Frick Award Winner.

A former all-star shortstop and AL rookie of the year with the New York Yankees, Kubek became a fixture on NBC's "Game of the Week" telecasts for more than two decades. On Tuesday, he was honored with the Hall of Fame's Ford C. Frick Award.

"I'd like to say it's an award that I've received because of what I did, but (my bosses) share an award like this," Kubek said on a conference call. "An award like this really shouldn't be about one person."

The award is presented annually for major contributions to baseball broadcasting. Kubek, 73, will be honored July 26 during the Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Cooperstown, N.Y.

After retiring following a nine-year playing career, Kubek worked for NBC, the Toronto Blue Jays and the Yankees for 30 years. He was behind the microphone for 11 World Series, 14 AL Championship Series and 10 All-Star Games. He also was the color commentator for the final NBC "Game of the Week" telecast on Sept. 30, 1989.

He has been out of baseball for a few years and is doing just fine.

Kubek quit broadcasting with two years left on his Yankees deal with MSG, a deal that was paying him $525,000 per season at the end.

"It was time to come home," Kubek said.

Kubek said he never seriously considered returning to baseball broadcasting, although there were inquiries about his availability.

"I had a slight overture, which I turned off immediately, from the Milwaukee Brewers," Kubek said. "I did have a call from ESPN. There may have been a few others in there, but I never (took) them seriously."

Kubek, who has five grandchildren, said he had not watched any baseball telecast since he left broadcasting.

"Not being a part of all of it, I didn't want to be part of any of it," Kubek said.

Kubek does admit that he has listened to Brewers games on radio "a couple of times" when he has been in the Upper Peninsula in order to hear Uecker's call "once in a while."

I wish that the article Mike Woods did in the Post-Crescent last year -- and that was highlighted in this post -- was available free on-line. Just click that link in the previous sentence to get an idea of what Tony Kubek has been doing lately.

Again, congratulations to Tony Kubek.

A Dulcet Millennium

Colleague Pat Dillon, whom I have had a chance to get to know, just passed a milestone.

For more than a decade the dulcet tones of Pat Dillon have described the AquaSox action on Everett's radio broadcasts.

And now Dillon can count himself among the members of the millennium club.

Dillon reached a milestone Monday night when he conducted his 1,000th Northwest League broadcast.

"It's tough to think it's been that long," Dillon said. "It just means I've been around a long time. It's been enjoyable and I really couldn't see myself doing anything else."

Neither can I, Pat. Congratulations.

Although every time I see the word Millennium, I think of the vastly underrated Chris Carter television show:

I've got all three seasons on DVD.