It is going to take a long time for Milwaukee Brewers fans to get past the pain of losing Bob Uecker. The announcement of Uecker's passing earlier this offseason was a true gut punch and made baseball fans at large heart-sick. He was Brewers baseball and for many even outside of Milwaukee, he was an icon for which there just is no replacement.
Knowingly or not, sports fans value the familiarity of their broadcasts as it becomes the soundtrack of their fandoms. Yes, the players and teams matter the most and they should be, but Brewers games are just not going to "feel" the same way now that Uecker is no longer on the call cracking jokes and telling stories from his rich life in baseball.
Brewers manager Pat Murphy seems to feel the same way. In comments to the team down at spring training, Murphy made sure to remind the team of how important Uecker was to the organization and how dearly he will be missed.
βIt wonβt be easy going on without him, but we can remember he is a πΉπ²π΄π²π»π±.β
β Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) February 18, 2025
Go inside the clubhouse for Pat Murphyβs emotional tribute to Bob Uecker π pic.twitter.com/iukJccELha
Pat Murphy gives loving tribute to Bob Uecker to Brewers down at spring training
First of all, good on Murphy for making sure to take the time to address the team ahead of the season to remind them what they lost in Uecker. There is no good or bad way to grieve necessarily, but taking some time to acknowledge the elephant in the room that is weighing heavily on everyone and trying to use it as fuel to get through what will be a tough season without Uecker just felt perfect for the moment.
However, that doesn't mean it wasn't painful. Murphy talking about Uecker wanting to stay with the Brewers despite having more financially lucrative opportunities and how he just wanted to be one of the guys in the clubhouse truly hurt. Uecker was a Milwaukee Brewer through and through and it is hard to chart a path forward knowing that he won't be around.
Uecker's last playoff series in 2024 ended far sooner than anyone wanted and it is a true shame that he did not live to see Milwaukee make a deep postseason run again. One just hopes that the Brewers as a team take his memory in 2025 and use it as added motivation to get where Uecker desperately wanted them to go every single year.