'This One's for Ueck': Yelich and the Brewers Dedicate Their First World Series Title to Bob Uecker
Milwaukee's first championship came with a name attached. Captain Christian Yelich dedicated the Brewers' 4-1 Game 5 win over Tampa Bay to Bob Uecker, the voice of the franchise for 54 years, who died in January 2025 at 90 — a year and a half before the title he never got to call.
The Brewers' first World Series title was barely minutes old when their captain gave it a dedication. 'He's smiling, man,' Christian Yelich told Ken Rosenthal on the Fox broadcast after Wednesday's 4-1 Game 5 win over Tampa Bay. 'I really wish he could have been here to see this. It would have meant everything to him, but we said a bunch, he's been with us a lot. We keep him close to our hearts, and this one's still for Bob and still for Ueck.'
Bob Uecker was the voice of the Brewers for 54 years — 'Mr. Baseball' to generations of Milwaukee fans — and he died on January 16, 2025, at age 90, after a private battle with cancer, the New York Post reported. He never called a Brewers championship. On Wednesday, before the first pitch, fans left beer cans at his statue, and after the final out Hall of Famer CC Sabathia, who pitched for Milwaukee in 2008, posted his own tribute: 'Bob Uecker smiling down.'
Manager Pat Murphy, whose postgame messages to the team from Uecker became a postseason staple, echoed Yelich from the victory podium. 'I know the man Ueck upstairs is looking down,' Murphy said, in remarks carried by USA TODAY. 'I think about the city of Milwaukee, the state of Wisconsin. They pushed us through.'
It is the human footnote to a dominant October — an 11-2 Brewers run to a 4-1 series win — and for a small-market franchise that waited 58 seasons, the championship arrived dedicated to the broadcaster who narrated most of the waiting.
