My dad has a tiny little radio, upright, leather wrist-strap. It’s at least 40 years old and spotted with paint from having sat on dozens of ladders while he painted the house. On baseball afternoons he put the radio on his nightstand and would nap beside it, and sometimes I could climb in bed, too, and we could listen to this voice together:
I grew up loving the Brewers, hating the Yankees (“bunch of millionaires,” said my father, with disdain), and laughing at the Cubs, whose fans Dad still loves to mock on sports radio the morning after a loss. I grew up loving the Brewers no matter how terrible they were, and they were terrible. Went to one series in 1982, lost, and then into the wilderness for the next two and a half decades, while Uecker tried to find something else to talk about:
If the cause is lost, Uke tries to get you lost in something else. Sometimes he starts early, such as on July 4, 2007, after Uecker stumbled upon a convention of animal-costume fetishists at the Pittsburgh Westin, where the Brewers were staying. Uecker, his then partner Jim Powell recalls, “was like a kid on Christmas morning.” The game had barely begun when they went on a 15-minute digression:
“Furrier Society, I believe it is,” Uecker said. After putting the topic on hold to call a Braun home run, he resumed: “That’s no big deal, that’s what they feel. They wear animal costumes because they feel a little animalish. And I’ve felt that way myself a couple of times. I haven’t dressed up for it. I’ve worn a fig leaf or two.” Later Uecker emitted a sort of bird whoop and directed Powell to provide listeners with a website for more information on the Furry movement. Presumably this is the first time “alt dot lifestyle dot furry” was said during a major league broadcast.
Usually the one thing you could count on as a Brewers fan was being able to tune baseball basically out by mid-July, start making mental space for the NFL. This year took me entirely by surprise.
I have never watched any of these boys before but they are now my children. https://t.co/nnYRBJeuoZ
— Allison Hantschel Has Always Lived In The Castle (@Athenae) October 1, 2018
I really want them to win it all this time. That voice of my childhood is still at it, and my dad’s still listening.
A.
Astros – Brewers in the World Series!!!
As a displaced Bostonian living in Wisconsin, I’ve got to say that I _love_ the Brewers. They are loose, fun, have an awesome bullpen, and an honest-to-goodness MVP candidate in Yellich. Although the Red Sox are my home team, I would be perfectly happy with a Brewers World Series victory.
My late father was a beer vendor in the Milwaukee parks for years, through the first Brewers, then the Braves and then the new Brewers. I hope he’s watching from somewhere.