Bob Uecker’s voice will not be on the call when the Brewers open the World Series against the Rays, but his presence will be unmistakable inside American Family Field. Milwaukee’s radio crew plans to carry a piece of its late broadcast icon into Game 1 on Friday night.
Quick facts
- Brewers-Rays World Series Game 1 is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET.
- FOX, FOX Deportes and FOX One will carry the television broadcast.
- Jeff Levering and three other members of Milwaukee’s radio booth will wear jackets once owned by Bob Uecker.
- Uecker called Brewers games for more than 50 years before his death in 2025 at age 90.
Levering appeared on MLB Central wearing one of Uecker’s familiar jackets, a coat Uecker wore during his many appearances with Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show. For the World Series opener, Levering said four people in the booth will wear jackets from Uecker’s collection.
The gesture fits a postseason that has kept Uecker close to the club and its city. Levering said it is impossible to move around Milwaukee without being reminded of Uecker, calling him inseparable from Brewers baseball.
Uecker had been the sound of the franchise for generations, working Brewers broadcasts for more than five decades. His death at 90 in 2025 left a permanent silence in the booth, but Milwaukee’s run to the World Series has brought his memory back into every major moment.
Levering already delivered a tribute of his own when the Brewers clinched their first National League pennant in 44 years last week. That call became one of the defining sounds of the celebration, carrying the emotion of a franchise that had waited decades to return to the Fall Classic.
Now comes the chance Milwaukee has never had before: its first World Series title. If the Brewers finish the job against Tampa Bay, Uecker’s jackets in the radio booth will stand as one more reminder that the club’s most enduring voice remains part of the October picture.
