'Juuuust a bit outside!' Uecker's acting and broadcasting ability came together in 'Major League'

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'Juuuust a bit outside!' Uecker's acting and broadcasting ability came together in 'Major League'

2025-01-17 19:00 Last Updated At：19:21

Two of Bob Uecker's claims to fame — baseball and acting — came together brilliantly in one famous line:

“Juuuust a bit outside!”

Milwaukee fans could listen to Uecker broadcast Brewers games for over a half-century, but he showed off his play-by-play skills — and comedic talent — for more of a national audience when he appeared in the 1989 classic “Major League” as Cleveland announcer Harry Doyle.

“He made Harry Doyle the character it was," David S. Ward, the movie's director, said Thursday night. "In a way, he was kind of a narrator of the movie almost. The attitude he carried sort of infused the whole movie with a kind of comic irreverence.”

The Brewers announced Uecker's death at age 90 on Thursday morning. The Hall of Fame broadcaster's family said he had battled small cell lung cancer since early 2023.

Uecker’s acting career also included his role on the ABC sitcom “Mr. Belvedere.”

“He was just a terrific man. He was funny, he was positive. He just had a certain spring in his walk, just a bundle of good energy,” Ward said. "His comic ability sometimes hid the fact that he was a very disciplined and very intelligent man. You could talk to him about anything. He was well versed in many areas of culture and events. It just wasn't all baseball. But when it came to baseball, obviously he was an icon."

Like many of the characters that made “Major League” a hit, Doyle was a caricature, wearing his hopes and frustrations on his sleeve as the home team bumbled through the start of the season and then stormed into contention. Uecker's deadpanned delivery made his lines particularly humorous — and added some authenticity to the baseball scenes.

“Once I started writing it, I really couldn’t think of anyone else to do it," Ward said. "I don’t know what I would have done if we didn’t get him.”

At one point in the movie, Ricky Vaughn — played by Charlie Sheen — threw a pitch so far outside it smacked off the backstop behind the plate. In an effort to sanitize the erratic right-hander's performance for the local fans, Doyle called the pitch thusly: “Juuuust a bit outside! He tried the corner and missed.”

“He added the ‘tried the corner and missed.’ We’re shooting it and he says the line and then he adds that, and I go, ‘That is the perfect cherry on top of the sundae.’" Ward said. "People remember it because of the way Uecker said it, not because of the way I wrote it. Nobody could have said it the way he said it, and then added the line afterward that just made the landing even better.”

Uecker's wit not only added to the movie, but it made him popular behind the scenes with the rest of the actors.

“He never had scenes with the other actors. He was always in the booth," Ward said. "The other actors would come to set on the days that he was shooting, just because they wanted to be around him and the whole sort of comic and carefree kind of aura that he brought to anything. ... That's rare. Usually actors want to take advantage of those days off.”

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB

Sofia Goggia gets overdue World Cup win in super-G and Lindsey Vonn is third

VAL D'ISERE, France (AP) — Lindsey Vonn heads to Aspen for the holidays happy with another good result Sunday, standing on the podium for a fourth time in five World Cup races to complete an impressive first act of her Olympic season at age 41.

Vonn was third in a super-G won by Sofia Goggia, who finally got a deserved first win this season one day after tears flowed when she wasted a fast start in a downhill and finished eighth.

“I really felt a lot of pain in my heart for the (chance) I threw away,” Goggia said, revealing she had cried for an hour at her hotel Saturday.

The two former Olympic downhill champions — and biggest personalities in women's speed races — were split on a high-class podium Sunday by runner-up Alice Robinson, who is already a two-time winner this season on the World Cup circuit.

Goggia finished 0.15 seconds ahead of Robinson, who started before strong gusts delayed the race for 10 minutes.

Vonn then hit a high speed of 115 kph (71 mph) but the ideal racing line was elusive and she finished 0.36 behind Goggia.

“I was happy with my skiing today," Vonn told Swiss broadcaster RSI. “Sofia put an amazing run together and I knew it was going to be hard to beat her.”

Vonn’s second consecutive podium finish — after an impressive third in Saturday’s downhill — was the 142nd of her storied World Cup career. It resumed exactly one year ago after a five-season retirement to target the Milan Cortina Olympics that start on Feb. 6.

Vonn’s intense start to her World Cup season now reads one win, four podiums and a fourth place in five races across 10 days.

“I can’t be too upset with that,” the United States star said smiling. “Last year was really up and down and I had some pretty low points, nothing was really working.

"This year it’s working. I’m making mistakes and I’m still on the podium and that’s a totally different ballgame than where I was last year.”

Vonn now takes a three-week break from racing until a Jan. 10 downhill at Altenmarkt-Zauchensee in Austria.

“I’m going to go to Aspen with my sister,” Vonn said of her travel plans. “Have some time off, hit the gym, recharge and then I’ll come back over here (to Europe) for training.”

Both Vonn and Goggia had looked pensive in the finish area knowing their times could have been faster before sharing a hug.

“I thought (my time) wouldn’t have lasted for the victory, maybe not even for the podium,” Goggia said later. “I’m glad I was wrong.”

Goggia had an extra moment of anxiety sitting in the leader’s box when unheralded No. 27 starter Camille Cerutti carried the fastest time though the third of five time splits. Cerutti, who turns 27 Monday, eventually posted a career-best fifth place nearly a half-second behind Vonn.

The 33-year-old Italian’s 27th career World Cup win was her eighth in super-G.

Goggia has skied fast this season but her best results had been a pair of third places at St. Moritz, in downhill and a super-G won by Robinson in a tight race last Sunday where Vonn was fourth.

Vonn's downhill win at St. Moritz last weekend was her 83rd in World Cup racing that started for her in November 2000, before the 24-year-old Robinson was born.

Robinson earned 80 World Cup points for her second place Sunday, and closed the gap in the overall standings to 74 behind Mikaela Shiffrin, who rarely starts in super-G.

Shiffrin's pursuit of a record-tying sixth overall World Cup title should resume next weekend in Austria, where a giant slalom and slalom are scheduled at Semmering. Austrian downhill great Annemarie Moser-Pröll won six overall titles in the 1970s and Vonn has four.

AP Olympics coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics