Brewers Hall of Fame radio voice Bob Uecker said on Newsradio WTMJ 620 Thursday morning that he will be cutting back on some of his road broadcasts during the 2014 season.
Uecker, who said on Sunday at the "Brewers On Deck" fan event that he turned 80 that day, not 79 as listed (he said his listed birth year of 1935 was wrong), has been doing radio broadcasts for the Brewers since 1971. He had some medical setbacks in recent years, including heart surgery, but never suggested he would cut back his schedule until now.
Uecker told Gene Mueller and Greg Matzek on WTMJ that he had been encouraged by owner Mark Attanasio and others to cut back a bit on his workload on the road but had declined to do so until now. He wasn't specific about how many games he will cut back and there was no talk about who would fill in for him to do radio broadcasts with Joe Block.
Uecker said he still planned to do all of the home games at Miller Park, so this is specifically a cutback on his travel with the team.
"Fifty-nine years (in baseball) is going to be enough where I think I want to kick back and relax a little bit," Uecker told Mueller and Matzek. "I'm going to make some of the trips but I'm going to spend most of my time, probably, at Miller Park doing the home games. The west coast trips, I think I'm going to kind of cut back on.
"Mark, he's been telling me the last five years I should cut back, take some time off. I never really wanted to do it. I always enjoyed the trips, being around the guys."
Uecker made it clear that this is not the first step toward retirement.
"Until I have problems getting around -- and I don't have any problems -- I'm going to stick around (broadcasting) and enjoy it," he said.
