The Case for a Grassroots Movement to Call Brewers' Home 'Uecker Field' Forever

[Matthew Trueblood]

Image courtesy of © Mike De Sisti / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

I'm a big believer in calling people what they ask to be called. Without wading into unwelcome political or cultural debates, it's a fairly simple bit of courtesy to use, for another person, the name they assign themselves. A name is a thing that matters, and to most people, theirs is sacred.

Imagine, though, that you met a person like the kids in that new commercial for some investment outfit, whose parents sold their naming rights ahead of graduation. Or imagine that you met the obnoxious "Capital One Bank Guy" on the street. In those cases, the above does not apply, because those names were purchased. Once a name is paid for, it's no longer a thing of unassailable integrity. Quite apart from being sacred, it's become a vulgarity. Unless you're one of the parties who agreed to be paid to call that bearded nightmare "Capital One Bank Guy," I exhort you not to. If you meet him on the street, please call him the Discover Dude or Bank One Bobby or something, just to tweak him and the company trying to shove him down our throats.

Now, we come to Milwaukee, and to the place where tens of thousands will gather Sunday to remember and celebrate the life of Bob Uecker, who gave 55 years to the Brewers and is their talisman even now. As they arrive, many fans will pass the statue of Uecker outside the stadium. Once inside, others will flock up to the statue of him inside, up near the rafters. Almost all fans will, at some point before the game starts, pass their eyes over those words out beyond left field: "Get up, Get up, Get Outta Here, Gone!" The place is replete with Uecker, because he's the backbone of this organization—more than Bud Selig ever was, more than Robin Yount, more than Bernie Brewer himself.

Officially, the name of that stadium is American Family Field (changed a few years ago from the more fitting but equally soulless Miller Park), but that's not a name you're obligated to use. The Brewers receive $4 million per year from American Family Insurance (not even that much, by the standards of such deals; the only thing worse than putting your own identity up for sale is selling it cheap) to call their home park that, but you're not getting a penny of that. Thus, I'll renew a call I've made several times now: Brewers fans should simply call that place Uecker Field, or The Ueck.

If names are meant to be sacred, and the home park of a winning team with a strong attachment to its community should be hallowed ground, then why not attach to that park the most sacred name this team has in its annals? Even when the park was named after a beer company, which made such tidy sense and fit the motif better, it was Uecker who defined the place. Now that the team has taken more money to go even more corporate and more anodyne, why not reject the whole framework and embrace the power of a name as one more way to consecrate the park, the man who so enlivened it, and the bridge he formed between the fans and the team itself?

I don't spend much of my baseball-writing time in commentary mode; I prefer analysis and on-field breakdowns. It's the game I love; the rest is ancillary. Precisely because Uecker was the same way, though—because his genius as a comedian at the microphone and as an almost undetectable advertiser laid in the fact that his real reverence was for the game—I want to see a real push to abandon most people's use of the official names (past or present) of the place. The Brewers can call it whatever they want, and will (presumably) continue to call it whatever someone pays them most handsomely to call it. Fans don't have to force an official change; they can just start using a different and better moniker. It should, rightfully, be Uecker Field, forever.

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[keephopealive]

I love calling the field the Ueck. But as a complete side point on the lead in: Names are overwhelmingly not things we assign ourselves. Names are what other people call us. In a world of one, there would be no need for names, and until modern ages where we fill out countless forms and contracts, people had very little need to use their own name.  We receive names from our parents, and as babies, others have a sense of who we are before we do.  Even historically, this is the case.  Last names are useful for other people to further distinguish who we are and so they are inherited. We either inherit a noble family name, or were described in reference to our parents (father), or in reference to our occupation. And the fact that different groups can call people different names attests to the concept as well: Nicknames are not something we assign ourselves, as George Costanza reminded us of in the T-Bone incident. The whole concept of names is consistent with calling the field the Ueck. The name of something is what people call it. 

[Oxy]

Uecker called Bud Selig "Alfalfa".

[BrewerFan]

Quote

because he's the backbone of this organization—more than Bud Selig ever was, more than Robin Yount, more than Bernie Brewer himself.

I don't know about the original point. You can call the field what you want. I think most people still prefer Miller Park. I think calling it Uecker Field is... going to be a little odd and unlikely to catch on as... it was never called Uecker Field.

 

But I do KINDA take issue with this statement. Yeah, Uecker was the most well known and one of the most revered Men in Baseball history. He's not the guy who went and pulled the franchise from Seattle and then fought to keep it here. 

 

He's... loved. That what is important. I don't think you need to parse out who is more important or the "backbone" between he and Selig as I'd argue as important as Uecker was, there's no Bob Uecker in Milwaukee without Selig, no Yount and I Bernie is a mascot. He passes retires, we don't notice. 

 

Being loved and remembered as Uecker will is...enough, no? Grand Gestures are nice, but... it's how people remember you that is important. Uecker field or AmFam or Miller Park, we all will remember Uecker and he'll always be loved in Wisconsin as... perhaps the biggest personality to come out of the state and Mr. Baseball.

[SF70]

3 hours ago, BrewerFan said:

I don't know about the original point. You can call the field what you want. I think most people still prefer Miller Park. I think calling it Uecker Field is... going to be a little odd and unlikely to catch on as... it was never called Uecker Field.

 

But I do KINDA take issue with this statement. Yeah, Uecker was the most well known and one of the most revered Men in Baseball history. He's not the guy who went and pulled the franchise from Seattle and then fought to keep it here. 

 

He's... loved. That what is important. I don't think you need to parse out who is more important or the "backbone" between he and Selig as I'd argue as important as Uecker was, there's no Bob Uecker in Milwaukee without Selig, no Yount and I Bernie is a mascot. He passes retires, we don't notice. 

 

Being loved and remembered as Uecker will is...enough, no? Grand Gestures are nice, but... it's how people remember you that is important. Uecker field or AmFam or Miller Park, we all will remember Uecker and he'll always be loved in Wisconsin as... perhaps the biggest personality to come out of the state and Mr. Baseball.

No one can top what Selig did with creating the Brewers and then saving the franchise getting MP built and revenue-sharing for the small-market teams, so I agree with your take here completely.

For Attanasio to forgo naming-rights revenue seems too much to ask of him anyhow. 

[Ignitor4]

I think something more fitting would be for the stadium audio board director hit a button of Uecker’s homer call right after they hit one while they player is rounding the bases. 
 

would be a great way for families to talk about who that voice is to their kids or others that aren’t familiar as they years pass. 

[Trail]

No.  There is only one name.  Selig.  The man that brought baseball back to Milwaukee...the man who kept it here...the man who got the stadium built.  He was at the game Sunday, and looks ok for 91, but how long will we have him?  Ueck was great...miss him a lot.  Selig is the reason we have baseball here.  Lets not forget that.  Selig Field @ American Family Stadium.  Lets do it sooner rather than later. 

[AKCheesehead]

3 hours ago, Ignitor4 said:

I think something more fitting would be for the stadium audio board director hit a button of Uecker’s homer call right after they hit one while they player is rounding the bases. 
 

would be a great way for families to talk about who that voice is to their kids or others that aren’t familiar as they years pass. 

That could be quite entertaining.  Especiallly if the sound bite was the "Get up! Get up! Get outta here and..." then hit the button for "GONE!!!" or conversely, if it didn't quite get out then hit the button for Ueck's "Caught on the warning track."  My, how many times I was listening on the radio and got excited only to have that sad outcome 🤣

[BrewerFan]

20 hours ago, Trail said:

No.  There is only one name.  Selig.  The man that brought baseball back to Milwaukee...the man who kept it here...the man who got the stadium built.  He was at the game Sunday, and looks ok for 91, but how long will we have him?  Ueck was great...miss him a lot.  Selig is the reason we have baseball here.  Lets not forget that.  Selig Field @ American Family Stadium.  Lets do it sooner rather than later. 

Yeah, I love Selig. I said as much. 

I'm still not for changing the name of the stadium, but... it would be nice to honor him. So many fans who are just normal fans. Not going to trash them, but they don't really understand what he did in terms of revenue sharing and the draft, how smaller markets get money, etc...

But I don't know if that'd work no matter what. 

22 hours ago, Ignitor4 said:

I think something more fitting would be for the stadium audio board director hit a button of Uecker’s homer call right after they hit one while they player is rounding the bases. 
 

would be a great way for families to talk about who that voice is to their kids or others that aren’t familiar as they years pass. 

That'd be pretty cool. Just the 'Get up, get out of here...' as the players are rounding the bases.