Milwaukee Theater Will Offer Special Screening of 'Major League' Thursday, in Honor of Bob Uecker

We're all still grieving the loss of Bob Uecker last week, and on Thursday night, Avalon Atmospheric Theater in Milwaukee will give fans a chance to concelebrate him one more time in a fun way. They're holding a special screening of Major League at 7 PM. 

Never was Ueck's wit and comedic brilliance more boldly displayed than in the movie, in which he got to play some version of himself—with everything shaded just a hair more wry, cynical, and silly. His manipulation of a radio audience blind to the real action ("Juust a bit outside," in the most indelible case) was hilarious on multiple levels, not the least of which was that it reflected a real habit of many play-by-play announcers in a time when fewer games were available on TV. Meanwhile, the hard-bitten and occasionally cruel character he shaped for himself was a key part of the movie's acerbity and a vaccine against the tendency of almost all sports movies to be a bit too saccharine.

Yet, Uecker also narrated key sequences of game action, and the way he settled into a very authentic facsimile of his own work calling real games heightened the film's veracity and sharpened all of its best features in the process. The baseball comedy would have been diminished both in its baseball value and its comedic value if anyone else were to take Uecker's place in the role of Harry Doyle.

Tickets to the show at the Avalon can be purchased here.