Bob Uecker was a famously mediocre Major League hitter who discovered that he was much more comfortable at a microphone than home plate. And that was just the start of a second career in entertainment that reached far beyond the ballpark.

Bob Uecker, whose self-deprecating wit helped him parlay a mediocre baseball career into stardom as a broadcaster, actor and pitchman for beer from his hometown of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, died on Thursday at age 90,

It must have been a local show, a tape-delayed interview, a game show, something. All I remember is my dad drawing my attention to the man on the TV. “He was a baseball player, but he was really bad,