"Made him laugh like hell"
And that's probably all there is to the impetus of the team photo goof between Uecker and Bob Gibson there--guys being dudes. But it's also 1964.
I think the first nonfiction sports book I ever read was a paperback of Bob Uecker’s autobiography Catcher in the Wry in the basement storage area at the house I grew up in. What drew me to it, I recall, was a middle section of photos from his playing days, all with captions that were hilarious even to a grade-schooler like me. One such as a pic of Uecker being tagged out sliding at home with a caption (paraphrasing from memory): "Trying to score from second on a triple. Out on a close play."
Uecker passed away today at age 90. His whole vibe has always been a bigger-than-the-game thing, in part because he was admittedly mediocre as a player yet his humor catapulted him to TV and film roles while being a consistent presence in the broadcast booth for the Milwaukee Brewers through the 2024 season. He was a classic Carson guest, delighted the likes of Norm MacDonald, and portrayed, of course, the iconic Harry Doyle. For decades, Uecker was the antithesis of a sport still trying to shed an antiquated stuffiness of "unwritten rules" and "the right way to play the game."
There's another photo of him in his playing days that stands out. The 1964 St. Louis Cardinals team photo–the first attempt--features Uecker holding hands with a teammate known for a fierce competitiveness that bled into an inaccurate assumption that the man himself was as icy off the mound as on it.
It's an objectively hilarious photo, perhaps funnier knowing the team had to retake it after the hand-holding was caught only just before the team was ready to distribute the picture, two junior high pals having sabotaged Picture Day (they both got fined for it). Uecker was funny to the point that he could get Gibson to break intensity during a game while the rest of the Major Leagues were terrified of the pitcher. Another interaction between the two goes:
Gibby would never tolerate any catcher taking a walk to the mound, even Tim McCarver, who was once told by Gibson, "Get back behind the plate. What do you know about pitching?"
But that isn't going to deter a scrub like Uke, no-siree. He walks straight to the mound to confront the most intimidating glare ever from a pitcher, one that would turn even Barry Bonds to jelly. Gibson burns lasers through Uecker and demands, "What the hell do you want?" "I said 'nothing. I'm going out to see Curt Flood in center field.' That's my Gibson story," Uecker said. "Made him laugh like hell."
And that's probably all there is to the impetus of the team photo goof between Uecker and Bob Gibson there--guys being dudes.
But it's also 1964. It's Missouri. It's two men in an idealized uber-masculine profession.
"Guess Who's Coming to Pitch?" Johnny Carson remarked when Uecker described the photo during one Tonight Show appearance.
A joke is often much more than itself, intentional or not. RIP, Uke.
