He was Mr. Baseball, the voice of the Milwaukee Brewers and a Milwaukee personality who means so much to generations of Wisconsinites. Weaving play-by-play with hilarious (and often embellished) stories of his past, Uecker wasn't simply a broadcaster; he was an entertainer.

Uecker died Thursday the age of 90 , the Brewers announced. After more than a half century serving as the voice and central figure of Milwaukee Brewers baseball, the announcement came just 10 days shy of his 91st birthday.

The entertainer's reach wasn't just contained to the Dairy State. Uecker's comedic sensibilities have a place in the national consciousness, often on television. He's had an iconic role in an unforgettable sports-comedy movie, appeared on TV shows and during commercial breaks, and he's done it all while keeping baseball at the heart of it all.

Take a stroll through Uecker's portfolio of pop culture.

'The easiest way to catch a knuckleball was to wait until it stopped rolling and just pick it up:' Bob Uecker was a character even as a player

Bob Uecker was a comedian even during his playing days.

The native of Milwaukee signed his first professional contract with the hometown Braves in 1956 and began his big-league career in 1962. The career backup catcher was sent down to the minors in 1961 because manager Charlie Dressen told him, "There is no room in baseball for a clown" (at least, that's how Uecker tells the story in his book, Catcher in the Wry).

Uecker, famously self-deprecating about his playing days, still had a reputation as a solid defensive catcher. When future Hall of Fame knuckleballer Phil Niekro had trouble finding a reliable backstop for his dancing pitch with the Atlanta Braves, the organization re-acquired Uecker from the Phillies in 1967 , and Niekro's ERA dropped from 4.11 in 1966 to 1.87 in 1967.

“Catching Niekro’s knuckleball was great," Uecker is quoted as saying on Niekro's Hall of Fame page . "I got to meet a lot of important people. They all sit behind home plate.”

Even in the biggest moment of his MLB life, with St. Louis playing the Yankees in the 1964 World Series, Uecker found time for shenanigans. He picked up a marching-band tuba that had been set down in the outfield and carried it around while shagging pop flies — sometimes into the tuba itself — all in full uniform. Uecker was fined $265 for the stunt.

As for the Series itself, Uecker once said he "sat his way through it" — starting catcher Tim McCarver played every inning of the seven-game set.

Uecker's playing days only lasted from 1962-67, but the stories live forever, re-told countless times on the air during Brewers broadcasts, and they often feature some of the biggest names in baseball history.

He has said he was worried his home run off Sandy Koufax might keep Koufax out of the Hall of Fame (it didn't, nor did it keep Gaylord Perry or Ferguson Jenkins out, even though Uecker homered off those guys, too).

He said Philadelphia manager Gene Mauch would summon Uecker into a pinch hitting appearance so he could kill the Phillies' rally and keep the game moving.

In the spring of 1965, he said his name was called during the Cardinals' World Series ring ceremony and the ring was thrown out into left field in the general direction of Uecker, who was in the bullpen catching that day's starting pitcher.

"I had a great shoe contract and glove contract with a company who paid me a lot of money never to be seen using their stuff," Uecker joked during his Hall of Fame induction.

Though baseball has harbored a time-honored tradition of calling a .200 batting average "the Mendoza line," most baseball fans are aware that the eponymous Mario Mendoza actually batted better than that, a career .215 hitter. But Uecker hit a .200 career batting average right on the nose.

"I'd set records that will never be equaled, 90% I hope are never printed." Uecker said in the same Hall of Fame speech. "(A) .200 lifetime batting average in the major leagues, which tied me with another sports great averaging 200 or better for a ten-year period, Don Carter, one of our top bowlers."

'My nightclub routine may have been what cost me the job:' Bob Uecker's transition to the booth

The Braves released Uecker in 1968 , and the organization insisted it wasn't a punishment. But it was notable that Uecker had been involved in a bar altercation.

In an Associated Press report that appeared April 3, 1968, in the Milwaukee Sentinel, Braves manager Luman Harris was quoted as saying a nightclub incident had nothing to do with the decision, though it left Uecker, then age 33, with a cut in his eye "when he was hit by a beer bottle during a row in a West Palm Beach cocktail lounge."

That same spring, he also aggravated an injury that he suffered in a motorcycle accident, and the Braves were ready to move on, but not entirely. They hired him as a public relations ambassador for 1968.

In 1969, Uecker’s broadcasting career began. At WSB-TV, he worked with legends Ernie Johnson (father of famed TNT broadcaster Ernie Johnson) and Milo Hamilton. He also dabbled in stand-up comedy in the late 1960s, and according to the SABR Baseball bio project , "his career as a personality in television and movies took off after he did an opening act for Don Rickles at jazzman Al Hirt’s Atlanta nightclub."

'In many ways I think he's the funniest man I've ever met:' Bob Uecker and Johnny Carson

Hirt gave a recommendation to celebrated "The Tonight Show" host Johnny Carson, and beginning in 1970, Uecker made close to 100 appearances on Carson’s showt to doing three to five shows a year.

His delivery evolved from matter-of-fact deadpan to something more energetic, but he and Carson cultivated a hilarious on-air brew.

It was Carson, who himself didn't know much about baseball, who gave Uecker the nickname "Mr. Baseball." Former NBC president Dick Ebersol relayed in an MLB Network special about Uecker that Carson once told him, "In many ways, I think he's the funniest man I ever met."

The exposure gave Uecker national recognition and served as a springboard to other opportunities in media. That included some broadcasting gigs, like the chance to work ABC's "Monday Night Baseball" TV broadcasts with Howard Cosell and Al Michaels.

'I must be in the front row:' Bob Uecker and the Miller Lite commercials

As high profile as his appearances were in places like "The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson," the movie "Major League" and TV show Mr. Belvedere, few things became omnipresent in the zeitgeist like his "front row" Miller Lite commercial.

The series of spots for Miller, a product produced in his hometown of Milwaukee, mostly had the same premise: Believing himself to be a celebrity, Uecker is oblivious to his presence in public achieving disgust instead of adoration. When he sits down in what he believes are his high-priced seats at a baseball game, he's immediately asked to leave by an usher, which he takes as an indication that, "I must be in the front row."

Instead, he's banished to farthest reaches of the upper deck, which doesn't stop him from shouting toward the field, "He missed the tag! He missed the tag!"

"I must be in the front row" became just as popular as his home-run catch phrase, "Get up, get up, get outta here, gone."

For the advertisements to happen, Uecker and Brewers owner Allan H. "Bud" Selig had to discuss the idea with Pabst, the beer company that sponsored the Brewers at the time. Unable to offer something that matched Miller Lite, Uecker was able to go rogue as a pitchman . Miller, of course, would eventually become a sponsor for the Brewers, anyway.

It became the inspiration for a statue at American Family Field, where Uecker is perched in a seat literally in the back row of the stadium. When Miller Park opened, the restaurant chain TGI Friday's operated "Friday's Front Row" restaurant in the left field corner for years.

The commercial also caught the attention of director David S. Ward, the writer and director of "Major League."

'Belvedere, it's your fault:' Bob Uecker on 'Mr. Belvedere'

But before we get to the immortal Harry Doyle, we have another fictional sports media person to discuss: George Owens.

In 1985, Uecker began playing the patriarch of a family on the TV show "Mr. Belvedere," which ran on ABC from 1985 to 1990. In the show, Owens (a Pittsburgh sports writer) hires an English live-in butler, Lynn Belvedere (played by Christopher Hewitt), to help manage the family.

The Brewers granted Uecker permission to shoot episodes in late summer and early fall, and he was able to continue making appearances with Johnny Carson and film Miller Lite commercials, but it did keep him from working a full slate of Brewers games on the radio. It turned out Uecker's next project would be filmed closer to home at Milwaukee County Stadium.

' Juuuuust a bit outside:' Bob Uecker quotes from 'Major League'

In the summer of 1988, the iconic comedy "Major League" filmed at Milwaukee County Stadium, albeit featuring a different team (Cleveland) from the squad that normally called the venue home. The man behind the mic, however, was the same. Uecker portrayed the disaffected and unpredictable Harry Doyle, who has no qualms giving his honest assessment of the flailing home team.

The film became regarded as one of the best sports comedies of all time, and Doyle's character became essential to the storyline. In Milwaukee, where extras gathered at County Stadium late into the night to shoot some of the movie's baseball scenes, the movie essentially became a local artifact. Uecker reprised his role in "Major League II" and the far less-celebrated "Major League: Back to the Minors."

'How about getting your foot off my shoulder?' Bob Uecker and WrestleMania

In March of 1987, Uecker served as ringside announcer for WrestleMania III in Pontiac, Michigan, outside of Detroit. The World Wrestling Federation indicated that more than 90,000 people attended the event (a tally that has been met with skepticism in years since ), but that 93,173 in the building would have marked the largest in-person crowd for a sporting event, and that mark stood for a quarter century.

Uecker was back in 1988 at WrestleMania IV, in Atlantic City, and this time he was a ringside announcer and backstage interviewer. The latter role led to a famous segment with wrestler André the Giant choking Uecker.

The appearances were memorable enough that Uecker was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2010. It's far from his only Hall of Fame induction; he belongs to the National Radio Hall of Fame, the National Sports Media Hall of Fame and, of course, has a place at the National Baseball Hall of Fame. In 2003, Uecker was presented with the Ford C. Frick Award honoring a broadcaster for major contributions to baseball.

'This conglomeration of greats that are here today, a lot of them were teammates, but they won't admit it:' Quotes from Bob Uecker's Hall of Fame speech

His speech in Cooperstown, New York, essentially became an 18-minute stand up special. For those familiar with his Brewers broadcasts, it was like a greatest hits collection, with a dash of new material for good measure.

Again, Uecker's presentation featured a series of one-liners and, finally, some earnestness.

'Get up, get up, get outta here, gone:' The other places we find Bob Uecker