Every now and again, life must imitate art. Such as the case with this year’s storybook World Series contest, featuring two teams with the longest championship droughts in sports, which could soon take a very Hollywood turn.
An online petition seeks signatures and support for Bob Uecker to replace Joe Buck in the broadcast booth for the World Series. The petition, which already boasts over 50,000 signatures, reads like this: “The Cleveland Indians are in the World Series. Bob Uecker is Bob Uecker — a national treasure. And his portrayal of an Indians broadcaster in the movie Major League is all-time great. Replacing Joe Buck with Uecker would put one of the truly great entertainers in the game on its biggest stage.”
Uecker, of course, has a gig as the voice of the Milwaukee Brewers for forever. Ironically, despite that long and stellar career, Uecker’s true identity to millions of fans remains that of “Harry Doyle,” Indians play-by-play broadcaster in the movie Major League.
Interestingly, according to the Sports Blog Awful Announcing, Uecker has already done a stint in the booth during an Indians World Series: “Here’s the irony in all of this – the last two times the Indians made the World Series in 1995 and 1997, Uecker was in the broadcast booth. He served as an analyst alongside Bob Costas and Joe Morgan back when NBC had World Series rights. In 1995, they split the series with ABC and in 1997 they aired all seven games.”
No chance that Fox pulls Joe Buck from the World Series, even if the petition gets a million signatures, but this is very cool. No word yet if any petition has formed to have Gary Busey return as “Chet Steadman,” and manage Game 1 in place of Joe Maddon.
We’ll keep you posted.
Follow Dylan Gwinn on Twitter: @themightygwinn
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