The guest list was long and ridiculously impressive.
It included two future baseball Hall of Famers, active players from the Philadelphia Phillies, Philadelphia Eagles, Philadelphia 76ers and Baltimore Colts, the Eagles coach, an All-American running back at Penn State and the only pitcher in major league history to throw back-to-back no-hitters.
Yet, the headliner was a guy who hit .200 in 297 major league games as a catcher.
Bob Uecker, who died Thursday at the age of 90, was just a few years removed from that underwhelming playing career when he was the main speaker at the 26th annual Lancaster Sportswriters and Sportscasters banquet at the Host Farm Motel in Lancaster on Jan. 27, 1972.
On a night when an unexpected snowstorm greeted attendees as they walked to their cars following the event, Uecker showed that sellout crowd of 1,000 why he was gaining national fame for his appearances on “The Tonight Show” and “Today,” among others.
Stever Summers of The Intelligencer Journal wrote that Uecker “gave the record crowd more belly laughs than they have experienced in several years at the banquet,” and that he “kept the crowd in stitches with tales of his unglamorous baseball career.”
The New Era reported that Uecker’s “reputation as one of the funniest men in sports was strengthened” with his banquet-ending talk.
Uecker, just one day past his 38th birthday, poked fun at his six-season major league career, which included stints with the Milwaukee Braves, St. Louis Cardinals, Philadelphia Phillies and Atlanta Braves.
“A good year would have ruined me, so I quit,” he said.
He hit .202 with seven homers in 96 games for the Phillies in 1966-67 before being traded to the Braves on June 6, 1967.
“The fans there gave me my biggest ovation three days later when I came back in a Braves uniform,” Uecker said of the Philadelphia faithful.
He also used a line he would become known for over the years about catching baseball’s most elusive pitch.
“I think the best way to handle a knuckleball is wait until it stops rolling and pick it up,” he said.
His trademark self-deprecation included mentioning the honor of missing the All-Star team seven consecutive years.
“Another high point,” he said, “was catching in a no-hit game. Of course, part of the glamour of that was taken away because our team was the one getting the no-hitter pitched against us.”
He sent the crowd skidding into night with this: “If you can’t participate in a sport – the hell with it.”
Here’s who shared the guest list with Uecker on a night when Charles “Ducky” Henry was presented with the George W. Kirchner Memorial Award: Johnny Vander Meer, the only pitcher in major league history to throw back-to-back no-hitters; future baseball Hall of Famers Jim Palmer and Nellie Fox; Philadelphia Eagles coach Eddie Khayat and defensive back Al Nelson; Baltimore Colts receiver Eddie Hinton and running back Don Nottingham; Penn State All-American running back Lydell Mitchell; Philadelphia 76ers guard Kevin Loughery; Hershey Bears captain Mike Nykoluk; and Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Larry Bowa, pitcher Rick Wise and vice president Bill Giles.
Giles, who nine years later headed a group that purchased the Phillies, perhaps summed up the night appropriately.
“(I) was embarrassed to be in company with all these winners,” Giles said, according to Summers, “but then I saw Bob Uecker and felt better.”
