As Capra's 1st HR sailed out, Uecker's signature call filled the airwaves

NEW YORK – It was about 10 days ago that Milwaukee’s radio broadcasters started kicking around the idea of using Bob Uecker’s signature home run call for the first Brewers homer of the 2025 regular season. But there were some guidelines. One, the Uecker family had to endorse the tribute. And two, the homer had to mean something.

Lane Grindle had no idea that the right time would arrive just as he leaned into the microphone for his first batter of the Brewers’ season-opening, 4-2 loss to the Yankees in the Bronx. Vinny Capra, the 28-year-old utility man who won an Opening Day roster spot for the first time in his career with a power-packed Spring Training, then drew a start at third base because the Brewers were facing a lefty. He is just the sort of scrappy player Uecker always loved. When Capra’s fly ball off Yankees starter Carlos Rodón carried toward the left-field seats leading off the third inning, Grindle’s voice rose to the moment.

“Get up, get up, get out of here, gone!” Grindle said.

It was just right.

“I’d just gotten the toss [from broadcast partner Jeff Levering],” Grindle said, “so it jolted me at first. I went into what I would normally say, and I could see him out of the corner of my eye, pointing at me. I was like, ‘Oh, this is it.’”

For the Brewers, it was a sentimental highlight of an otherwise tough afternoon and evening in the Bronx. Jackson Chourio’s sophomore season began with five strikeouts in as many at-bats, making him the first Brewers hitter to strike out that many times on Opening Day. Freddy Peralta’s solid start was spoiled by a pair of solo home runs, the first of which, an Austin Wells shot leading off the bottom of the first inning, would have been a home run at Yankee Stadium and Yankee Stadium alone, according to Statcast. In the seventh, an Aaron Judge grounder caromed off third base for a run-scoring double and the first of two critical insurance runs.

And in the ninth, down three runs and facing a closer they know so well, the Brewers loaded the bases against Devin Williams with nobody out, only to see him wiggle out of trouble like he’s done so many times before.

Capra shared a moment after the game with the Yankees fan who’d caught his first career home run and kindly returned the baseball in exchange for a signed bat. The ball was already in a case and labeled in Capra’s locker, an especially meaningful memento considering his father grew up going to games at old Yankee Stadium.

“The win is what we’re trying for, but I thought it was a pretty special moment,” Capra said. “First at-bat, that’s what you want to do. I stuck to the plan and it ended up working out. That’s a good pitcher on the mound, so you have to be your best to beat him.”

“I’m really, truly happy for [Capra],” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “I don’t know exactly how old he is, but I know he’s not 22. To have that moment, to finally get an opportunity to play and put together that at-bat, it was a great at-bat and I’m proud of him.”

It was also meaningful for Levering and Grindle, who called hundreds of games at Uecker’s side over the last decade. Josh Maurer, who wasn’t on the air Thursday but will be on Saturday when Levering slides over to the television booth, said he was thrilled that the moment went to one of the men who’d spent more time on the air with Uecker.

Key to the whole thing, Levering said, was that Judy Uecker and Bob Uecker Jr. gave their consent.

“Because it’s not our call. It’s his call,” Levering said. “It’s a way to honor him, but at the same time, they had to be on board.”

It’s the last time Brewers fans will hear that home run call. Levering, Grindle and Maurer decided they want the lasting memory of those words – “Get up, get up, get out of here, gone!” – to be in Uecker’s voice, not theirs.

“The one thing we had talked about was if it came in a 9-0 game or something like that, we wouldn’t have done it,” Grindle said. “But that early in a game, and being Vinny Capra’s first career home run, it felt like, let’s do it.”