MILWAUKEE -- Jeff Levering, the Swiss Army knife of the Brewers¡¯ broadcast team who bounces between radio and television depending on the need, has a voicemail from Bob Uecker which he will treasure forever. It is short and sweet.

¡°Great job tonight,¡± Uecker said with the upbeat lilt known to generations of baseball fans. ¡°We¡¯ll see you tomorrow.¡±

It was the night of Oct. 2. The Brewers had just rallied to beat the Mets in Game 2 of the National League Wild Card Series with eighth-inning home runs from 20-year-old phenom Jackson Chourio and Garrett Mitchell. Uecker was listening to Levering and Lane Grindle call the thrilling finish on his car radio during his drive home.

Uecker hadn¡¯t called a Brewers game for some time, weakened by myriad health concerns including, his family revealed on Thursday after news of Uecker¡¯s passing at age 90, a multi-year battle with small cell lung cancer. He¡¯d come to American Family Field for Game 1 of that series but was unable to work. Uecker intended to work Game 2 and even did his pregame show with Brewers manager Pat Murphy, but by game time he was spent. He told Levering, ¡°All right, you got it.¡±

All season long, that¡¯s how it went. Levering, Grindle and Josh Maurer reported for duty each home game and if Uecker worked, he worked. If he didn¡¯t, he didn¡¯t. After 54 years calling games for his hometown team and entertaining generations of baseball fans, he¡¯d more than earned that right. So, Levering and Grindle called Game 2 against the Mets while Uecker sat in the back of the booth. In the seventh inning, he headed home.

But then the Brewers rallied to extend their season, and during the postgame radio show, Uecker left Levering that voicemail.

¡°I'm never going to delete that message,¡± Levering said Thursday. ¡°After that, I had a feeling he was going to work Game 3. There was no way that he was going to miss that one. And he called another brilliant game.¡±

What a gift for Brewers fans it was, sour ending and all. Jake Bauers and Sal Frelick hit back-to-back homers in the seventh, and the Brewers had the lead with All-Star closer Devin Williams on the mound in the ninth and two outs to go.

Unfortunately, Uecker didn¡¯t get to call a victory. Pete Alonso connected for a go-ahead homer and the Mets won, ending the Brewers¡¯ season. Before Uecker made the rounds in the clubhouse afterward to say goodbye to the players he so loved, he signed off on the air to fans.

¡°I¡¯m telling you,¡± he said on the Brewers Radio Network, ¡°that one had a little sting to it.¡±

¡°Knowing everything I've known for the last couple of years and how hard it's been for him, it felt like that was his goodbye,¡± Levering said. ¡°You know, you just never know. And we've been in this pattern for a long time, and he's Superman, and he always finds a way to come back from whatever he's fighting. But that one felt different.

¡°It was hard, it was tough, but he was still very upbeat when he said goodbye. It felt like that night he was not ready to say goodbye. With every sentence that he continued with, it was him just trying to prolong his time on the air.¡±

As Levering began the postgame show, Uecker sat in his seat and looked at the field. His wife, Judy, always by his side at the ballpark in recent years, walked down to Uecker¡¯s seat and put a hand on his shoulder. On the air, Levering¡¯s voice crumbled.

Eventually, Uecker left his seat and met Grindle in the back of the press box. Grindle extended his right hand and prepared to say goodbye, but Uecker said, "I'm not done with you yet. You're with me."

Watching Uecker bid farewell to players down in the clubhouse, Grindle sensed that Uecker knew he'd called his final game. But even as emotions flowed more than usual, Uecker still managed to make people laugh. He never lost that.

"The moment he told me [about his cancer diagnosis] was typical Bob," Grindle said. "It was in Spring Training in '23 and we're in a commercial break of our first game and he turns to me and says, 'Oh, I have cancer,'" Grindle said. "I'm like, 'What?' And then we're back on the air. We do the half-inning and go to the next break and I turn to him to say, 'Can you elaborate, please?'"

Uecker preferred to keep his health concerns private.

"After he got confirmation of exactly what he was up against, there were times he would do radiation during the day and come straight to the ballpark," Grindle said. "Sometimes I wondered, 'How is he going to do a game tonight?' Then the music started and something out of this world would take hold of his body and he would go into broadcaster mode. It was incredible. That guy was a lion."

Said Levering: ¡°There was not a bad day when Bob was at the ballpark. He made you feel that way whether you were listening to him or you were in his presence. He made you feel like a million dollars and you were the most important thing going on that day, and just being in his presence made you smile.

¡°I have stories that I will take with me forever about him. Stuff on the air, stuff off the air. But my favorite moments are just sitting around the back of the booth at the table and having story time with Bob, weaving generations. I would walk away, like, I just talked to him about a 20-year-old Jackson Chourio, and then immediately he transitions to stories about catching behind Ted Williams. Who else can do that?¡±

No one could. Because there was no one like Uecker.

¡°I would say 1960 is when we met,¡± said Brewers founder and MLB Commissioner Emeritus Bud Selig, who was a Milwaukee Braves fan, then a Braves investor before he brought baseball back to the city in 1970, and placed Uecker in the radio booth in ¡®71. ¡°I don¡¯t know what to say. He was remarkable. And you know, he made himself into a great announcer. Let¡¯s not forget that. He was a great baseball announcer.¡±

That fact is sometimes lost amid everything else Uecker did in a career that spanned radio, television, film, advertising and even books. Uecker wrote two, including ¡°Catcher in the Wry,¡± a clever play on words for a backstop-turned-humorist.

When the Brewers arrived in ¡®70, the Braves¡¯ departure still stung. With his wit and warmth, Uecker helped Milwaukee fall in love with baseball again.

"He was their voice every day. He was their guy, he was their link,¡± Selig said. ¡°A Milwaukee guy. And that never changed."

Selig and his wife, Sue, last visited Uecker at his Menomonee Falls, Wis., home a couple of weeks ago. Uecker¡¯s health was in severe decline, but there was no way to know it would be the last time they were together. Likewise for former Brewers batboy, Brewers player and Brewers manager Craig Counsell, who had lunch with Uecker last summer at one of Uecker¡¯s secret haunts in Milwaukee¡¯s Pigsville neighborhood, not far from the ballpark.

Counsell¡¯s father once worked in the Brewers' front office, so he was a boy when he met Uecker in the team¡¯s first heyday in the early 1980s, when Uecker was already ¡°larger than life.¡± Later, they got to know each other during the daily radio pregame show when Counsell was manager.

What were those meetings like, Counsell was asked Thursday, when Uecker¡¯s recorder wasn¡¯t running?

¡°It¡¯s one of those things where you wish you had your own recorder running, just to record everything that was going on,¡± Counsell said. ¡°I remember how often I would drive home and think about the half-hour I¡¯d spent with Uecker that day, because it was always something that made you laugh and smile. It was a treasured part of this job.

¡°I think players would tell you the same. He always wanted to be one of the guys, and players felt that. It was a highlight of their day, whatever special handshake he had with them, or whatever greeting they had. I always thought it was the funniest thing that Uecker was the guy every player wanted to introduce his parents to.¡±

Uecker would always oblige, like he did for Paul Skenes when the Pirates' phenom, at the height of his run to the NL Rookie of the Year Award last season, nervously asked for an audience. Uecker was known around the world for his work on screens large and small, but the clubhouse, the field and radio booth in Milwaukee were always his home.

¡°He loved going to the ballpark, and he loved doing the games,¡± Selig said. ¡°Even this year, with his health, he did some games he shouldn't have done. I used to kid him, ¡®Bob, you're not going to get fired,¡¯ right?

¡°He was just good at everything he did, but he loved being around the guys above all. There are certain things that are true: Bob loved Milwaukee, and, boy, did he love the Brewers.¡±