It was a mistake for Bob Uecker to ignore this spider bite
A brown recluse spider took Bob Uecker juuuuuuuuuust a bit outside his comfort zone — and nearly out of the broadcast booth.
The 84-year-old — getting ready for his 48th season calling games for his hometown Brewers — told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that the poisonous venom of a brown recluse spider nearly stopped him from returning to the game that he loves after he got bit in October in the backyard of his home in Scottsdale, Ariz.
“I had a pair of shorts on,” Uecker told the newspaper. “I got bit by a spider but I didn’t know it. I didn’t feel it bite me. The next day, I had a red mark on my leg, and it kept getting bigger. I kept trying to take care of it by myself but it kept getting worse.”
The spider bit Uecker on his left leg as he was replacing a light bulb. Four days later, he visited a doctor for scheduled blood work and was told he needed to get to a hospital immediately. Uecker said the doctor recognized the wound right away.
A doctor cut away infected flesh from the bite, which can potentially lead to death, although fatal bites are highly unlikely. In fact, more than 90 percent of recluse bites heal without complications, although they can leave permanent scars, according to National Geographic.
The wound had to be left open following the surgery, which marked Uecker’s latest health issue dating back to 1991, when a round of batting practice led to the discovery of an aortal aneurysm in his abdominal area.
“It has to heal from the inside out, so they left it open,” Uecker said of the procedure, his 11th major surgery. “That took five weeks. I couldn’t believe it.”
Due to MRSA concerns, Uecker said doctors prescribed him stronger antibiotics to treat the potential bacterial infection. He’s fine now, he said, although he missed plenty of his everyday workouts.
“What really bothered me is it kept me out of swimming from several weeks,” he said. “Normally, I swim every day.”
As Uecker’s fans would expect, the irreverent veteran broadcaster — who appeared in the 1989 film “Major League” as the voice of the hapless Cleveland Indians — has worked the experience into his shtick during some Brewers exhibition games this spring.
“We were laughing about it on the air,” he told the newspaper. “I said the spider didn’t ‘recluse’ himself from biting me. That was a good one.”
Uecker has had a long list of unusual health scares, but his broadcast partner, Jeff Levering, said the baseball icon hasn’t lost a step.
“He is a true entertainer, he really is,” Levering told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “There’s nobody quite like him. He’s as in shape mentally at 84 as anybody I’ve ever seen, at any age … Bob Uecker was Howard Stern before Howard Stern was Howard Stern. Why do people listen to Howard Stern? Because they want to know what he’s going to say next. Bob is the same way. If the game is close, he’s all baseball. But if the game is not close, it becomes ‘Fireside Chat with Ueck.’ He finds a way to shine those rocks. He really does.”