Bob Uecker, who transformed his futility as a baseball player into a successful second career as a baseball broadcaster, humorist and comic actor in television, film and commercials, died Thursday at 90.

The Milwaukee Brewers, for whom he was a longtime radio announcer, announced the death. In a statement released by the club, Uecker’s family said he had battled small cell lung cancer since early 2023.

Before he was known for two enduring catchphrases — “I must be in the front row!” from a Miller Lite commercial and “Just a bit outside” from the movie “Major League” — Uecker spent six years in the major leagues as a backup catcher and first-string clubhouse comedian. Among a long list of baseball jokers, he is widely considered the funniest.

Referring to his lowly career batting average of .200, Uecker said he was so hopeless at the plate that his manager would “send me up there without a bat and tell me to try for a walk.”

In a best-selling 1982 autobiography, “Catcher in the Wry” (written with Mickey Herskowitz), Uecker described the secret of his success, such as it was: “Anybody with ability can play in the big leagues. But to be able to trick people year in and year out the way I did, I think that was a much greater feat.”

He played for the Milwaukee Braves, St. Louis Cardinals, Philadelphia Phillies and Atlanta Braves. He never appeared in more than 80 games a season, but he did share a moment of glory as a member of the World Series-winning Cardinals in 1964.

“People don’t know this, but I helped the Cardinals win the pennant,” he later said. “I came down with hepatitis. The trainer injected me with it.”

In reality, Uecker was considered a valuable clubhouse presence, with his lighthearted banter and his humorous running monologues in the bullpen. Before the first game of the 1964 World Series, he picked up a sousaphone left on the field by a musician and used it to shag flyballs.

If he was the definition of major league mediocrity, he found unlikely success against one of the game’s best pitchers, Sandy Koufax, once hitting a home run off the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Hall of Fame left-hander. (It was one of only 14 home runs Uecker had in the majors.)

During his final season in 1967, he was the personal catcher of Atlanta Braves knuckleball pitcher Phil Niekro. That year, Uecker led the National League in passed balls (pitches he should have caught but missed) — “and I did that without playing every game,” he boasted.

He described his method of catching the fluttering, unpredictable knuckleball: “Wait until it stopped rolling and then pick it up.”

After his playing career, Uecker dabbled in broadcasting for the Braves and spoke at banquets, where he began to reshape his baseball experiences into a comedy act, with himself as the butt of the joke. Al Hirt, a popular trumpeter of the era, heard him at a nightclub in 1969 and recommended him to his agent. Mr. Uecker soon made the first of more than 100 appearances on the “Tonight” show, with host Johnny Carson dubbing him “Mr. Baseball.”

In 1970, Milwaukee acquired a new baseball team, the Brewers, after an expansion franchise moved from Seattle. The owner, businessman Bud Selig, hired Uecker as a scout.

“Worst scout I ever had,” Selig, who later became commissioner of baseball, told the New York Times in 2010. When Uecker turned in a scouting report on a potential player, it “was smeared with gravy and mashed potatoes.”

Uecker moved to the team’s radio booth as an analyst in 1971 and, during the next season, he began to do play-by-play announcing. He would remain the voice of the Brewers for more than 50 years. During much of that time, he was also on the field before the games, throwing batting practice to the players.

In the broadcast booth, he relied on his inside knowledge of the sport as he described the action. He had a clear, distinctive voice and developed a well-known home run call: “Get up! Get up! Get outta here! Gone!” He seldom resorted to comedy, except when the Brewers were far behind.

From 1976 to 1982, Uecker was part of ABC’s “Monday Night Baseball” broadcasting team, often jousting good-naturedly with Howard Cosell, known for his large vocabulary and sometimes pompous manner. Once, when Cosell used the word “truculent,” he asked Uecker if he knew what it meant.

“Sure I do,” Uecker replied. “If you had a truck, and I borrowed it, that would be a truck-you-lent.”

In the 1970s and 1980s, Uecker was among many retired athletes who appeared in Miller Lite commercials. He cultivated the persona of the lovable loser, unperturbed by snubs and insults.

“You know, one of the best things about being an ex-big-leaguer is getting freebies to the game,” he says in one commercial, pulling a ticket from his pocket. “Call the front office, and bingo!”

An usher approaches, saying, “You’re in the wrong seat, buddy, come on.” Uecker confidently says, “I must be in the front row!”

In the commercial’s final scene, he is sitting by himself at the top of the stadium, ever ebullient as he declares to no one, “Good seats, hey, buddy?”

The commercials led to an acting career, including an appearance as guest host of “Saturday Night Live.” From 1985 to 1990, Uecker starred in the ABC sitcom “Mr. Belvedere” as a sportswriter who hires a prissy English butler to manage his household.

Uecker also played Harry Doyle, a whiskey-drinking broadcaster in the 1989 baseball comedy “Major League.” When a pitcher, played by Charlie Sheen, throws a wild pitch that bounces off the backstop, Uecker — in an improvised line — says, “Ju-u-u-u-st a bit outside.”