Sunday, March 02

PHOENIX – It’s the clubhouse attendants and grounds crew who vie for the longest hours in Spring Training, toiling at the sort of work that is on one hand critical, and on the other rarely noticed. 

So you can imagine the satisfaction that two members of the Brewers’ Arizona-based grounds crew have been feeling during the first week of Cactus League games at American Family Fields of Phoenix. They look down on a patchwork of plaid mowed into the infield and outfield, all in stunning green. Behind home plate is the finishing touch, a replica of Bob Uecker’s elegant, looping autograph in stark white. 

“It brought a chill to me,” said Matt Ramirez, the senior director of facility operations at the Brewers’ Arizona complex. “We always get on the roof before the first game in Spring Training, and it was just a great feeling to see that we are honoring a legend. 

“And we knew that guy, too.”

For Ramirez and Johnny Mardesich, the director of grounds, it’s a particularly personal tribute to the late radio voice of the Brewers, who was a friend to stadium workers from the grounds crew storage area in the tunnels beneath the ballpark to the ushers in the upper deck, from Phoenix to Milwaukee and everywhere else that Uecker’s 54-year broadcasting career took him. 

Ramirez has been working the grounds here since 2019, when the Brewers took over management of the renovated complex from the City of Phoenix. After he noticed Uecker’s shiny black Corvette in the line of fire for batting practice home run balls on a back field, Ramirez offered a covered parking spot in the safety of the facilities shop. Uecker appreciated the gesture, and the two sat on a couch for a morning cup of coffee.

It became a routine whenever Uecker was in camp. 

“Ueck was always great to the grounds crew,” Mardesich said. “He would take pictures, whatever we wanted. He gave a couple of us a signed picture with him sitting on a mower, mowing the outfield back in Milwaukee. He was an awesome guy.” 

Matt Ramirez holds up a signed photo of Bob Uecker on a mower.

So when Uecker passed away in January following a quiet, multi-year battle with small cell lung cancer, the Arizona crew knew they would have the first chance to honor their friend. They’d embarked on a similar project after Hank Aaron passed away in January 2021, mowing a pattern in the outfield at American Family Fields of Phoenix with Aaron’s No. 44 as the centerpiece. 

For Uecker, Mardesich came up with a subtler approach. Over 4-5 hours with two mowers working in tandem, he was able to create a plaid pattern reminiscent of Uecker’s gaudy sportcoats in the 1970s and ‘80s, worn everywhere from The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson to the Miller Lite ads that made Uecker a household name. Both elements -- the plaid and the signature -- can also be seen on the uniform patches on Brewers’ shoulders this season. 

“It makes perfect sense,” Ramirez said. “Johnny came up with that on his own.” 

Is it a challenge to mow in plaid? 

“It’s a little easier than people think, actually,” Mardesich said. “I have to give credit to one of our full-time guys, Wes Hines. He was the one who did the pattern. Basically what we did is you mow in two different directions, and then you cross them up. When you do it like that, the way the sunlight hits the grass, it gives the definition of dark stripes and light stripes.”

The crew will maintain the plaid pattern for as long as they can this spring, but that will be more difficult once Minor League camp opens in earnest and the grounds crew is stretched thin. They may have to maintain the infield in plaid and restore the outfield to straight lines. 

But they’d like to keep something visible to honor their late friend. 

“A couple of coaches have asked about it, and fans in the stands,” Mardesich said. “A couple of people asked the other day if the field was artificial, and I thought to myself, ‘That’s the best compliment you can give to a groundskeeper.’” 

One week into Spring Training games, the Brewers still have plenty of questions to answer. When will a starting shortstop be named? When will Christian Yelich make his Cactus League debut? When will Brandon Woodruff graduate from live batting practice to games? 

Manager Pat Murphy has developed a strategy to answer such questions. 

It takes only one word.

“Soon.” 

The shortstop question is probably the most pressing, given the importance of that position and the impact left behind by Willy Adames. The Brewers have been playing both Joey Ortiz and Brice Turang at shortstop this spring, including on Thursday against the Royals when Ortiz manned third base and Turang played short. 

Where would Turang, the reigning NL Platinum Glove Award winner, prefer to play?

“It doesn’t matter,” Turang said. “Wherever they want to put me. I don’t look too much into it. Even if it’s in the outfield or at first base or third, wherever they want to put me I’m going to play.”

How did it feel at shortstop the past few days?

“I’ve still got to get used to it a little bit, but things felt good,” Turang said. “I have to go over there and practice a little bit more.” 

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