Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Lane Grendele. You remember Lane from his days as a
broadcaster here in Nebraska and joins us from Milwaukee this morning. Lane,
good morning, Good to have you on.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Very good to hear your voice and get to talk
with Jim as well. Yeah, just an unbelievably sad day yesterday.
One that wasn't It wasn't shocking. Those of us close
to Bob knew that this time was coming, even though
we had convinced ourselves he might be immortal, and I
no matter how prepared we were for it, just no
(00:30):
way to get yourself ready for It's sad and everything's
going to be a little different moving forward in Milwaukee
and throughout baseball for sure.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Certainly the people close to him knew, but this was
not generally known that he was suffering from cancer. Lane,
was it? Did they keep it quiet?
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Yeah? He did not want this to become a distraction
to the team, to anything, because he knew if it
got out, it would be a story. And so he
had known since right before spring training in twenty twenty
three that he had small cell lung cancer. And in fact,
(01:08):
the way he told me was typical Yuke. We were
in the booth calling a game together. It was team
number one of spring training that year. I sit to
the right of him and we're like in the open
to start the broadcast, and he turns to me and whispers, oh,
by way, I have cancer. And then they're like you're on,
and we do the open and I'm looking at him
(01:30):
like you can't and we go to break and I
was like, can you elaborate? Like what is going on?
So then you know, he filled me in on what
was happening and that he wanted to keep it to
a very small number of people because he didn't want
it to become a thing. And he did some really
miraculous things the last two years just to get himself
on the air, go to treatment, come straight to the ballpark.
(01:52):
I would look at him and say you sure. He's like,
I'll figure it out. When the music plays, I'll be ready.
And the music would play, and it was like, you know,
life was breathed into him and muscle memory took over
and there was Yuke on the air doing his thing.
He's an incredible human being.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
So let's talk about Bob Bucher, the guy most people
will connect him to Harry Doyle, the drunken announcer for
the Cleveland Indians in the Major League movies. And I'm
sure he wasn't like that, But how close to that
character was Bob Buker, not just on the air lane,
but off the air too, because he was a delightfully
funny and lighthearted guy.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Yes, yeah, Harry Doyle is like this extreme exaggeration, right,
like he had lived that entire thing. That wasn't a
script for him. They just said sit up there and
do whatever you want and we'll make it work. And
that's just him being this really extreme version of himself.
I mean, no, he didn't sit down there at the
bottle of alcohol and call games or things like that,
(02:51):
we're out of the night.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
But then there's Lane Grendel sitting next to him, and
Lane says, what a plane. They don't call him the
best cutter guy in.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
The yeah, but he you know, he the thing about Bob,
And I think this is kind of the extreme version
of Perry Doyle, right, Like Bob was so authentic and
so genuine and just was himself on air. You know,
I think my generation of play by play guys and
I don't mean this as a slight and I throw
myself in this category. We played a little bit safe,
(03:22):
and we're probably a little stuffy at times. We don't
always feel as comfortable just to go wherever we want,
and he would just go wherever. And that's what kind
of made it fun working with him, is because you
would actually prep a little less because if you went
crazy prepping for a game with Bob Buker, throw it
out the window. You don't know where that thing's going
(03:43):
that night. You know he he's going to get off
the rails, and pretty soon we're talking about Marty Robbin's
song El Paso and we're reciting the lyrics in between
pitches like that happened once. So it was just fun
because you never knew where we were going to go.
One story I'll always tell, and I think this is
a great example of like my generation of broadcaster versus Bob,
(04:04):
who might be the most authentic broadcaster that ever lived,
is we're doing a spring training game a handful of
years ago, and we had gotten a bunch of snowback
in Milwaukee, and you always liked to reference the weather
back in Milwaukee while we were in Phoenix, and he said,
we got a lot of snowback home, And I said, yeah,
I got a picture of the snow piles on both
(04:25):
sides of my driveway this morning. They're pretty high. And
he said, piles. You used to have to have a
prescription for those, grinny, and it went over my head.
I didn't even know what he was talking about. So
he sees my blank stare and he looks at me
and he goes hemorrhoids. And I said, and I'm like, oh,
we're really talking about hemorrhoids on the air. So I said,
(04:46):
I said, you know, you're like an astronaut and he said,
how's that? And I said, you can go places the
rest of us can't. I really thought I had a
great line, and he I hadn't finished the sentence, and
he comes right back to me and says, I'm just
glad you put the treat on the end of it.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Wonderful who he was.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
He could turn anything around. He was so quick witted
and just hilarious.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Chatting with Wayne Grennell for another second here broadcast partner
and play by play for the Milwaukee Brewers. And that
condolence is to you, Lane, because I know you guys
were close. But I want to mention this too, because
I know I saw a comment from you in the
coverage of Yuker's death, and I freely admit I didn't
realize this myself till later years, because we don't get
(05:29):
to hear you guys, you know, and locally he was
one of the best played by play guys in Major
League Baseball. It wasn't just a stick. He was great.
He was really good calling the game.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
He was unique in the way he did it because
he was so taught. Nobody sat him down and said,
hears how you broadcast? You know, he the first play
by play every day. He was just doing some color
for Tom Collins and Role Harmon, and they told him,
you're going to do the fifth ending today. It was
at Yankee Stadium, and I said, you're going to call
the fifth penning. You're gonna do play by play. So
(06:02):
I'm begging you, don't make me do it. I don't
want to do it. And they took their headsets off
and they went up to the top of the booth
and they left him there alone. And his story, you know,
in true Bob fashion. I'm sure it's been embellished a
little bit over the years, but his story is that
he sat there in silence and in shock and finally
the producer said, and it said that you better start
talking because there's one out. And so that's how he
(06:25):
started doing play by play. But he was a player
doing play by play, you know. I mean, he was
always a player first, and he was an incredible talent
and his ability to understand what the players were going through,
how hard the game is. He would never say a
bad word about a player, no matter what they could be,
zero for forty. He wasn't going to rip them on
the air. He was going to tell it, you know,
(06:46):
straight and professional and just you know, I've said this
so many times, but there's going to be a Wednesday
in June when we've played twelve games in a row
and you're a little bit tired and looking forward to
that next day when you rolled the ballpark and think
I could have used you tonight because he always gave
you that extra juice.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
Now he was he was purely, singularly unique and authentic,
and they just don't make him like that anymore. But
it's great talking to you, best to you and to
everybody in the Brewers family and all the fans up
in Wisconsin.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Thank you guys so much.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Amusing a lot lane Grennel. Great to have you with us.
Lane Grendele. You remember Lane from his days as a
broadcaster here in Nebraska and joins us from Milwaukee this morning. Lane,
good morning, Good to have you on.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Very good to hear your voice and get to talk
with Jim as well. Yeah, just an unbelievably sad day yesterday.
One that wasn't It wasn't shocking. Those of us close
to Bob knew that this time was coming, even though
we had convinced ourselves he might be immortal, and I
no matter how prepared we were for it, just no
(00:30):
way to get yourself ready for It's sad and everything's
going to be a little different moving forward in Milwaukee
and throughout baseball for sure.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Certainly the people close to him knew, but this was
not generally known that he was suffering from cancer. Lane,
was it? Did they keep it quiet?
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Yeah? He did not want this to become a distraction
to the team, to anything, because he knew if it
got out, it would be a story. And so he
had known since right before spring training in twenty twenty
three that he had small cell lung cancer. And in fact,
(01:08):
the way he told me was typical Yuke. We were
in the booth calling a game together. It was team
number one of spring training that year. I sit to
the right of him and we're like in the open
to start the broadcast, and he turns to me and whispers, oh,
by way, I have cancer. And then they're like you're on,
and we do the open and I'm looking at him
(01:30):
like you can't and we go to break and I
was like, can you elaborate? Like what is going on?
So then you know, he filled me in on what
was happening and that he wanted to keep it to
a very small number of people because he didn't want
it to become a thing. And he did some really
miraculous things the last two years just to get himself
on the air, go to treatment, come straight to the ballpark.
(01:52):
I would look at him and say you sure. He's like,
I'll figure it out. When the music plays, I'll be ready.
And the music would play, and it was like, you know,
life was breathed into him and muscle memory took over
and there was Yuke on the air doing his thing.
He's an incredible human being.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
So let's talk about Bob Bucher, the guy most people
will connect him to Harry Doyle, the drunken announcer for
the Cleveland Indians in the Major League movies. And I'm
sure he wasn't like that, But how close to that
character was Bob Buker, not just on the air lane,
but off the air too, because he was a delightfully
funny and lighthearted guy.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Yes, yeah, Harry Doyle is like this extreme exaggeration, right,
like he had lived that entire thing. That wasn't a
script for him. They just said sit up there and
do whatever you want and we'll make it work. And
that's just him being this really extreme version of himself.
I mean, no, he didn't sit down there at the
bottle of alcohol and call games or things like that,
(02:51):
we're out of the night.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
But then there's Lane Grendel sitting next to him, and
Lane says, what a plane. They don't call him the
best cutter guy in.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
The yeah, but he you know, he the thing about Bob,
And I think this is kind of the extreme version
of Perry Doyle, right, Like Bob was so authentic and
so genuine and just was himself on air. You know,
I think my generation of play by play guys and
I don't mean this as a slight and I throw
myself in this category. We played a little bit safe,
(03:22):
and we're probably a little stuffy at times. We don't
always feel as comfortable just to go wherever we want,
and he would just go wherever. And that's what kind
of made it fun working with him, is because you
would actually prep a little less because if you went
crazy prepping for a game with Bob Buker, throw it
out the window. You don't know where that thing's going
(03:43):
that night. You know he he's going to get off
the rails, and pretty soon we're talking about Marty Robbin's
song El Paso and we're reciting the lyrics in between
pitches like that happened once. So it was just fun
because you never knew where we were going to go.
One story I'll always tell, and I think this is
a great example of like my generation of broadcaster versus Bob,
(04:04):
who might be the most authentic broadcaster that ever lived,
is we're doing a spring training game a handful of
years ago, and we had gotten a bunch of snowback
in Milwaukee, and you always liked to reference the weather
back in Milwaukee while we were in Phoenix, and he said,
we got a lot of snowback home, And I said, yeah,
I got a picture of the snow piles on both
(04:25):
sides of my driveway this morning. They're pretty high. And
he said, piles. You used to have to have a
prescription for those, grinny, and it went over my head.
I didn't even know what he was talking about. So
he sees my blank stare and he looks at me
and he goes hemorrhoids. And I said, and I'm like, oh,
we're really talking about hemorrhoids on the air. So I said,
(04:46):
I said, you know, you're like an astronaut and he said,
how's that? And I said, you can go places the
rest of us can't. I really thought I had a
great line, and he I hadn't finished the sentence, and
he comes right back to me and says, I'm just
glad you put the treat on the end of it.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Wonderful who he was.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
He could turn anything around. He was so quick witted
and just hilarious.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Chatting with Wayne Grennell for another second here broadcast partner
and play by play for the Milwaukee Brewers. And that
condolence is to you, Lane, because I know you guys
were close. But I want to mention this too, because
I know I saw a comment from you in the
coverage of Yuker's death, and I freely admit I didn't
realize this myself till later years, because we don't get
(05:29):
to hear you guys, you know, and locally he was
one of the best played by play guys in Major
League Baseball. It wasn't just a stick. He was great.
He was really good calling the game.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
He was unique in the way he did it because
he was so taught. Nobody sat him down and said,
hears how you broadcast? You know, he the first play
by play every day. He was just doing some color
for Tom Collins and Role Harmon, and they told him,
you're going to do the fifth ending today. It was
at Yankee Stadium, and I said, you're going to call
the fifth penning. You're gonna do play by play. So
(06:02):
I'm begging you, don't make me do it. I don't
want to do it. And they took their headsets off
and they went up to the top of the booth
and they left him there alone. And his story, you know,
in true Bob fashion. I'm sure it's been embellished a
little bit over the years, but his story is that
he sat there in silence and in shock and finally
the producer said, and it said that you better start
talking because there's one out. And so that's how he
(06:25):
started doing play by play. But he was a player
doing play by play, you know. I mean, he was
always a player first, and he was an incredible talent
and his ability to understand what the players were going through,
how hard the game is. He would never say a
bad word about a player, no matter what they could be,
zero for forty. He wasn't going to rip them on
the air. He was going to tell it, you know,
(06:46):
straight and professional and just you know, I've said this
so many times, but there's going to be a Wednesday
in June when we've played twelve games in a row
and you're a little bit tired and looking forward to
that next day when you rolled the ballpark and think
I could have used you tonight because he always gave
you that extra juice.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
Now he was he was purely, singularly unique and authentic,
and they just don't make him like that anymore. But
it's great talking to you, best to you and to
everybody in the Brewers family and all the fans up
in Wisconsin.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Thank you guys so much.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Amusing a lot lane Grennel. Great to have you with us.
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