When Bob Uecker and Bob Gibson created an iconic gay moment in the 1960s, Johnny Carson had the perfect line
Bob Uecker made intimidating pitcher Bob Gibson smile when the two struck this pose together in a 1964 team photo. The post When Bob Uecker and Bob Gibson created an iconic gay moment in the 1960s, Johnny Carson had the perfect line appeared first on Outsports.
Throughout more than six decades as a player and broadcaster, Bob Uecker had one mission: to bring joy to baseball at every opportunity.
It’s why while other baseball legends are remembered for World Series heroics like over-the-shoulder catches and walk-off home runs, Uecker left his mark on the Fall Classic by shagging batting practice fly balls with a tuba. Uecker died Thursday at the age of 90.
While others used Hall of Fame speeches to recall their exploits breaking records and winning championships, Uecker’s was peppered with self-deprecating wit about his total lack of skills.
Suffice it to say, Cooperstown crowds aren’t usually accustomed to lines like, “I remember as we got down near World Series time, Bing Devine who was the St. Louis Cardinals general manager at that time asked me if I would do him and the Cardinals in general a favor. And I said I would. And he said, ‘We’d like to inject you with hepatitis.’”
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There’s no better way to sum up Uecker’s baseball legacy than the reaction shots of icons like Willie Mays, George Brett, Reggie Jackson and Yogi Berra gut laughing like an Apollo crowd watching Chris Rock.
He made all time greats howl and roar like little kids, no matter how daunting a task that might have seemed.
That included one of baseball’s most intimidating figures of all time: Cardinals Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Gibson.
Gibson was the ace of that 1964 Cardinals team and was known throughout the game for facing down opposing hitters with the kind of vengeful wrath you’d normally find in Old Testament deities.
Even when he won World Series MVPs and set all-time strikeout records, Gibson was such an obsessive competitor that he almost never publicly smiled.
Yet when Uecker was teammates with Gibson, the two of them became best known for creating a moment of queer-coded joy.
During an appearance on “The Tonight Show” in his broadcasting era, Uecker brought a 1964 Cardinals team picture to show Johnny Carson and explained, “This cost Bob Gibson and I a couple hundred dollars.”
After the St. Louis team photographer had gotten all of the players arranged just before taking the shot, Uecker slipped his hand under Gibson’s arm and the two were photographed holding hands in the lower right hand corner.
Decades later, the expression of pure unmitigated happiness on their faces was something to behold. While the rest of the Cardinals were a mix of game faces and barely perceptible macho smirks, Uecker wore an impish grin as he and Gibson innocently clasped hands.
Gibson, meanwhile, took down his snarl of rage and beamed with a Cheshire Cat-worthy smile.
It is impossible to overstate how rare a sight this was. Even during meaningless All-Star Games, Gibson would refuse to exchange pleasantries with his teammates, reasoning, “I hated having to talk to guys that I spent the rest of the season trying to kick their a**.”
And here he was absolutely glowing hand in hand with his back-up catcher.
Make no mistake — they were both smiling because that at some point Cardinals management was going to look at the team picture and discover that it was fabulously gay. The pair also probably delighted in knowing they’d force the rest of their teammates to take the picture all over again weeks later.
But in the end, that subversive queer joy was what made the game’s most fearsome pitcher break out in a smile so big, it could have been seen from the Arch.
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After Uecker told the story on “The Tonight Show,” Carson cackled and retorted, “Guess who’s coming to pitch.”
It was a great line and a brilliant reference to the groundbreaking interracial relationship film “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.”
Outsports readers might have also noticed another sly bit of wordplay in Carson’s joke that probably went over a lot of straight people’s heads at the time.
Holding hands for the team picture brought joy to a fearsome figure like Gibson in 1964. It later did the same thing to Carson and his audience.
That summed up Uecker better than anything. He was a wonderfully gifted broadcaster, compelling storyteller, and a brilliant deadpan comedian.
But above all else, his ultimate legacy was he’d do anything to make the thousands of people who encountered him leave with a smile. Including giving us baseball’s gayest moment of the 1960s.
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The post When Bob Uecker and Bob Gibson created an iconic gay moment in the 1960s, Johnny Carson had the perfect line appeared first on Outsports.
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