Jeff Levering explains his Bob Uecker-inspired pennant call

Before the last out in Game 4 of the NLCS, Levering knew he had a call to make. He walked through what was going on in his head right then.

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"I remember looking up, taking a huge deep breath, and saying, 'Time to lock in.'" @JLevering4 explains his pennant-clinching call, inspired by Bob Uecker.

The call was: 'The Brewers win the pennant! OH MY GOD, the Brewers win the pennant! The World Series will go through Wisconsin!' It came as Jackson Chourio ran down an Enrique Hernandez fly ball at the warning track in left to finish a sweep of the Dodgers. Anybody who has seen Major League more than once heard it right away. It's nearly Harry Doyle's line, the fake Cleveland broadcaster Uecker played in 1989, who yells 'The Indians win it! OH MY GOD, THE INDIANS WIN IT!'

That's what makes it hit so hard. Uecker spent 54 seasons on Brewers radio and died on January 16, 2025. The most famous pennant call of his career was a movie bit. The first real NL pennant in franchise history went to the guy who came after him, and he borrowed Uecker's fake call for it. Levering is clear that he didn't plan any of it.

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“I never said to myself, ‘I’m going to say what Bob said in Major League,'” Brewers brodcaster Jeff Levering said. “It’s just that I had seen it so many times, I think. When I went, ‘Oh my God!’ that was authentic." The story of The Call. t.co/JhtTk4MsmO

Honestly, that's the best way it could have happened. If he'd scripted a tribute, people would have called it corny. This was a guy who has watched Major League about a thousand times, like everyone in Milwaukee, and the line just came out when the moment came. It also fits what Uecker told him, as MLB.com reported: be yourself, don't be anybody else. Levering went for the moment and got the call right, and Uecker ended up in it anyway.

The Brewers' run has also done something Levering thinks is pretty rare in the fall. Wisconsin is usually all Packers by October. This year baseball is taking over.

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"When the colors start to change, it usually becomes a Packer state." Wisconsin has turned into a Brewer state this fall, says @JLevering4. 😤

He's not wrong. This is Milwaukee's first World Series since 1982, and the Brewers had never won the National League before. Their only other pennant came in the American League. Next up are the Tampa Bay Rays, with the Series scheduled for October 23-31. So Levering has 1 more call to get right, and the line is already written: the World Series goes through Wisconsin.