Steve  "The Homer"  True

Bob Uecker is not as good as he once was.

You never know what's going on when Uecker is calling the game.

OK, you're right. It's true. I agree.

So what.

I will admit that I have been thinking about it for awhile, but it's not really a place I wanted to go. Then I got together with a friend recently and the conversation started in the following manner.

"It's been too long. How are things going? And what is going on with Uecker?"

This is a person whose opinion I value very highly. He has nothing against Uecker and never said anything remotely negative about him in the past. I know he's a huge Uecker fan, and he just wanted to know if something had happened to Uecker. If he's thinking it that strongly, then it's time for a "Uecker is slipping" primer.

It starts and ends with "so what?"

In the middle, I would add "been there and done that."

"Been there" is Harry Caray. In his last few years, Caray was a horrible broadcaster. And I mean horrible. Harry Caray went from being one of the best of all time to one of the worst of all time.

I don't think he could see very well. He mispronounced everything but "Chicago" and "Cubs."

One day, it was Fernando Venezuala on the mound. It's a great country but not a pitcher. One of the local papers even kept track and listed all his mistakes. Some major shots were taken at Caray, and the shots were both accurate and justified.

Do you know what happened? Nothing. Harry kept doing the games. Everybody still loved Harry. Some people complimented the paper for telling the truth, and just as many people got mad at the paper for picking on the Chicago legend.

Harry was bigger than Cy Young winner Fernando Valenzuela. In fact, I believe the paper stopped keeping track of the mistakes. At the very end of his career, there was no battle about the good and bad of Harry Caray's work. Nothing was said. It was all love.

I'll admit that I have a bias toward Uecker. I think he's one of the best ever. I lived in L.A. and listened to Vin Scully on a daily basis. I've always preferred Uecker.

No one understands the pace of the game better than Uecker. If he's not talking, nothing is going on. He doesn't give a novel when a short story will do.

If someone wants to take on Uecker, the same thing will happen in Milwaukee that happened in Chicago. He's bigger than anything wrong with his work. He can go 30 seconds without saying a word. He's terrible at telling what a hitter has done in past at bats.

I'll never understand why he calls him Manny Pair-a instead of Manny Par-a. I got more and you might have more, but it doesn't serve any purpose.

He'll keep doing the games. Everyone, or almost everyone, will love what he does even with the warts. And only the messenger will end up bloodied.

Uecker has slipped. I've said it. It's so. And now we can move on.

And when it comes up in discussion, the appropriate answer is, "You're right and so what?" And not necessarily in that order.

(Steve "The Homer" True writes a regular column for The Freeman. True, who is the host of "The World's Greatest Sports Talk Show," heard from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays on 540 ESPN, can be reached at homer540espn@yahoo.com)