Just a Bit Outside the Bounds of Reality

Sportscaster Dick Enberg, who was honored recently at the L.A. Sports and Entertainment Commission’s annual golf tournament at Riviera County Club, recalled a memorable Memorial Day interview he did with Bob Uecker in Milwaukee when Enberg was an Angels announcer.

Repeating a story that was in the 2004 autobiography he wrote with Jim Perry, Enberg said that, knowing Uecker always had a lot of irons in the fire, he asked about current projects.

Enberg said that Uecker, with a straight face, responded: “As you may know, Dick, I’ve started a national string of Uecker passed-ball schools, teaching kids how to commit passed balls. Thanks to my well-deserved reputation as a catcher, they’re very popular.

“We’ve got a winning formula. What we do is set up these high-powered guns that shoot baseballs at Little Leaguers at up to 140 mph. We teach them how to be creative in missing the ball.”

*

Trivia time: Uecker, who has been the Milwaukee Brewers’ radio play-by-play announcer since 1970, was a catcher for four teams in six major league seasons in the 1960s. What was his batting average?

*

A crystal-clear idea: After Uecker finished talking about his passed-ball schools, Enberg said he asked about other projects.

According to Enberg, Uecker said, “I’ve been worrying about hockey. I’m trying to get more action in hockey. I’ve designed a crystal-clear puck ... looks just like ice. You drop the puck, and it doesn’t matter who beats up whom, because no one knows where the puck is anyway. It should increase scoring too, because the goalie won’t know where the puck is either.”

*

Unclear on the concept: Enberg said Angels owner Gene Autry joined the team for the next series in Boston and asked him, “Was Uecker serious?”

Said Enberg: “I guess I didn’t sell the humor well enough.”

*

Slim pickin’s: Uecker, when asked to name his career highlights, sometimes says that in 1965 with St. Louis, “I walked with the bases loaded to drive in the winning run in an intrasquad game in spring training.”

And sometimes, when talking about career highlights, he says: “I had two. I got an intentional walk from Sandy Koufax and I got out of a rundown against the Mets.”

*

Looking back: On this day in 2002, in a game at Milwaukee, the Dodgers’ Shawn Green became the 14th player in major league history -- the number has since grown to 15 -- to hit four home runs in a game. He also set a major league record with 19 total bases. He was six for six and scored six times in the Dodgers’ 16-3 victory over the Brewers.

*

Trivia answer: .200. Uecker’s best seasons were 1962 and 1963, when he hit .250 each year with the Milwaukee Braves, but he played in only 46 games in those two seasons.

*

And finally: Former Phoenix Suns player Dan Majerle, while a guest on FSN’s “Best Damn Sports Show Period,” talked about Charles Barkley’s claim that he lost $10 million gambling:

“I think that is being real conservative, because he lost about $5 million to [Danny] Ainge and I in shoot-arounds.”

*

Larry Stewart can be reached at larry.stewart@latimes.com.