Some very sad news from the wrestling world, as Randy “Macho Man” Savage died this morning in a car accident at age 58.
This isn’t a wrestling blog, so you’ll have to indulge me a bit, but as someone who grew up watching the WWF on Saturday mornings and used to jump off the couch after shouting “oooohhh yeah!” the news is an elbow drop to my childhood.
Most people know Savage from his great wrestling career or maybe from those Slim Jim commercials, but before he adopted the Macho Man persona Randy Poffo was a minor-league baseball player who spent 1971-1974 playing in the Cardinals’ and Reds’ farm systems.
Baseball-Reference.com has all his statistics, which I recommend viewing alongside this video of Savage and Miss Elizabeth entering the ring. He debuted at rookie-ball as an 18-year-old in 1971, hitting .286 with a .492 slugging percentage, and advanced to high Single-A before calling it quits with a .254 batting average in 289 career games.
RIP, Macho Man.