Astros 5, Blue Jays 2: But That Doesn't Even Matter Right Now

All three men here are doing their best to soldier on by their hearts are not in it.

Look, I know the bullpen blew it, and cost poor, sweet Jo-Jo his first win in nearly three years after he spread a mere five hits over seven innings of shutout baseball. I know the Astros are so incredibly horrible that even dropping one game to them is both a shame and an embarrassment. But none of that matters right now, because Randy Savage is dead.


You know the story by now: Randy Savage, hero to millions, suffered an apparent heart attack while driving yesterday and veered into oncoming traffic. His non-Miss Elizabeth wife, a passenger at the time of the horrible accident, is physically fine, but one can only imagine her emotional trauma. Our thoughts are with her today. (Miss Elizabeth herself was of course taken from us years ago, leaving in a way no one would ever choose: face down in a plate of food at Lex Luger's house.) 


"But KS," you are saying, "we are every one of us mourning the loss of Randy Savage in our own way, and in appropriate forums. Why bring this sad news to Baseball Feelings?" The answer is simple: it is because in addition to being the unmatched lord and master of the squared circle, Randy Savage was also the greatest minor league baseball player to ever step onto the field. Not because he was particularly adept at the game himself -- the numbers speak for themselves -- but because he was on a minor league baseball field, and was Macho Man Randy Savage.


This might be news to you, but I have known it almost my entire life. When I was small I had a wrestling magazine from the grocery store that explained that Randy Savage had been a promising young player but that the game of baseball had too many rules and regulations to contain the force that we would ultimately come to understand as Macho Madness. At one time or another, I have shared this fact about Randy Savage with virtually everyone I have ever known, and the responses have ranged from, "Yeah, of course I know that; everyone knows that" all the way down to "That's stupid; nobody cares." But it's true. It's true. 


Here's an old Orangeburg Cardinals roster that proves it:

Number nine and feelin' fine, Mean Gene Okerlund, DIG IT.

Here is a picture of Randy Savage at a Mets game:

A vantage point worthy of Macho royalty.

Here is Randy Savage in Cardinals gear but part of me worries this might have been 'shopped:

I think that is going to be a changeup.

Finally, the Macho Man as we will always remember him:

Pomp? Check. Circumstance? No doubt.

It's just sad, and hard to explain, unless you accept the explanation that Randy Savage spent most of his adult life with a billion CCs of steroids pumping through his veins and loved cocaine as though it were the lovely Elizabeth herself and so his heart blew up and he died. But even if you do accept that explanation, it's still sad.


KS