Article:Minor Leaguer From the Past: Randy "Macho Man" Poffo

Randy Poffo Born November 15, 1952 in Columbus, Ohio

Randy Poffo was a two time All Star catcher with Downers Grove North High School in Chicago. In 1971 he was the only player selected out of 200 players in a Cardinals tryout. In 16 games with the GCL Cardinals he hit .286 and didn't commit an error while catching.

In 1972 he returned to the GCL Cardinals and made the All Star team as an outfielder. In 1973 he hit .344 as the DH for the GCL Red Birds. He next moved up to the Orangeburg Cardinals of the Class A Western Carolinas League but only hit .250. Jimmy Piersall was his manager at Orangeburg and Poffo credited Piersall with teaching him how to be aggressive and taught him how to fight. He sustained a serious injury in his throwing arm and because of the injury he taught himself how to throw lefthanded.

The Cardinals released him because of the injury so he signed with the Reds and played for the Sarasota Reds in 1974. He hit 6 homers good for 5th in the league and only 3 behind future Hall of Famer Eddie Murray and he drove in 3 more runs than Murray.

Poffo signed with the White Sox in 1975 but was released at the end of spring training and he decided to quit baseball after his release. He hit .254 in 289 games and stole 21 bases.

His father Angelo Poffo was a well known wrestler and his brother "Leaping Lanny" Poffo was also a wrestler. Randy broke into wrestling during the baseball offseason. In 1974 he was wrestling as a masked wrestler named "The Spider Friend". Wrestler Ole Anderson said Randy wrestled like a savage so started using the name Randy Savage.

In1985 he joined the WWF federation. This is the point at which he became known as Randy "Macho Man" Savage. On March 27,1988 Savage would be crowned the WWF champion.

Savage is rumored to be on the next Surreal Life along with Carrot Top. So his career has come down to this... starring on a television show with Carrot Top among others.

Randy Poffo has gone from being an All State catcher to playing in the minor leagues for the Cardinals and Reds and almost played in the White Sox minor league system to becoming a world famous wrestler known as Randy "Macho Man" Savage. It is a mystery to me how Poffo could have such a debilitating arm injury and become a wrestler that used those arms to lift their opponents over their head and slam them into the mat.

Poffo may not have achieved his goal of being a baseball player but he will be remembered for years as the wrestler who avenged George "The Animal" Steele for being obsessed with his manager-wife Elizabeth. She would later die of a drug overdose in 2003.

So Poffo will be better known as the Macho Man but for a few years he was a baseball player with a chance to make it to the majors but got derailed along the way when he got the wrestling bug.