Hoffman

Falling in love with baseball as a kid in the '80s quickly led to a love for AM radio. That way, I could listen to other games when the Cardinals weren't on KMOX. Some teams were easier to follow than others, of course, but I think my personal record was picking up a Giants game once on KNBR from San Francisco.

I always loved the newspaper misspellings. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch in 1987 gave us wrestling results from Brad Hart, Bingo Warrior, Cowboy Bob Gordon, and Rockin' Robin somehow became Rockin' Lilly.

Your description alone makes that my match of the year. I don't need a 5-star wrestling clinic when there's ill-advised, poorly-conceived insanity to behold.

Sting and Pillman vs. Hansen and Muta might have been quite the match, but in exchange we'd have had El Gigante and PN News vs. Ric Flair and Barry Windham in a steel cage for the main event. That'd be another one we could file under "interesting for all the wrong reasons."

What Trucker Hogan needs is a red and yellow Robin Hood hat, then claim he's the star of the traveling production of Robin Hulk: Brothers in Tights.

Bob Backlund was much flashier as a collegiate wrestler than as a pro.

Deezer D has died of a suspected heart attack at the age of 55. I have to admit, I remember him not just for co-starring in CB4, but also seeing his name in the ending credits of just about every ER rerun that TNT ran immediately preceding WCW Monday Nitro.

Ox Baker, high school senior:

If Dusty Rhodes was a multi-year WWF champion and Hulk Hogan had jumped to the NWA:

Somewhere out there is an alternate universe where TL Hopper has been renowned for over two decades as the most electrifying man in sports entertainment, and Rocky Maivia was that one guy who came out to the ring with a plunger.

According to Cyndi Lauper's memoir, Captain Chameleon was actually David Wolff, which would explain how those songs made their way to the WWF.

He was the only person capable of uttering these five words: "Here is your winner, Meat!" with complete seriousness and sincerity.

The 1910s were the last decade that the Yankees didn't reach the World Series. It was also the last decade that no New York team won it all. Just in case anyone's rooting for history to be made, or broken, or whatever.

Some in the Crown Jewel image look thrilled to be there, others less so. Brock, on the other hand, seems genuinely mystified by the concept of having his photograph taken.

Since the title can be defended anytime, the face plate should have been a clock, complete with hands moving hilariously fast around it. Either that, or a digital clock repeatedly blinking 12:00.

I did that with my Hasbro figures. I had a nice, long-running feud between Repo Man and Kona Crush versus Demolition Smash and Crush where they swapped the tag team titles multiple times. When Ax would get involved, I'd toss in Ultimate Warrior to even things up in six-man matches.

Those four actually were my Hasbro version of the Four Horsemen. Then Razor and Shawn left the group and aligned themselves with Marty Jannetty and Virgil while they feuded with the revamped Horsemen of Flair, Hennig, Greg Valentine, and Rick Rude. Virgil might stand out there, but his figure was pretty sturdy and he was my World champion on at least one occasion.

This has nothing to do with naming rights, but I spent a week in Chicago this past summer and went to a Cubs-Padres game at Wrigley, a White Sox-Royals game at the Sox park, and three Chicago Dogs minor league games in Rosemont. I must have met as many actual Dogs fans than White Sox fans. Guaranteed Rate Field that afternoon was pretty much a place where a Cardinals fan like me could meet fans of the Cubs, Yankees, Red Sox, Brewers, and even an occasional Royals fan, take in a major league game for cheap, and no matter what our differences were, at least we could say we weren't White Sox fans. I also had a great root beer float at the Sox game, so they have that going for them.

It's probably a good thing Vader never got to run over Cactus with a Big Van, then.

The Blues have fired Mike Yeo; assistant coach Craig Berube is now the interim head coach.

Bald, pudgy Dean is that extremely dreaded uncle who would take up residence on your couch on Thanksgiving, and still be there come New Year's Day.

I was amazed to see Steve Travis billed above Andre the Giant at that Brooklyn show. After looking him up, though, it's clear he deserved such prestige.

Hey, the Hawks did what the Blues have yet to do: win a championship representing St. Louis. I like how we have more Super Bowl wins, NBA championships, and American League pennants than Stanley Cup victories.

I think it was the year the Blues won the President's Trophy, then lost in the first round to the Sharks, that I realized the Blues would never win the Stanley Cup in my lifetime. Once that set in, I could learn to appreciate and enjoy the exciting ways they've found to shoot themselves in the foot each year. I'll always love the Blues and they'll never cease to entertain me, but I've got to be realistic here. A crippling final-week Blues defeat to the Blackhawks is just absurdly hilarious.