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Mick Foley Gives Thunder Fans A Nice Day

Posted: May 27th 2010 By: CMBurnham

In his illustrious career, Mick Foley has been punched, kicked, body slammed, gouged with a barb-wire baseball bat, thrown through a table, fallen off a 20-foot steel cage and been set on fire.

Still, like in any aspect of life, it could be worse.

"II think I'd rather be slammed on a bed of thumbtacks than to have to stand in center field on a hot summer night like this," Foley said last night before the Thunder played the Erie Sea Wolves.

Right, I forgot about the tacks. That's my favorite one, too.

Foley is one of the most famous professional wrestlers of this generation. He has taken the word "hardcore" to another level and been a model for any current wrestler who thinks they take their performance up a notch with feats of danger and athletecism.

There is no way to really find out whether you are mentally or physically prepared to be slammed onto 1,000 thumbtacks. It's like being a skeleton racer at the Olympics - you pretty much find out the hard way if you're not ready.

"I would hope there is some sort of bunny hill for that sort of sport that they can try it out on," Foley said. "There's no bunny hill when it came to some of the stuff I've done. I really don't ever recommend or advocate doing this stuff."

Foley has wrestled under many personas, including the bizarre boiler-room resident Mankind, the hipster Dude Love, the violent savage known as Cactus Jack, and just plain old Mick, who usually brought the best of all those characters to his performances.

Brought may be a poor choice of tense, as Foley said last night he is not done yet in the ring, despite a recent hiatus from TNA Wrestling and the fact that he is two weeks shy of his 45th birthday. He warmed up for what may be his final comeback by laying a clothesline on Boomer, the Thunder mascot, last night.

"I've got a couple of good matches left in me," said the man known as the Hardcore Legend. "Maybe not great matches, but good ones. I still enjoy being around it."

Foley also has wrestled for WWE, the other televised mega-power of wrestling.

"There a lot of fans who like the kind of wrestling we have in TNA, and there a lot of fans who like what they're doing in WWE," Foley said. "Hopefully, every wrestling fan can find something they enjoy. It's good for the business."

Despite the occasional painful night over the years - well, the frequent painful nights - Foley is more than just a brawler.

He is about to release his ninth book - three of them are children's books - and a few of his first five literary efforts were New York Times bestsellers.

He also has donated most of his advance money for this last book - "Countdown to Lockdown" - to various charities.

Foley, a family man with four chilrden, is a big contributor to the Make A Wish Foundation, making surprise visits to hospitals to visit kids who idolize him.

In short, he is prototypical bad ass with a heart of gold.

The Long Island native is a fan of baseball - he grew up loving the Yankees - but he said he mainly roots for ballplayers who have rooted for him in the past.

"There are a lot of players who come see our shows who just love wrestling," Foley said. "Some of them are rabid fans, and a few more are quiet fans who don't say it out loud, but they love it too."

Apparently, some of those guys were in the house last night, as one of the Sea Wolves' staffers headed down to the clbhouse to get a few "Mr. Sockos" for Foley to autograph for players. Foley famously put a sock puppet on his hand and rammed it down the throats of his foes in the ring.

Whatever the time or place, Foley loves to put on a show, something he promised to do some more of on Thursday nights in the near future.

"It used to mean a lot to me to have these emotional, physically jarring matches," he said. "Now I just want to know that I've made people smile and entertained them."

Tags: Mick Foley, Mankind, Dude Love, Cactus Jack, TNA, WWE