On Sunday night, WWE held a pay-per-view show called "Payback' and the star was a hulking beast of a man named Braun Strowman, who is billed at 6-foot-8, 385 pounds.

Now that the people who take themselves far too seriously are worked up that I mentioned wrestling on a baseball blog, let us segue into our loose baseball tie. Softball is similar enough, right?

Strowman's real name is Adam Scherr and his father is Rick Scherr. That is, Rick "Crusher" Scherr, known as possibly the greatest slow-pitch softball player of all-time. He's estimated to have hit over 1,800 home runs, some of them plenty long enough to have left any MLB stadium. Some grainy footage is available on YouTube. Here's a quick one:

Every time he hits it, I like to hear "BRAAAAAAAUUUUUUN" from Strowman's theme song in my head. I know they are different people, but it fits.

In a 1986 Los Angeles Times feature on the Crusher, he offered up stories on hitting softballs out of big-league parks, including a meeting with the Hit King:

"K.C. a couple of times," he says. "Shea Stadium, Atlanta, San Diego, Oakland, Anaheim. "The time I did it in Wrigley Field, Chicago, was pretty good. It was between games of a doubleheader with the Phillies. Pete Rose was there. I've met Pete a couple of times. I think he's a real nice man. He'd even stand out there and watch and stuff. Some baseball players were a little snobby. They'd say, 'This guy's not going to hit no softball out of here.' "They had 35,000 people there, and I just caught a good day, with the wind blowing out. I guess I hit six into the bleachers. The guy pitching finally threw me a real nice pitch, and I hit it onto that Waverly Avenue, or whatever."

Waveland, but no worries. He qualified it with a "whatever," so that counts for something.

In that story, Scherr discusses his team, Howard's Western Steer, winning games with outlandish scores like 60-5 and winning six World Softball Championships. The story notes that Scherr hit 451 home runs in 191 games in 1986. Even typing such a thing is making me laugh out loud. Hilarious.

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And now Crusher Scherr's son is near the top of the wrestling world. It's a quirky fun story that seems appropriate to discuss on the heels of Strowman's Payback performance.

Hat-tip: Friend of the blog Joe Roderick