Final Norway team spawned a pro baseball player ... and wrestler

Let Brad Day sum up Steve Moss' physical stature when the two were teammates on Norway's final baseball team in 1991.

"About 5-foot-8, 95 pounds," Day said with a laugh. "And that's sopping wet."

It's not too surprising there was a professional baseball player on the team that spawned the movie "The Final Season." Eighth-grader Nate Frese went on to star at the University of Iowa, was drafted by the Chicago Cubs and got as far as Triple-A.

But what are the odds there would be a professional wrestler around? That's Moss.

"There were two things I wanted to be when I was a kid," he said. "One, I wanted to be Ryne Sandberg. Two, I also wanted to be Hulk Hogan."

He didn't quite get to be either one. Moss - brother of senior pitcher, Shawn - was a freshman on Norway's last team, with a role he summed up this way:

"Retrieving a lot of foul balls," he said. "That was my main duty."

He went on to play three years at Benton Community, then at Southeastern Community College in Burlington before taking a job at Amana Refrigeration. Then came an epiphany to give wrestling a serious shot.

He scraped together enough money to go to a wrestling school in Cincinnati in 1999, where his odyssey as character Rory Fox was featured on MTV's "Real Life." Moss matriculated around mainly smaller, independent promotions for 11 years, though he did make appearances on World Wrestling Entertainment's "Raw" and "Smackdown" TV shows, as well as World Championship Wrestling.

He competed in front of 20,000 fans at Target Center in Minneapolis, did a match with one of his heroes (King Haku) and had a 15-minute dinner conversation with another (Rowdy Roddy Piper). He said WWE stars like Steve Austin, Triple-H and The Undertaker treated him cordially.

Moss hung up his boots last year after competing for a promotion in Des Moines.

"It was one of those things where I had to see if I could do it or not," he said. "Had to make sure there were no regrets.

"Very tough, very physical. Not much money if you don't make it to the WWE ... It just got to a point where if I couldn't get to the WWE, I didn't know if I wanted to do it anymore."

He said he never saw steroids in the locker room, "though you could figure out who is and who isn't taking them." He admitted he took them during his career, though not during his final years in the business.

"You'd be stupid to take steroids if you're not trying to get to the WWE," he said. "If you're (in Iowa) and trying to be the big fish in the small pond, it's ridiculous."

Moss has moved back to the area and works in Solon. He is playing on a "senior" baseball team with his brother.

Shawn is the shortstop, Steve the second baseman.

"Guess you could say I've come full circle," he said.

Below is video of Moss (i.e., Fox) wrestling one of his idols, Haku, on a WWE TV program: