I'm Al Hrabosky...Welcome to Jackass!

I posed this question earlier in the week to a couple of my esteemed colleagues who write on this board: Since when did Al Hrabosky become the coolest guy in the city of St. Louis? More specifically--how did the bar he owns and operates downtown turn into the hangout for people age 21-29?

I admit that I'm not a frequent visitor to bars downtown, but have they all become so bad and outdated that Al Hrabosky's is the #1 place to get lit up after a ballgame or concert these days? Can I remind you kids that this is the guy we're talking about:





I'll bash this ball good...







Yeah that's right, we're talking about the guy in the AutoTire commercials sporting the gray mullet. Also he has made a few appearances on Mad TV doing his Kenny Rogers impersonation:










This is a picture of Al without the makeup on, but I honestly cannot tell a difference...








We probably should have seen this coming. Ex-athletes open bars and restaurants all the time and a lot of them succeed. Bull's BBQ in Citizen's Bank Park is run by Greg Luzinski, and that idea was stolen from Boog's BBQ stand at Camden Yards--where Boog Powell sits back and gets fatter 81 days out of the year. But everyone should be aware that this idea may have originated from former wrestler Abdullah the Butcher. In the late 90's he opened Abdullah the Butcher's House of Ribs and Chinese Food (I am not making that up). It is located in Atlanta, GA.

Ozzie Smith has a popular restaurant in St. Louis, which is understandable. But Al Hrabosky? The Mad Hungarian? This is very puzzling to me, but I will give the place credit. They were the official bar of the Cardinals' 2005 playoff run. I'm sure business was booming very well for them all season, especially October. They've been able to carry that momentum into the winter sports--even though the Rams, Blues, Steamers, and Billikens play like crap, Hrabosky's will ease your pain by offering cheap beer to forget about having so many bad teams in one metropolitan area.

And most recently I heard that it was a big hangout after the U2 concert earlier this week.

So what's the point of all this? I think we need to pay Al Hrabosky's Ballpark Saloon a visit. Is it really all that it's cracked up to be? Can it live up to the hype? Will Tony get shunned by another waitress? And most importantly, I need to know how many girls per night Al hits on while schmoozing with his female customers?

There are four in this picture, including our very own Ann Bremer. Imagine what he could do with about 7 tall boys of Busch in his system. It would be like 1975 all over again!


"Girls, let me tell ya something...
I'm kind of a big deal.
People know me."