ST. LOUIS - Legendary game-show host Bob Barker passed away at the age 99. While he was known as the long-time host of 'The Price is Right', he actually had dreams of a different career path.
Barker was born in Washington state, and spent most of his youth in South Dakota, but he spent a lot of his teenage and young adult years in Springfield Missouri, where he would attend high school in the area along with going to college at Drury University, while on a basketball scholarship.
It was in Springfield where Barker met his future wife Dorothy Jo, while attending a Ella Fitzgerald concert when he was 15 years-old, and eloped with his high school sweetheart in St. Louis while on leave in the middle of training to become a fighter pilot right near the end World War II.
It was also in Springfield where Barker started his career, first picking up a radio job at local station KTTS after his military stint in the Navy reserves.
Barker told Utah radio station KOAL back in 2015 that he got the job after spending most of the interview talking to the manager about airplanes.
"I thank the United States Navy for my start," Barker said, "I put on my naval officers uniform and my wings of gold, and I went in an met (the radio manager) and we spent 45 minutes just talking about airplanes and I got my first job in radio."
Barker would also pick up quite a love for the St. Louis Cardinals, a quite immense love that he wanted to be a Cardinals player while growing up.
"As a kid, my dream was to pitch for the St. Louis Cardinals," Barker told Utah radio station KOAL, "I wanted to pitch for the Cardinals, but I never obviously did due to a lack of talent."
Barker immense love for the St. Louis Cardinals helped him create friendship with Baseball and Cardinals Hall of Fame manager Whitey Herzog, whom invited him to Busch Stadium II while he was in St. Louis to host a Miss Universe pageant.
When he first met Herzog, the longtime Cardinals manager gave him a Cardinals jacket and a travel bag, both items that he used for many years.
"He gave me a Cardinals jacket, which I still wear (at the time)," Barker said, "He also gave a Cardinals bag which I used for (The Price is Right) to put my things in until I wore it out"
Herzog was also aware of Barker's dream of wanting to pitch for the Cardinals, and he gave Barker his dream to be a part of the Cardinals organization, sort of.
"(Whitey) signed me to a contract with the Cardinals, and I get a dollar a year so long as I did NOT pitch," Barker said, "He told me if he even heard me even warm-up, the contract was void. I had fun with Whitey about that."
Barker says he still believed in his mind that the contract was still in effect.
"In my imagination, it still going on," Barker said.