The Babe Problems of Tiger and Babe

Though most people don’t associate Baltimore with the sunny beaches of Florida,  Southwest Airlines will throw in a trip to Baltimore on the way to Fort Lauderdale from St. Louis and knock $26 off the price of a direct flight.  What a deal!

 

It was in Baltimore on February 6, 1895 that George Herman “Babe” Ruth was born.  By 1930, Babe Ruth was raking in $80,000 a year swatting home runs.  When asked if he felt bad because President Herbert Hoover was only earning $75,000 a year at the time, the Babe reportedly responded “Nah, I had a better year than Hoover.”

As my wife and I prepared to board our flight to Fort Lauderdale in Baltimore, a parade of senior citizens in wheel chairs made their way to the front of the line.  Florida is apparently a pretty popular destination for east coast retirees.  Who knew?  I suspect at least one of those oldsters queuing up at the front of the line saw Babe Ruth, who died on August 16, 1948, play in person.

I chose Southwest Airlines for our trip because (A) the price was affordable, and (B) They do not charge extra for luggage.  What Southwest also does not do is assign seats to passengers.  It's first come, first served (unless you are in a wheel chair, in which case you go to the head of the line).  Instead, Southwest ingenuously lets passengers volunteer to pay extra to move to the front of the line to board the aircraft.  The first 15 people willing to pay an extra $40 go on first.  Next up are the “Early Birds”.  Passengers willing to pay an extra $12.50 are designated as Early Birds and get to board immediately after the Early, Early, Early Birds (wheelchair people) and the Early, Early Birds (people willing to fork over $40).  I forked over the $12.50 in hopes of snagging a window seat.  It worked.  As the last of the passengers unwilling to pay any extra cash to move up in line made their way aboard the plane the flight attendant announced “Folks, the only seats left are middle seats so find one beside someone who smells good and looks OK and sit down.  They may just turn out to be the love of your life!”

After an unremarkable flight, my favorite kind, we arrived in Fort Lauderdale right on time.  If we had driven to Florida as we originally planned we would have been finishing lunch at a Cracker Barrel in Illinois about the time we got off the plane. 

Thirty minutes later we were loading our luggage into a Nissan SUV driven by Terry, the wife of Joe, my wife's cousin.  Joe and Terry split their time between Melbourne, Australia, and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, but they visit the U.S. frequently.   Last year they came to Missouri for a visit and we took them to Branson.  After all, how can you claim to be world travelers if you've never been to Branson?  They even got to meet Herkimer at Presley's Country Jubilee.

“Nice car!” I commented as we left the airport.  “Yes” said Terry, in her Aussie accent.  “The rental car company tried to give us a free upgrade to something called a Dodge Charger.  I didn’t know what it was so I chose this instead.  When the rental lady said ‘that’s ok, I’m sure someone else will want it’, the guy behind me in line said ‘I’LL TAKE IT!’”

We watched the sun rise Monday through large glass panes while sitting in Lambert Airport in St. Louis.   By the time the sun set Monday evening we were relaxing on a balcony overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.  Propelled by winds exceeding 40 mph, we marveled as the large waves the locals sometimes refer to  as “an angry ocean” crashed on the shoreline.  It was not too far from where we sat that Tiger Woods’ once crashed his car into a tree after suffering injuries and eventually losing his home to a storm of another kind, “an angry Elin”.    Tiger has rebounded nicely and is currently dating Olympic skier Lindsey Vonn.  Though he and Lindsey apparently have some spirited arguments as well, none have reportedly involved Lindsey whacking Tiger on the head with a nine-iron.

 

Babe Ruth could identify with Tiger's troubles with the opposite sex.  The Babe had his problems with women as well.  He once said "I'll promise to go easier on drinking and get to bed earlier, but not for you, for $50,000 or $250,000 will I give up women.  They're too much fun."

 

Some things never change. 

 

They just get more expensive.