BUDDY COUSINS: WINNING ISN'T EVERYTHING

 

I Won A Contest Once… Or Did I?

Buddy Cousins 

Many years ago, when The Diamond, (in Richmond, Va.) was about to open, radio station Q-94 ran a sports trivia contest. They had five questions. The people who correctly answered all five were to go into a drawing, and one name would be selected.

No need. It turned out I was the only one to correctly answer all of them. The Grand Prize was an all-expense paid weekend in West Palm Beach, FL, where the Atlanta Braves — parent of the AAA Richmond Braves — held spring training, a rental car to use, and FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS cash spending money. WOW! 

DAY ONE

The first clink was when the wife and I arrived at Richmond International Airport, and I learned she didn’t like flying. Little did I imagine that would be the least of our problems. 

When we arrived in Palm Beach, there was no one to meet us. We had the name of the hotel we were staying in and decided to take a cab. We were talking about the hotel and the Atlanta Braves. First baseman Chris Chambliss, who later would manage the R-Braves. heard us and suggested we ride with him because he was going there. 

Once at the hotel, we discovered there were no reservations for us, and they’d never heard of  “Q-94” in Richmond, Va. GREAT! 

Bonnie, (my wife) asked, “Is this the hotel where [A-Braves’ owner] Ted Turner is staying?” When the clerk flexed, we knew we were in. “Are you with the Turner party?” he asked. 

We looked at each other and snapped, “YES!” The clerk asked what floor we’d like to be on, and Bonnie said, “The one below Ted.” 

We’d been in the room a couple of hours, and the phone rang. It was someone from Q-94’s sister station who was supposed to have met us at the airport. After the expected apologies, he said he would pick us up and take us to the game. 

We learned two things that evening: A) It gets chilly in Florida in early spring, and B) The $30-$40 we had between us wasn’t going to buy much in West Palm Beach. 

After the game, our “host” took us to a seafood place. There were some sports media people he knew there and, before long, we had a sports trivia contest going. There were three teams of three each. 

Bonnie and I were paired with a sports guy from one of our hometown TV stations, and the game quickly turned into a rout. Our team smoked ‘em. 

When we returned to our hotel, I asked our host about our spending money and rental car. His facial expression made me think he’d been a witness for the Warren Commission. 

He said Q-94 was supposed to have given us the money before we left, and he didn’t know anything about a car. GREAT! He said he’d make some calls, and that he’d pick us up Saturday evening and take us to the game.

DAY TWO

Saturday morning we were trying to plan the day with only enough money to buy a couple of  “Kid’s Meals” in West Palm. I told Bonnie we should charge breakfast to our room, which we did.

After breakfast, I had my “Highlight Moment” of the entire weekend. St. Louis Cardinals’ manager Whitey Herzog was talking to reporters in the lobby. He looked at me and asked what I thought about the Cards.

 I said, “No power.” Herzog laughed. “You know your baseball,” he said.

We asked the clerk where to catch a bus because we were going to Palm Beach. A strange look came over him, and I should have asked more questions, but he directed us to a corner, and we thanked him and headed out. 

We found the bus stop and sat down on a bench and waited and waited and waited. I began wishing that “Rick Blaine” would show up and offer to sell us “Letters of Transit” that would allow us to travel home. 

Finally, the first of several buses showed up. We stood up and walked to the stop, waved and the bus seemed to speed up. Didn’t stop. That was strange. Maybe he didn’t see us? Maybe the next two didn’t see us either? 

Now, you might wonder why we didn’t get a cab. It would have wiped out our cash supply, and they didn’t take credit cards like they do today. So, we set off walking. Hell, Palm Beach can’t be that far from West Palm, right? WRONG! 

It was FIVE FREAKIN’ MILES later before we reached Palm Beach. Then, walking down Worth Avenue I realized we’d really made the wrong decision. I saw a Madras belt in a window, and the price was $29.95. I’d just seen the very same belt at Eljo’s for $9.95!

We couldn’t afford to eat in Palm Beach and decided to head back to our hotel when Bonnie had to go to the restroom. After trying for some time to find a place that would let us in, we came upon The Breakers Hotel. And, found a professional croquet match going on. Yep! A professional croquet match. 

A man approached in shiny black trousers and a bright red blazer. Bonnie asked if there were facilities available, and he directed her to some stairs. I was watching some “exciting” croquet when Bonnie returned in a hurry and said, “Let’s go!”

“You steal a towel or something?” I asked. “NO! Two women offered me drinks and sandwiches before I got to the bathroom.” And, I said, “Why didn’t you take a couple? I’m starving.”

That evening the guy from the local radio station showed up and said we could use his car, to turn it in at the airport the next day. He gave us a handful of tickets for the game that night and left. 

Bonnie and I were worn out from our “Palm Beach Excursion,” and I said let's ride over to the ballpark and see if I could sell the tickets. I sold the ten for fifty bucks, We returned to the hotel. Bonnie was worn out and crashed. I watched “The Best Little Whore House In Texas”.

DAY THREE … AMEN!

We cruised around Palm Beach Sunday morning, looking at the big buck homes and having the cops watching us. We got to the airport with time to spare and were soon on our way home, putting this all behind us. NOT SO FAST! When we reached Richmond, we learned our luggage hadn’t. 

BLUE MONDAY

We received a call early Monday morning informing us that our luggage was at RIC. I went down and picked it up then went to the Q-94 studio. They didn’t believe my story. Said they’d call their sister station and get back to us. Why couldn’t they call with me standing there? Duh! 

Anyway, we finally got a check for the $500, but no apologies. Oh, well. 

WAIT! THERE WAS MORE

A week or so later, we received a bill from the hotel for the room and meal charges. Whooly Buffalo Chips!!! 

I wrote a letter to the Atlanta Braves GM outlining our wonderful weekend and asked if he thought we should be paying the bill. He wrote a nice letter saying the bill was being taken care of  — and he was sorry for how things turned out. He was THE ONLY PERSON to say he was sorry. I used the word “Sorry” but in a different context.