No...never got any tips from him. Every now and then he'd take a turn in the cage and all activity would stop while we watched him hit. Dude was in his 50's and could still sting the ball. Needless to say, sweetest swing you ever saw.
I know what you mean about meals. I was in charge of ordering the inflight stuff. Filet was always a winner. Poker pots got a bit outrageous on our flights, too.
Used to board 3 cases of beer and a full liquor cabinet on each flight. Players were restricted to beer only (on the plane) but everyone else could have drinks. Ted always drank Dry Sec. Nellie Fox always drank Crown Royal. At the end of the flight, I'd "loot" the remaining liquor and fill a flight bag, so the players could have a "tasty" at the hotel.
Shortly after checking in, you'd find me walking up and down the halls, flight bag in hand, distributing "leftovers". (Maybe that's why the players insisted I go on the road with them. HMMM.

) I wasn't always able to empty the flight bag so a lot of the miniatures ended up on my closet shelf at home. I don't drink, so they kept accumulating. At the end of one season, I counted over 1300 miniatures on the shelf.
Don't know whether you've heard of Frank Howard or not. 6'7" 300+ lbs. (Managed the Mets in '83.) Really great guy, but you never wanted to go have a meal with him. The man was an eating machine. He'd order 2 steaks, 3-4 potatoes, extra veggies, pitchers of beer and suck up every morsel. The rest of us would order a regular meal. When the check came, Frank would say, "OK the bill's $200. Divide that by the 4 of us. That comes to $50 apiece."
We'd always stop him right there and remind him that he ate $100 of that.
And he'd do it every time.
Gotta' admit. That was the most fun I've ever had.
Mudge the reminescing
ps. OHH...the stories I could tell
