Sports' Babe Ruth of Billionaires

It was reported by Forbes Magazine last week that Tiger Woods is a billionaire.
I'll wait...
Hmmm, nothing.

OK, let me type that again...It was reported by Forbes Magazine last week that Tiger Woods is a billionaire...

Hmmm, still nothing. Guess I didn't think there would be. I'm betting your reaction is somewhere in the ballpark of, 'Yeah, so what, pally?'
Am I right?

Vanilla ice cream is white. Yao Ming is tall. Peyton Manning's good. Politicians are corrupt.
Tiger Woods is a billionaire.
Well, of course they are, for crying out loud!

With endorsements, it's reported that Alex Rodriguez will clear $33 million on his corner of the diamond this year; Roger Federer $31 million for holding court; rapper Shaquille O'Neal $35 million for also taking up space in the lane; Dale Earnhardt Jr. $27 million for making nothing but left-hand turns!

Welcome to the world of professional sports in the years 2000, where we no longer blink when absurd numbers like these are tossed at us.
Ho-hum.

And Tiger seems even less startled by the whole thing than we are.

According to golf.com, when asked by a reporter at a President's Cup news conference Tuesday what it was like to learn that he had become a billionaire, Tiger laughed and said, "Well, one, I haven't (heard the news), so I don't know where that number came from."

While Forbes admits only Woods' accountant knows for sure how many millions he's worth, they are fairly confident that if he hasn't reached the billion-dollar threshold yet, it's bound to happen soon. And anyway, what's $100 million or two between friends when you are forced to factor in all the riches Woods has, like endorsements, and winnings, and appearance fees, and houses, and boats, and etc., etc., etc.

So now we simply shrug when we hear an athlete might be worth a billion dollars.

It really wasn't that long ago when Babe Ruth was taken to task for asking for a salary that exceeded President Herbert Hoover's. Ruth famously shot back, "Why not, I had a better year than he did."

Not sure Woods could make the same argument this year, but given the silly money in sports these days, he won't have to.

Tiger Woods is a billionaire. Why, of course he is. Yeesh...