Ty Cobb, Coca-Cola, Humble Pie and Shares in Play

I had heard recommendations to read the book "Financial Statement Analysis, A Practitioner's Guide", by Martin Fridson and Fernando Alvarez, copyright 2002, published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. So I checked the book out from the library to gain knowledge for rational investing. At the library I noticed another book, by Martin S. Fridson, entitled "It Was a Very Good Year", copyright 1998, also published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., and since I am in the history business, especially the history of investment dealings, I decided to check this book out of the library also.

From page 20 of the above mentioned year 1998 book, in a section Fridson entitles "The Real Thing" Fridson writes "...Cobb was photographed on the bench with a carton of soda pop conspicuously displayed at his side. The soft drink was a brand produced in his native state of Georgia, originally marketed as "French Wine Cola Nerve and Tonic Stimulant."

Apparently, this French Wine Cola Nerve and Tonic Stimulant was later re-named Coca-Cola. Referring to Ty Cobb, Fridson on the same page 20 writes, " The Georgia Peach purchased 300 shares for a total of $10,800. Within eight years his annual income from Coca Cola reached $350,000." "Well before age 40, Cobb was a millionaire, even though his baseball salary never surpassed $85,000 a year."

I have heard that the old Coca-Cola contained cocaine. If it did when Ty Cobb was an investor in it, Ty Cobb was almost like a drug dealer. Nowadays, here in 2008, the energy drinks containing taurine and so forth, are probably helping some of the already rich, get richer, in the same way that the so-called strong and decent baseball salaried Ty Cobb got supplemental superiority income off of Coke.

But it seems some things could be done to spread around those consumers' dollars that consumers will always spend on going to professional sports events. Mark Rosentraub, in his July, 1999, book entitled "Major League Losers: The Real Cost of Sports and Who is Paying For It" goes to great lengths to discuss how taxpayers' dollars more or less further subsidize the high revenue sports leagues and teams, because these tax dollars are spent to build stadiums, instead of dollars taken in by the teams from advertisers and ticket sales being spent for stadium construction and maintenance costs. Most importantly, Rosentraub points out how it is very likely there could be many more additional pro sports teams and paid players as recipients of these entertainer jobs, if it wasn't for the league monopolies deliberately keeping the number of team franchises low to insure high salaries for only the so-called strong people that are able to make it onto the low number of teams.

So this all seems like a rigged system sports mafia to me. With unemployment rates so high, it seems we need all the help we can get. Too many people that could be proud, moderately paid professional athletes, instead have to take humble pie jobs instead of apple pie jobs. Instead of being American and driving a Chevrolet, they see what should be their shares, instead being owned and played by the so-called stronger modern day Ty Cobbs. This is if they can even find a job in the mall selling athletic footwear or hot dogs, let alone a good paying union auto plant job.