A number years ago, there was a TV show called Cheers and the theme song had a line where everyone knows your name. There are places that are set in tradition of baseball and apple pie. In the world of professional baseball there is the National and American leagues or the big time – the feeder baseball league or minor league baseball is the subject of a book called Where Nobody Knows Your Name by John Feinstein published by Doubleday, NY, 2014. In the book the author highlights a number of players who all made the majors and played in the minors. The world has changed when minor league teams were not attached to major league teams, but not all the Triple A teams are. In the majors, the 162 game season means at some point in time injuries will occur. The prospects and the needed players will be called up to fill the major league vacancies, an excellent general manager knows how to use the list. The prospects even a casual fan can see they will soon be in the major league or the show. The needed players are those that love the game – may have spent some time in the majors, but they are a needed part of the game. The book is about those players who either played well in the majors, had an injury and on the comeback or players who have high level of skills and the majors need them every once in a while. The minimum money is better in the big leagues.

In every baseball season, there are 3 important dates which happen to be holidays Memorial Day, 4th of July and Labor Day. The meanings behind the date is before Memorial Day it is cooler, after the temperature rises. It is easier to play great ball in the cooler weather. The teams that went on a winning streak will begin to lose games as the weather changes. The 4th of July or Independence Day is the mid point of the major leagues and 2/3’s of the way for the minor leagues (they play fewer games). Labor Day is the push for playoffs and for the minor leagues the season is over. Minor league baseball celebrates winners, but it main role is a feeder system or back up for the major league team – if it needs a player, then they go up. The manager of the minor league team must improvise and use all the talent he has.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, every company that pays dividends does not make its money the same degree each quarter. Whatever company you own, has a cycle and some quarters are more important than others. The classic example is retail – more people show in the last quarter than the first quarter. It is important to know which quarter is most important for your company, if it hits its expectations for the quarter, then you have little to worry about, if the company is far removed, quickly search for alternatives.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.