‘Retired’ Francesa also bad at stock picks
NOT ONLY will there never again be anyone like Mike Francesa, he’s
still at it. Monday, the first business day since his “retirement” — only Francesa could claim he’s retiring while “mulling many offers” — he was back in his business: his unparalleled genius at everything, even if his genius regularly exposes him as colossally and often immediately wrong.
Monday, he was on financial channel CNBC to boast — as he did on WFAN — of his superior wisdom-based stocks portfolio, another reason he would remind the peons in his radio audience that he’s much smarter and wealthier than they.
CNBC and Francesa made a good fit. CNBC has indulged the appearances of Wayne Root as a credible economic and political observer when he was a comically transparent sports scamdicapper — a standout disreputable figure in a business that targets suckers.
Root once ran ads claiming “I Know The Winners of Horseraces Before They’re Run.” He has represented himself as a “former New York Daily News Columnist” when he only wrote a weekly pick-box through which he demonstrated his uncanny ability, similar to Francesa’s, to enrich only those who bet
against his expert touts. Francesa’s investments genius is such that he declared Lenny Dykstra, known during and after baseball as short on human credibility, as a Midas-touched, self-taught financial genius
Aside from Francesa’s knowledge of Dykstra as an investments savant, one of CNBC’s top touts, Jim Cramer, repeatedly marveled at Dykstra’s stock-picking aplomb.
Soon, Dykstra, was broke, sentenced in two separate cases to a total of more than three years in prison for grand theft auto and financial fraud.
So Monday, Francesa, with Cramer on CNBC’s set, was asked to tout some stocks. He chose Apple — no expertise needed as Apple is widely known as a steady winner.
The next day, Apple was down $1.88 a share, having made sudden news as a Wall Street analyst down
graded it from a buy to a hold. On the first Monday after WFAN, Francesa still had his magic touch.