Many moons ago, in Major League Baseball, only two prizes were awarded along with one grand prize.
The National League and American League awarded pennants to the teams with the most wins, and then those teams met in a seven-game series with one emerging as the World Champions.
Only if there was a tie between two teams at the end of the season was there a tiebreaker game to determine the winner of the pennant.
Now, as you know, there are three times as many prizes, in total nine.
With three divisions in each league, there remain six division champions, two wild card teams, and one world champion after all the eliminations.
This system has completely changed baseball, in some cases, for the worse.
Most teams are no longer aiming for a World Championship. If they can squeeze into the postseason in their divisions or as wild card representatives, they’ll be happy and can proclaim to their fans that they’re the winners.
They probably fill the stands with paying customers and sell lots of memorabilia bragging, “We’re the champions of the Western Division,” but they might be fools, with win-loss records barely above .500.
I think there are several teams that are secretly aiming ONLY for the first tier of the playoffs. The Los Angeles Dodgers is one of them.
Rather than gamble big money to secure top talent, they rely on a mix of burned-out veterans and fresh faces to get them through each season. Only if they are at the top of the division as the final weeks of the season approach will they consider trading for a great additional weapon in the form of a solid pitcher or hitter.
You might ask yourself, why do I think the Dodgers are happy about entering the first leg of the postseason?
Simply put, if they’re “competitive” and seem to have a chance to go all the way, they’ll sell about four million tickets and a bunch of Dodger Dogs. In a word, they will be profitable and will be able to contribute to the final result about 50 million dollars that they would otherwise risk.
I think the Oakland A’s are another team with the same philosophy, although recently they have a much better record of making the playoffs. If you doubt what I’m advocating here, check out the book MONEYBALL, which explains the moves made by Billy Beane, the A’s General Manager, and his philosophy on how to get the most value out of payroll.
There are only two teams, I think, that are always looking for a world championship: the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees.
From time to time, other teams will spend big, but only in the short term. You can count the New York Mets and the Chicago White Sox among them.
From time to time, this strategy pays off, as it did with the White Sox in 2005 and the Florida Marlins on a few occasions.
But as a general rule of thumb, you don’t consistently walk away with the grand prize without trying every time.
The Red Sox can tell you a lot.
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