Many moons ago, in Major League Baseball, only two prizes were awarded along with a grand prize.
The National League and the American League handed out pennants to the teams with the most wins, and then those teams met in a seven-game series with one emerging as the World Champion.
Only if there was a tie between two teams at the end of the season was there a playoff game to determine the pennant winner.
Now, as you know, there are three times as many prizes, for a total of nine.
With three divisions in each league, there are six division champions, two wild card teams and one world champion remaining after all 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 sneak into the postseason in their divisions or as wild card representatives, they will be happy and can proclaim to their fans that they are the winners.
They’ll probably fill the stands with paying customers and sell lots of memorabilia bragging, “We’re the champions of the Western Division,” but they could be fools, with win-loss records just over .500.
I think there are several teams that are secretly targeting ONLY the top tier of the playoffs. The Los Angeles Dodgers is one of them.
Instead of staking big bucks to secure top talent, they rely on a mix of burnt-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 to enter the early stage of the postseason?
Long story short, 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 bottom line about 50 million dollars that they would otherwise risk.
I think the Oakland A’s are another team with the same philosophy, although they have a much better record of making the playoffs recently. If you doubt what I’m advocating here, take a look at 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 a lot, but only in the short term. You can count the New York Mets and the Chicago White Sox among them.
Occasionally, 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, you don’t walk away with the grand prize consistently without trying every time.
The Red Sox can tell you a lot.
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