Many moons ago, in Major League Baseball, there were only two prizes awarded along with one grand prize.

The National League and the American League gave pennants to the teams with the most wins, and then those teams played each other in a series of seven games with one emerging as the World Champion.

Only if there was a tie between two teams as the season ended, was there a playoff game to determine the pennant winner.

Now, as you know, there are three times as many prizes, totaling nine, in all.

With three divisions in each league, there are six division champs, two wild card teams, and one World Champion left standing after all of the eliminations.

This system has utterly changed baseball, in some cases, for the worst.

No longer do most teams target a World Championship as their goal. If they can squeak into the post-season in their divisions or as wild card representatives, they’re happy and can proclaim to their fans that they’re winners.

They’ll probably fill the stands with paying customers and sell a lot of souvenirs boasting, “We’re the Western Division Champs,” but they could be chumps, with win-loss records that barely surpass .500.

I believe there are several teams that are secretly shooting ONLY for the first tier of the playoffs. The Los Angeles Dodgers is one of them.

Instead of anteing up the big bucks to secure top talent, they’re depending on a combination of frazzled veterans and fresh faces to get through each season. Only if they’re on top of the division as the final weeks of the season approach will they consider trading for an additional big gun in the form of a solid pitcher or hitter.

Why, you might ask, do I believe the Dodgers are content to just get into the first stage of postseason play?

Simply put, if they’re “competitive” and they 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’ll be profitable, and they’ll be able to bring to the bottom line about $50 million bucks that they would otherwise risk.

I believe the Oakland A’s is another team with the very same philosophy, though they have a much better recent record of making it to the playoffs. If you doubt what I’m contending here take a look at the book, MONEYBALL, which explains the moves made by Billy Beane, the General Manager of the A’s, and his philosophy of how to get the most value from one’s payroll.

There are only two teams, I believe, that are always shooting for a World Championship: the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees.

Occasionally, other teams will spend big, but only for the short term. You can count among them the New York Mets and the Chicago White Sox.

Every now and then this strategy pays off, as it did for the White Sox in 2005, and for the Florida Marlins on a few occasions.

But as a general rule, you don’t walk off with the grand prize on a consistent basis without shooting for it, all the way.

The Red Sox can tell you that much.

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