Major League Baseball ( MLB ) is the highest level of play in North American professional baseball. Specifically, Major League Baseball refers to the organization that operates the National League and the American League, by means of a joint organizational structure that has developed gradually between them since 1903 (the National League having been in existence since 1876). In 2000, the two leagues were officially disbanded as separate legal entities with all their rights and functions consolidated in the commissioner's office. MLB effectively operates as a single league and as such it constitutes one of the major professional sports leagues of the United States. It is currently composed of 30 teams—29 in the United States and one in Canada. In conjunction with the International Baseball Federation, the MLB also manages the World Baseball Classic.
Each season consists of 162 games (with an additional game, or games, in case of a tie breaker needed to determine postseason participation), which generally begins on the first Sunday in April and ends on the first Sunday in October, with the postseason played in October and sometimes into early November. The same rules and regulations are played between the two leagues with one exception: the American League operates under the Designated Hitter Rule, while the National League does not. Utilization of the DH Rule in interleague play, the All-Star and World Series games is determined by the home team's league rules.
MLB is controlled by the Major League Baseball Constitution that has undergone several incarnations since 1876 with the most recent revisions being made in 2005. Under the direction of Commissioner of Baseball (currently Bud Selig), Major League Baseball hires and maintains the sport's umpiring crews, and negotiates marketing, labor, and television contracts. As is the case for most of the sports leagues in the United States and Canada, the "closed shop" aspect of MLB effectively prevents the yearly promotion and relegation of teams into and out of Major League Baseball by virtue of their performance. Major League Baseball maintains a unique, controlling relationship over the sport, including most aspects of minor league baseball. This is due in large part to a 1922 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Federal Baseball Club v. National League , which held that baseball is not interstate commerce and therefore not subject to federal antitrust law. This ruling has been weakened only slightly in subsequent years.
The production/multimedia wing of MLB is New York-based MLB Advanced Media, which oversees MLB.com and all 30 of the individual teams' websites. Its charter states that MLB Advanced Media holds editorial independence from the League itself, but it is indeed under the same ownership group and revenue-sharing plan. MLB Productions is a similarly-structured wing of the league, focusing on video and traditional broadcast media.
League organization
Major League Baseball is divided into two leagues — the American League, with fourteen teams, and the National League, with sixteen teams. Each league is further subdivided into three divisions, labeled East, Central, and West. The unequal balance of teams, into even-sized leagues, prevented the need for interleague games to fill schedules (which two, odd-sized, fifteen-team leagues would have required). In 1998, the Milwaukee Brewers moved from the American League to the National League, to make the National League a 16-team league. Before the 1998 season, the American League and the National League each added a fifteenth team. Because of the odd number of teams, only seven games could possibly be scheduled in each league on any given day. Thus, one team in each league would have to be idle on any given day. This would have made it difficult for scheduling, in terms of travel days and the need to end the season before October. To avoid this problem, Milwaukee agreed to change leagues.
Though the two leagues have been historically separate, that distinction has all but disappeared. In 1903, the two leagues began to meet in an end-of-year championship series called the World Series. In 1920, the weak National Commission, which had been created to manage relationships between the two leagues, was replaced with an all-powerful Commissioner of Baseball, who had the power to make decisions for all of professional baseball unilaterally. The two leagues remained distinct, in terms of their playing schedule, except for the annual All-Star Game and the World Series, until 1997 when regular-season, interleague play began. In 2000, the American and National Leagues were dissolved as legal entities, and Major League Baseball became a singular league de jure , although it had operated as a de facto single entity for many years.
History of Major League Baseball
Main article: History of baseball in the United StatesDiffering definitions of MLB's founding year
For its founding year, Major League Baseball (the current official organization) uses 1869 — the year in which the first professional team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings, was established — and held official celebrations for its 100th anniversary in 1969 and its 125th anniversary in 1994, both of which were commemorated with league-wide shoulder patches. The present-day Chicago Cubs and Atlanta Braves franchises trace their histories back to the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players in the early 1870s. Many believe that the formation of the National League in 1876 is the beginning of Major League Baseball. Others believe the signing of the National Agreement in 1903 (two seasons after the American League's formation in 1901) is the true beginning of Major League Baseball.
Major Leagues
The first attempt at a national major league was the shortlived National Association, which existed from 1871 to 1875. Two present-day Major League franchises— the Atlanta Braves and the Chicago Cubs— can trace their origins to the National Association.
Currently, there are two major leagues: the National League (founded in 1876) and the American League (founded in 1901.) Several other defunct leagues are officially considered to be major, and their statistics and records are included with those of the two current Major Leagues. These include the Union Association (1884), the American Association (19th century) (1882-1891, not to be confused with later minor leagues of the same name), the Players League (1890) and the Federal League (1914-1915). In the late 1950s, a serious attempt was made to establish a third major league, the Continental League, but that league never began play.
The top players in the Negro Leagues of the first half of the 20th century were as good or even better than their counterparts in the segregated Major Leagues (which was virtually all-white, with a very few Hispanic and Native American players.) Several Negro league players have been enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame. However, the Negro Leagues are not officially considered major, primarily because the statistical record is incomplete.
Japanese professional baseball is comparable in quality to North American baseball, but the Pacific League and the Central League are not officially considered major leagues.
Rise of Major League Baseball
In the 1860s, aided by the Civil War, "New York"-style baseball expanded into a national game and baseball's first governing body, The National Association of Base Ball Players, was formed. The NABBP existed as an amateur league for twelve years. By 1867, more than 400 clubs were members, although most of the strongest clubs remained those based in the northeastern part of the country.
In 1870, a schism developed between professional and amateur ballplayers, after the 1869 founding of the first professional baseball team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings. The NABBP split into two groups. The National Association of Professional Base Ball Players was formed in 1871. It is considered by some to have been the first major league. Its amateur counterpart disappeared after only a few years.
In 1876, the National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs — which still exists — was established, after the National Association proved ineffective. The emphasis was now on "clubs" rather than "players". Clubs now had the ability to enforce player contracts, preventing players from jumping to higher-paying clubs. For their part, clubs were required to play the full schedule of games, instead of forfeiting scheduled games when the club was no longer in the running for the league championship, which happened frequently under the National Association. A concerted effort was made to reduce the amount of gambling on games which was leaving the validity of results in doubt.
The early years of the National League were tumultuous, with threats from rival leagues and a rebellion by players against the hated "reserve clause", which restricted the free movement of players between clubs. Competitive leagues formed regularly, and also disbanded regularly. The most successful was the American Association (1881–1891), sometimes called the "beer and whiskey league" for its tolerance of the sale of alcoholic beverages to spectators. For several years, the National League and American Association champions met in a postseason championship series—the first attempt at a World Series.
The Union Association survived for only one season (1884), as did the Players League (1890). Both leagues are considered major leagues by many baseball researchers because of
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