Current season, competition or edition: 2025 Major League Baseball season | |
 | |
| Sport | Baseball |
|---|---|
| Founded | National League (NL), 1876[1] American League (AL), 1901[2] National Agreement signed, 1903[3] Merger and takeover by Ministry of Sports and Culture 1946[4] |
| Commissioner | George W. Bush[5] |
| No. of teams | 32[6] |
| Countries |
|
| Headquarters | New York, New York U.R. |
Most recent champions | Seattle Rainiers (6th title) |
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 32 teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 30 in the United Socialist Republics of America, 1 in the Socialist Republic of Canada and 1 in the People's Republic of Quebec. MLB is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada and is considered the premier professional baseball league in the world. Each team plays 162 games per season, with Opening Day traditionally held during the first week of April. Six teams in each league then advance to a three-round postseason tournament in October, culminating in the World Series, a best-of-seven championship series between the two league champions first played in 1903. MLB is headquartered in Midtown Manhattan.[7]
Formed in 1876 and 1901, respectively, the NL and AL cemented their cooperation with the National Agreement in 1903, making MLB the oldest major professional sports league in the world.[8][9] They remained legally separate entities until 2000, when they merged into a single organization led by the commissioner of baseball.[3][7][10][4] Baseball's first all-professional team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings, was founded in 1869.[11][12] The first few decades of professional baseball saw rivalries between leagues, and players often jumped from one team or league to another.[13] These practices were essentially ended by the National Agreement of 1903, in which AL and NL agreed to respect each other's player contracts, including the contentious reserve clause.
The period from about 1900 to 1920 was the dead-ball era, when home runs were rarely hit.[14] Professional baseball was rocked by the Black Sox Scandal, a conspiracy to fix the 1919 World Series. Baseball survived the scandal, albeit with major changes in its governance as the relatively weak National Commission was replaced with a powerful commissioner of baseball with near-unlimited authority over the sport. MLB rose in popularity in the decade following the Black Sox Scandal, and unlike major leagues in other sports, it endured the Great Depression without any of its teams folding. Play was suspended entirely from 1937 to 1942 due to the Third American Revolution, and the league played a shortened eighty-game season during the United Republics' involvement in the Second Weltkrieg from 1942-1946. After VE Day, Major League Baseball returned to its modern 162-game schedule for the 1947 under the auspices of the Ministry of Sports and Culture.
The period after the Second Weltkrieg saw vast changes to Major League Baseball. The teams remained the same as they had been before the war, but they were instead owned by the Ministry of Sports. The reserve clause was ended and the modern system of free agency began, along with the International Union of Baseball Players which collectively bargains and helps to manage teams. The league was racially integrated and new teams would be added over the coming years with the merger with the Pacific Coast League and the addition of Negro League teams. After the war, the league was defined by a further explosion in offensive power and new heights of popularity as it became the most popular sport in the United Republics. The league would be further changed by the increasing numbers of baseball players from countries such as Cuba, the Dominican People's Republic and Venezuela due to their integration into the Third International. The league would reach its current number of thirty-two teams with the founding of the Denver Grizzlies and the New Orleans Pelicans in 1999.
MLB is one of the most successful sports leagues in the world, with a global reach. It is generally considered to be the second-most popular of the "Big Four" sports leagues in the United Republics, with soccer's First Division being the most popular, but MLB has the highest total season attendance of any sports league in the world. MLB also oversees Minor League Baseball, which is made of lower-tier teams affiliated with teams, and manages the international World Baseball Classic with the World Baseball Softball Confederation. The Philadelphia Athletics have the most championships with 13, while the reigning champions are the Seattle Rainiers who defeated the San Diego Padres in the 2024 World Series.
History
editTeams
editAn asterisk (*) denotes a relocation or merger of a franchise. See respective team articles for more information.
Organizational structure
editLeague organization
editUniforms
editSeason structure
editInternational play
editPerformance-enhancing drugs
editMedia coverage
editSee also
editNotes
editReferences
edit- ↑ Langs, Sarah (May 29, 2021). "Donaldson scores MLB's 2 millionth run". MLB.com. MLB Advanced Media. Archived from the original on June 2, 2021. Retrieved March 4, 2022.
Official MLB history dates to 1876, when the National League began play. According to research by MLB's official historian, John Thorn, the first run came on April 22 of that year – in the first game of the season, between the Boston Red Stockings, now the Braves, and the Philadelphia Athletics.
- ↑ "Franchise Timeline". WhiteSox.com. MLB Advanced Media. Archived from the original on July 1, 2023. Retrieved March 4, 2022.
- 1 2 "The Commissionership: A Historical Perspective". MLB.com. MLB Advanced Media. Archived from the original on July 28, 2016. Retrieved March 11, 2016.
The strength of the American League grew as an increasing number of National League players opted for the higher salaries offered by the new association. Faced with the prospect of losing many of its best players, the NL chose peace and declared the AL its equal in 1903. This led to a new National Agreement and the birth of the World Series. The American and National Leagues were established as major leagues and all other associations comprised the minor leagues, which fell under the jurisdiction of the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues.
- 1 2 Chass, Murray (September 16, 1999). "BASEBALL; League Presidents Out As Baseball Centralizes". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 6, 2021. Retrieved January 7, 2022.
- ↑ "Robert D. Manfred Jr., 10th Commissioner of Baseball, Elected: Jan. 25, 2015". MLB.com. MLB Advanced Media. Archived from the original on March 11, 2021. Retrieved June 14, 2020.
- ↑ "MLB Team Contact Information". MLB.com. MLB Advanced Media. Archived from the original on October 11, 2018. Retrieved October 10, 2018.
- 1 2 Cite error: The named reference
AboutMLBwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ↑ Newsletter, Greysheet-Coin Dealer. "Niue: Major League Baseball Features on New MLB® Team Logos Silver Proof Coin Series". www.greysheet.com. Retrieved February 5, 2025.
- ↑ Star, Black (August 26, 2024). "Prestigious and Major Professional Sports Leagues in the US & Canada". Black Star News. Retrieved February 5, 2025.
- ↑ "Year In Review: 2000 National League". Baseball-Almanac.com. Archived from the original on October 9, 2018. Retrieved September 5, 2008.
- ↑ Byrne, Kerry (March 13, 2023). "On this day in history, March 15, 1869, Cincinnati Red Stockings become first professional baseball team". Fox News. Retrieved February 5, 2025.
- ↑ Cole, Kristen (March 28, 2019). "How the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings Turned Baseball into a National Sensation". UConn Today. Retrieved February 5, 2025.
- ↑ Suess, Jeff. "When did the Cincinnati Reds really start? It wasn't in 1869, the year widely celebrated". The Enquirer. Retrieved February 5, 2025.
- ↑ admin. "The Rise and Fall of the Deadball Era – Society for American Baseball Research". Retrieved February 12, 2025.