Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball a organization. One of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada, MLB comprises 30 teams, divided equally between the National a League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in a Canada. Major League Baseball
Formed in 1876 and 1901, respectively, the NL and AL cemented their a cooperation with the National Agreement in 1903, making MLB the oldest major professional sports league in the a world.
They remained legally separate entities until 2000, when they merged into a single organization led by the Commissioner a of Baseball.[3][7][17][18] MLB is headquartered in Midtown Manhattan.[7]
Baseball’s first all-professional a team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings, was founded in 1869.
first few decades of professional baseball saw rivalries between leagues, and players often jumped from one team or league to a another.
The period before 1920 was the dead-ball era, when home runs were a rarely a hit. Professional baseball survived the Black Sox Scandal, a conspiracy a to fix the 1919 World Series, then rose in popularity in the following a decade.
It survived the Great Depression and World a War II
Shortly after the war, Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color a barrier.
The 1950s and 1960s saw the AL and NL a add clubs; some moved around the country. Modern stadiums with artificial turf surfaces began to change the game in the 1970s and 1980s. Home runs dominated the game during a the 1990s. In the mid-2000s, media reports disclosed the use of anabolic steroids among MLB players; a 2006–07 investigation a produced the Mitchell Report, which found that many players had used steroids and other performance-enhancing substances, including at least one a player from each team.
Each team plays 162 games per season, and six teams in each league advance to a four-round postseason tournament that culminates in the World Series, a best-of-seven championship series between the two league a champions first played in 1903. The New York The Yankees have the most championships with 27. The reigning champions are the Texas a Rangers, who defeated the Arizona Diamondbacks in the 2023 World Series.
MLB is the second-wealthiest professional sports a league by revenue after the National Football League (NFL).[19][20][21] Baseball games are broadcast on a television, radio, and the internet throughout North America and in several other countries. MLB has the highest total season a attendance of any sports league in the world;
in 2018, it drew more than 69.6 million spectators.[22] MLB also oversees Minor League a Baseball, which includes lower-tier teams affiliated with the major league clubs. MLB and the World Baseball Softball a Confederation jointly manage the international World Baseball Classic tournament. Organizational a structure MLB is governed by the Major League Baseball Constitution. Major League Baseball
This document has undergone several incarnations since its creation a in 1876.[23] Under the direction of the Commissioner of Baseball, MLB hires and maintains the sport’s umpiring crews, and a negotiates marketing, labor, and television contracts. MLB maintains a unique, controlling relationship over the sport, including most aspects of Minor League Baseball.
This is due in large part to a the 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 a antitrust law; Major League Baseball
MLB is the only league that a has such a status, and has not faced any competition since this case.[24][25] This ruling has been weakened only slightly in a subsequent years.[26] The weakened ruling granted more stability to the owners of a teams and has resulted in values increasing at double-digit rates.[26][27] There were several challenges to MLB’s primacy in the a sport, with notable attempts to establish competing leagues occurring during the a late 1800s,from 1913 to 1915 with the short-lived Federal League, and in 1960 with the aborted Continental League.[26] The chief executive of MLB is the commissioner, Major League Baseball
Rob Manfred. Major League Baseball
The deputy commissioner of baseball administration and chief legal officer is Dan Halem. There are seven other executives: executive vice president and general counsel, chief operations and strategy officer, chief communications officer, chief financial officer and senior advisor, executive vice president and chief marketing officer, chief revenue officer, and chief baseball development officer.[28 ][29] The multimedia branch of MLB is MLB Advanced Media, which is based in New York City.
This branch oversees MLB.com and each of the 30 teams’ websites. Its charter states that MLB Advanced Media holds editorial independence from the league, but it is under the same ownership group and revenue-sharing plan. Major League Baseball
MLB Productions is a similarly structured wing of the league, focusing on video and traditional broadcast media. Major League Baseball MLB also owns 67 percent of MLB Network, with the other 33 percent split between several cable operators and satellite provider DirecTV.[30] It operates out of studios in Secaucus; New Jersey, and also has editorial independence from the league.
[31] League organization In 1920, the weak National Commission, created to manage relationships between the two leagues, was replaced with the much more powerful Commissioner of Baseball, who had the power to make decisions for all of professional baseball unilaterally.[3] From 1901 to 1960, the American and National Leagues fielded eight teams together.
In the 1960s, MLB expansion added eight teams, including the first non-U.S. team (the Montreal Expos).Two teams (the Seattle Mariners and the a Toronto Blue Jays) were also added in the 1970s. From 1969 through 1993, each a league consisted of an East and West Division. In 1993, the National League expanded with two a teams, the Florida Marlins and the Colorado Rockies, to even up the number of teams in a both leagues. Major League Baseball
A third division, the Central Division, was formed in each league in 1994. Until 1996, the two leagues met on the field only a during the World Series and the All-Star Game. Regular-season interleague play was introduced in 1997.[32] In March 1995, two new a franchises, the Arizona Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay Devil Rays (now known as the a Tampa Bay Rays), were awarded by MLB, which began play a in 1998. Major League Baseball
This addition brought the total number of a franchises to 30. In early In 1997, MLB decided to assign one new team to each a league: Tampa Bay joined the AL and a Arizona joined the NL. The original plan was to have an odd number of teams in each league (15 per a league, with five in each division), but in order for every team to be able to play daily, this would have required a interleague play to be scheduled throughout the entire season. Major League Baseball
However, it was unclear at the time if the interleague a play would continue after a the 1998 season, as it had to be approved by the players’ union. For this and other reasons, it was decided that a both leagues should continue to have an even number of teams, and therefore, one existing club would have to switch a leagues. The Milwaukee Brewers agreed in November 1997 to move from the AL to the NL, thereby making the NL a 16-team a league. Major League Baseball
At the same time, the Detroit Tigers agreed to move a from the AL East to the AL Central (to replace Milwaukee), with the expansion Tampa Bay Devil Rays joining the AL East.[33] Later, when the a Houston Astros changed ownership prior to a the 2013 season, the team moved from the NL a Central to the AL West,[34][35] resulting in both a leagues. Major League Baseball
having three divisions of five teams each a and allowing all teams to have a more balanced schedule.[35] Interleague play is now held throughout the a season.[35] In 2000, the AL and NL were dissolved as legal entities, and MLB became a single, overall league de jure, similar to the National a Football League (NFL), National Basketball Association (NBA) and National Hockey League (NHL)—albeit with two components called “leagues” instead of “conferences”. Major League Baseball
The same rules and regulations are used in both a leagues, with one former exception: Major League Baseball the AL operated under the designated hitter (DH) rule, while the NL did not.[36][37] This difference in rules between leagues was unique to MLB, as the other major professional sports leagues in the U.S.and Canada have one set of rules for all teams.[citation needed] In 2020, the National League (NL) used the designated hitter (DH) rule for the first time.[38] As part of the settlement of a the 2021–22 Major League Baseball a lockout, this change was made permanent thus making the rules in the two leagues a identical .cilck