Major League Baseball

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MLB redirects here. MLB may also refer to motor life boat.

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Major League Baseball (MLB) is the highest level of play in professional baseball in the world. More specifically, Major League Baseball refers to the entity that operates North American professional baseball's two major leagues, the National League and the American League, by means of a joint organizational structure which has existed between them since 1903. On an organizational level, MLB effectively operates as a single "league", and as such it constitutes one of the major professional sports leagues of North America.

Major League Baseball is governed by the Major League Baseball Constitution, an agreement that has undergone several incarnations since 1876 then called the NL Constitution, with the most recent revisions being made in 2005. Major League Baseball, under the direction of its Commissioner, Bud Selig, hires and maintains the sport's umpiring crews, and negotiates marketing, labor, and television contracts. As is the case for most North American sports leagues, the 'closed shop' aspect of MLB effectively prevents the yearly promotion and demotion of teams into the Major League by virtue of their performance.

MLB also 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 declared baseball is not considered interstate commerce (and therefore not subject to federal antitrust law), despite baseball's own references to itself as an "industry" rather than a "sport."

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.

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Current Major Leagues

The Major League regular season runs from late March or early April to late September or early October. Players and teams prepare for the season in spring training, primarily in Florida and Arizona, during February and March. Three rounds of playoffs follow the regular season, culminating in the World Series in late October or early November.

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Teams and schedule

At the time of writing the Commissioner of Baseball, Bud Selig, has often floated the idea of international expansion and realignment of the major leagues. At the moment, however, the major leagues are each split into three divisions, and structured as listed in the table below. Template:MLBteams Image:Major League Baseball team locations.PNG In all there are 30 teams in the two leagues: 16 in the older National League ("NL") and 14 in the American League ("AL"). The leagues do not have the same number of teams because 15 teams in each league would force interleague play every day. Each has its teams split into three divisions grouped generally by geography. They are (number of teams in each division in parenthesis): NL East (5), NL Central (6), NL West (5), AL East (5), AL Central (5) and AL West (4).

Each team's regular season consists of 162 games, a duration established in 1961 in the American League and 1962 in the National League. From 1904 into the early 1960s, except for 1919, a 154-game schedule was played in both leagues (7 opponents X 22 games apiece). Expansion from 8 to 10 teams in each league in the early 1960s resulted in a revised schedule of 162 games (9 opponents X 18 games apiece, initially) in their expansion years, for the American in 1961 and the National in 1962. The number of games per opponent now varies depending on various factors, but the total number of games has been kept at 162.

Unplanned shortened seasons were played in 1918 due to the United States entering World War I, and in 1972, 1981, 1994 and 1995 due to player strikes and lockouts. A 140 game schedule (7 X 20) was played in 1919, and the schedule before 1904 varied from year to year.

Games are played predominantly against teams within each league through an unbalanced schedule which heavily favors intra-divisional play. In 1997 Major League Baseball introduced interleague play, which was criticized by the sport's purists but has since proven very popular with most fans. The interleague games are confined to the mid-summer months. Typically many intra-division games are scheduled toward the end of the season, anticipating the possibility of close divisional races and heightened fan interest.

Each year in June, Major League Baseball conducts a draft for first year players who have never signed a Major or Minor League contract. The MLB Draft is among the least followed of the professional sports drafts in the United States.

For a detailed history of the length of the regular season, see Major League Baseball season.

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Major League race and origin

At the start of the 2006 season, there were 744 players on opening rosters, of which were:

582 (78%) US-born (including Puerto Rico), 476 (64% of MLB) caucasian, 75 (10% of MLB) black, 31 (4% of MLB) Latino

162 (22%) foreign-born, 119 (24% of MLB) Latin American (76 from the Dominican Republic, 43 from Venezuela), 14 or (2% of MLB) Asian

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All-Star game

Early July marks the midway point of the season, during which a three day break is taken when the Major League Baseball All-Star Game is staged. The All-Star game pits players from the NL, headed up by the manager of the previous NL World Series team, against players from the AL, similarly managed, in an exhibition game. The 2002 contest ended in an 11-inning tie because both teams were out of pitchers, a result which proved highly unpopular with the fans. As a result, for a two-year trial in 2003 and 2004, the league which won the game received the benefit of home-field advantage (four of the seven games of that year's World Series taking place at their home park). The 2005 contest, played in Detroit, followed this format, and it is expected that it will remain that way until the MLB says otherwise, since it has become popular with fans but has upset purists over the previous format of the two leagues alternating home-field advantage every other year. Through the 2005 season, the AL has won all three contests with this rule. The Boston Red Sox and Chicago White Sox took full advantage of the rule, with both teams winning the World Series in a 4-0 sweep in 2004 and 2005, respectively.

Since the 1970s, the eight position players for each team who take the field initially have been voted into the game by fans. The remaining position players and all of the pitchers on each league's roster were, for a large number of years, solely at the discretion of that team's manager. In 2004, however, MLB instituted a system where some reserves and pitchers were selected by a vote of MLB players, and some were selected by the manager after consulting with the Commissioner's Office. By MLB regulation, every team in the majors must have at least one designated all-star player, regardless of voting. This rule exists so that fans of every team have a player to watch for in the All Star Game.

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Post-season

When the regular season ends after the first Sunday in October, eight teams enter the post-season playoffs. The first six teams are each league's three division champions. The remaining two "wild-card" spots are filled by each league's team that has the best regular season record and is not a division champion. Three rounds of series of games are played to determine the champion:

  1. American League Division Series and National League Division Series, each a best-of-five game series;
  2. American League Championship Series and National League Championship Series, each a best-of-seven game series played between the surviving teams from the ALDS and NLDS; and
  3. World Series, a best-of-seven game series played between the champions of each league.

The matchup for the first round of the playoffs is usually 1 seed vs. 4 seed, and 2 seed vs. 3 seed, unless this would result in a matchup of two teams from the same division, in which case the matchup is 1 seed vs. 3 seed and 2 seed vs. 4 seed. In the first and second round of the playoffs, the better seeded team has home-field advantage.

The team belonging to the league that won the mid-season All-Star game receives home-field advantage in the World Series. The 2006 All Star game will be played in Pittsburgh at PNC Park.

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MLB steroid policy

Over most of the course of Major League Baseball, steroid testing was never a major issue. However, after the BALCO steroid scandal, which involved allegations that top baseball players had used illegal performance-enhancing drugs, Major League Baseball finally decided to issue harsher penalties for steroid users. The policy, which was accepted by Major League Baseball players and owners, was issued at the start of the 2005 season and went as follows:

A first positive test resulted in a suspension of up to 10 game, a second positive test resulted in a suspension of 30 game, the third positive test resulted in a suspension of 60 game, the fourth positive test resulted in a suspension of one full year, and a fifth positive test resulted in a penalty at the commissioner’s discretion. Players were tested at least once per year, with the chance that several players could be tested many times per year. (See: List of Major League Baseball players suspended for steroids)

This program replaced the previous steroid testing program under which, for example, no player was even suspended in 2004. Under the old policy, which was established in 2002, a first-time offense would only result in treatment for the player, and it was likely that the player would not even be named. The 2005 agreement changed this rule so that first-time offenders were named and suspended.

In November 2005, MLB owners and players approved even tougher penalties for positive tests than the ones in place during the 2005 season. Under the new rules, a first positive test would result in a 50-game suspension, a second positive test would result in a 100-game suspension, and a third positive test would result in a lifetime suspension from MLB.

These new penalties are much harsher than the previous ones. The new steroid policy finally brings MLB closer in line with international rules, as well as with the NFL, which has long taken a tough stance on those caught using steroids.

MLB's previous reluctance to take a hard line on drugs (as many other sports featured far stricter testing and penalties) was widely seen as one of the main reasons why baseball has been dropped from the Olympics, effective in 2012.

On 30 March, 2006, Bud Selig launched an investigation on the alleged steriod use by players such as Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi, and Gary Sheffield as the weight of books like Game of Shadows emerge. The inquiry into steroids' use in baseball is expected to go back no further than 2002, when the MLB started testing players for performance-enhancing drugs.

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References

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Historical Major Leagues

In 1969, the centennial of professional baseball, a commission chartered by Major League Baseball identified the following leagues as "major leagues". The list is sometimes disputed by baseball researchers. The MLB list included the following:

Some researchers contend that the following leagues deserve consideration as major leagues due to the caliber of player and the level of play exhibited:

In general, the official stance is that game and statistical records for these particular leagues were not kept in a consistent manner and/or those leagues did not have a significant direct impact on the major leagues.

Specifically, the following can be said of these leagues:

  • The NA is unquestionably recognized as the first professional league, and is the direct precursor to the NL, most of whose original eight teams came from the NA. The standard position is that the NA was a "transitional" league that was not quite up to major league standards. The NL was a wholly new entity that took the best remnants of the NA and imposed a discipline that was lacking in the failed NA.
  • The AL itself asserted that it was a minor league in 1900, although it was already located in most of the cities it would be operating in the following year. However, in 1900 it operated independently and did not conduct raids on major league rosters. That changed in 1901.
  • The Negro Leagues are the toughest call. Some historians have labeled their time the era of "shadow ball", a segregated parallel to the (all-white) major leagues. The fact that many young players were able to come into the majors in the late 1940s and early 1950s, and have immediate impact, possibly argues for major status. It could also be argued that the Negro Leagues were more properly equated to the highest levels of minor league ball, such as the Pacific Coast League. It is a debate that has no clear resolution, which is why most historians are content to simply regard them as a category unto themselves.

Conversely, some historians question whether the Union Association really qualifies as "major", because it really only had one major-league caliber team (St. Louis) and its membership was a revolving door. The Union's chief claim to major status would rest on having had some direct impact on the other majors, due to roster-raiding. None of the three "non-major" groups listed above could make that claim.

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See also

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Players, ownership, ballparks and officials

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Statistics, milestones and records

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Post-season awards

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Exhibition and playoffs

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External links

MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
NATIONAL LEAGUE
EASTERN DIVISION

Atlanta Braves
Florida Marlins
New York Mets
Philadelphia Phillies
Washington Nationals

CENTRAL DIVISION

Chicago Cubs
Cincinnati Reds
Houston Astros
Milwaukee Brewers
Pittsburgh Pirates
St. Louis Cardinals

WESTERN DIVISION

Arizona Diamondbacks
Colorado Rockies
Los Angeles Dodgers
San Diego Padres
San Francisco Giants

AMERICAN LEAGUE
EASTERN DIVISION

Baltimore Orioles
Boston Red Sox
New York Yankees
Tampa Bay Devil Rays
Toronto Blue Jays

CENTRAL DIVISION

Chicago White Sox
Cleveland Indians
Detroit Tigers
Kansas City Royals
Minnesota Twins

WESTERN DIVISION

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
Oakland Athletics
Seattle Mariners
Texas Rangers

World Series | NLCS | ALCS | NLDS | ALDS | All-Star Game | MLB awards | Hall of Fame | MLBPA | Negro Leagues | Minor Leagues | History of baseball | Major League Baseball television contracts | Baseball year-by-year | World Baseball Classic

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