Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball is an organization and legal entity consisting of 30 professional baseball teams divided into two "leagues", one named the "American League", which has 14 teams, and the other "National League", which has 16 teams. Each of these two leagues is further divided into three divisions: East, West, and Central.

History

The American and National leagues did not always function as one combined league as they do now. They used to function as individual leagues until 1903 when the two leagues determined a combined champion through a series of games known as the World Series. The World Series is still used today to determine the Major League champion every year.

Throughout the years, both leagues have seen a number of teams come and go. When the National League was formed in 1876, it had eight teams, only four of which are still in existence and in the same city that they started in. The American League was formed in 1901, it also had eight teams, seven of which are still where they started.

The Color Bar

African American players had played alongside whites in the early days of baseball. However, in the modern era the Major Leagues barred Black players, who competed in their own Negro League. This color bar persisted until 1947, when Jackie Robinson forever changed the face of Major League Baseball.

Expansion outside the U.S.

In 1969, MLB expanded outside the border of the United States for the first time with the creation of the Montreal Expos. French-language broadcasters had to invent a whole new lexicon to describe the game to fans.

Season Structure

Each of the 30 teams plays a 162 game season every year. The schedules lean heavily towards an intra-divisional schedule. A team may play another team in the same division as many as 18 or 19 times in a year, while only playing a team in a different division 5 or 6 times throughout the roughly 6 month long season. Most of a team's schedule is against teams in the same league. A team will play a few games against every team in their own league, but only play against 4 or 5 teams from the opposite league.

After the regular season is complete, the leading teams move on to the playoffs. The division leader from each division, and the single best second place team from each league, known as the "wild card" moves on. The division leaders are seeded in 1st through 3rd place based on their regular season records, and the wild card team is seeded 4th. The teams then play each other in a best-of-5 series, where the 1st seed and the 4th seed play against each other and the 2nd and 3rd seeds compete. This assumes that the two teams playing each other are not from the same division, if they are, then the match ups are changed. The two winners from this first round, known as either the "American League Division Series" (ALDS) or the "National League Division Series" (NLDS), depending on what league the teams are from, move on to the next round. This next round is known as the American (or National) League Championship Series (ALCS and NLCS, respectively). These Championship series' are both a best-of-7 series, where the first team to win 4 games in the series moves on.

Finally, the ALCS and the NLCS winners move on to one final round of play, this is also a best-of-7 series, and is known as the World Series. The winner of the World Series every year is declared the Major League Baseball Champion for that season.

All-Star Game

In July of every year every team has a three day break in their schedule, this is called the "All-Star Break". In the middle of this break, there is a special exhibition game called the All-Star game. This game features at least one player from every team in the Major Leagues. They are split up into two teams, one team featuring players from the American League, and the other team having players from the National League. The starting position players (as in, the non-pitchers) are voted on by the fans. The player receiving the most votes from the fans at each position starts in the game, though they will usually only play a few innings. The rest of the team is chosen by, in large part, the manager of their respective teams. The players and the Commissioner's office also have some say in the rest of the roster for this game. The managers from the two teams that were in the World Series the year prior are chosen to lead the All-Star teams.

The All-Star game has been played since 1933, and for most of that time it was a meaningless exhibition game, having no bearing on any other part of the season. This changed in 2003, when after the 2002 game was called a tie, due to a lack of pitchers on both teams, it was decreed by the Commissioner, Bud Selig, that the winning league in the All-Star game would have home-field advantage (having 4 of the 7 games in their own stadium) in the World Series.

Steroid use in Major League Baseball

Over most of the course of Major League Baseball, it was not against baseball's rules to use steroids. The sport did not include a policy against their use until 2002. Even then, the policy was seen as weak, giving very little disincentive to the players. Under the 2002 policy, if a player was caught using certain performance enhancing drugs, they would be given treatment, and their name would not be announced. Then, the BALCO steroid scandal, which involved accusations that top baseball players had used illegal performance-enhancing drugs, and the public outcry surrounding that, forced Major League Baseball to stiffen the policy.

The new policy, which was started during the 2005 MLB season, tested every player at least once per season, with additional random tests throughout the year, and featured a sliding scale of penalties ranging from a 10 game suspension for the first positive test result, up to a full season's suspension for a fourth offense. Further offenses were handled by the commissioner. Also, offenders under the new policy were publicly named, if, after an appealed second test also came back positive.

This policy lasted less than one full year. In November of 2005, the owners and players agreed on a new, even tougher steroid policy. This one allowed for only three offenses. The first resulting in a 50 game suspension, the second in a 100 game suspension, and a third offense would lead to a lifetime suspension from MLB. This policy brought MLB a lot closer to many other sports in terms of how performance-enhancing drugs are handled.

The Minors

Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in North America. Below it are the minor leagues, ranked AAA, AA and A. The Minors include such leagues as the International League and the Southern League, which typically have teams in smaller cities and towns throughout the U.S. and Canada. Major League teams use the Minors as development leagues for younger players. They also provide an opportunity for older players trying to work their way back into the Majors as well as employment for players who were never able to make it to "The Show," as the big leagues are sometimes called.

List of teams in Major League Baseball

• American League
  • East 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
  • West Division
    • Los Angeles Angels
    • Oakland Athletics
    • Seattle Mariners
    • Texas Rangers

• National League
  • East 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
  • West Division
    • Arizona Diamondbacks
    • Colorado Rockies
    • Los Angeles Dodgers
    • San Diego Padres
    • San Francisco Giants

Defunct franchises

• Seattle Pilots
• St. Louis Browns
• Washington Senators
• Washington Nationals (1886-89)