Encyclopedia
Major League Baseball is the highest level of play in professional
baseball. 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 relegation of teams into the Major League by virtue of their performance.
MLB as well 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 , 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.
Current Major League Clubs
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.
National League
| Division | Team | City | Stadium |
|---|
| East | Atlanta Braves | Atlanta, Georgia | Turner Field |
|---|
| Florida Marlins | Miami Gardens, Florida | Dolphin Stadium |
| New York Mets | Flushing, Queens, New York | Shea Stadium |
| Philadelphia Phillies | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | Citizens Bank Park |
| Washington Nationals | Washington, D.C. | Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium |
| Central | Chicago Cubs | Chicago, Illinois | Wrigley Field |
|---|
| Cincinnati Reds | Cincinnati, Ohio | Great American Ball Park |
| Houston Astros | Houston, Texas | Minute Maid Park |
| Milwaukee Brewers | Milwaukee, Wisconsin | Miller Park |
| Pittsburgh Pirates | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | PNC Park |
| St. Louis Cardinals | St. Louis, Missouri | Busch Stadium |
| West | Arizona Diamondbacks | Phoenix, Arizona | Chase Field |
|---|
| Colorado Rockies | Denver, Colorado | Coors Field |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | Los Angeles, California | Dodger Stadium |
| San Diego Padres | San Diego, California | PETCO Park |
| San Francisco Giants | San Francisco, California | AT&T Park |
American League
| Division | Team | City/Borough | Stadium |
|---|
| East | Baltimore Orioles | Baltimore, Maryland | Oriole Park at Camden Yards |
|---|
| Boston Red Sox | Boston, Massachusetts | Fenway Park |
| New York Yankees | Bronx, New York | Yankee Stadium |
| Tampa Bay Devil Rays | St. Petersburg, Florida | Tropicana Field |
| Toronto Blue Jays | Toronto, Ontario | Rogers Centre |
| Central | Chicago White Sox | Chicago, Illinois | U.S. Cellular Field |
|---|
| Cleveland Indians | Cleveland, Ohio | Jacobs Field |
| Detroit Tigers | Detroit, Michigan | Comerica Park |
| Kansas City Royals | Kansas City, Missouri | Kauffman Stadium |
| Minnesota Twins | Minneapolis, Minnesota | Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome |
| West | Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim | Anaheim, California | Angel Stadium of Anaheim |
|---|
| Oakland Athletics | Oakland, California | McAfee Coliseum |
| Seattle Mariners | Seattle, Washington | Safeco Field |
| Texas Rangers | Arlington, Texas | Ameriquest Field in Arlington |
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 two major leagues are each split into three divisions and structured as listed in the tables above.
In all, there are 30 teams in the two leagues: 16 in the older
National League and 14 in the
American League . 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 : NL East , NL Central , NL West , AL East , AL Central , and AL West .
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 . Expansion from 8 to 10 teams in each league in the early 1960s resulted in a revised schedule of 162 games in their expansion years, for the American League in 1961 and the National League in 1962. Although the schedule remains at 162 games to this day, the layout of games played was changed when Divisional play began in 1969, so that teams played more games against opponents within their own division than against the other division or the other league.
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 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.
Major League race and origin
At the start of the 2006 season, there were 744 players on opening rosters, of which were:
582
US-born : 476 Caucasian, 75 Black, 31 Latino
162 foreign-born: 119
Latin American , 14
Asian
Team names
In American professional sports, there is a kind of standardized structure for the names of individual clubs. The structure involves two elements, the first being a
geographical designator, usually the name of a city, and a
nickname. This is in contrast to non-American sports, such as European soccer, in which team names need not necessarily follow a particular pattern, or Asian professional baseball, which generally follows a "corporate sponsor" name followed by a "nickname." The pattern began with National League clubs and has been extended from there to almost all U.S. professional clubs.
Originally, gentlemen's clubs and gentlemen's athletic clubs were key movers in the development of organized baseball, so early prominent teams were simply named after the clubs that formed them: Athletic Club, Mutual Club, Olympic Club, Forest City Club, Kekionga Club, Atlantic Club, Western Club. By 1871, with the formation of the National Association, clubs no longer just competed with local rivals, but with the best clubs from other cities around the northeast. Thus, geographic designators were added, establishing the now familiar pattern : Athletics of Philadelphia, Mutuals of New York, Olympics of Washington, Forest Citys of Cleveland, Kekiongas of Fort Wayne, Atlantics of Brooklyn, Westerns of Keokuk.
By 1876, when the National League entered play, baseball clubs were no longer primarily associated with gentlemen's clubs, and most of the original teams were named after the one uniform feature that served to distinguish them on the field -- the color of their stockings. Thus: Boston Red Stockings, Chicago White Stockings, Cincinnati Red Stockings, Hartford Dark Blues, Louisville Grays, St. Louis Brown Stockings .
Throughout this period, club nicknames were ad hoc, and bestowed and used at will by sports writers and fans. Nicknames became associated with particular cities, and fans tended to refer to the local team by this name, even if it was not associated in a corporate fashion with its predecessor. Thus, multiple, unassociated teams used names such as Boston Red Stockings, Chicago White Stockings, Cincinnati Red Stockings, St. Louis Brown Stockings, Louisville Grays, Baltimore Orioles, and the like.
In the 20th century, the club nickname acquired an official status, being designated by the club ownership. However, this has not always been the case. At least three times in the early 20th century, club officials tried to change the common nickname for a club, but the press and the public largely ignored the change and the older, more popular name remained in use. Some examples include team officials changing "Boston Braves" to "Boston Bees"; and "
Philadelphia Phillies" to "Philadelphia Blue Jays," both of which never caught on. Additionally, the original Washington Senators were officially the "Washington Nationals" from 1905 onward, but use of the "Nationals" name was rare and the team officially became the "Senators" after the 1956 season.
Major League Baseball uniforms
The official rules of Major League Baseball require that all players on a team wear matching uniforms.
Traditionally, when playing at home, teams wore uniforms that were mostly white with trim in team colors and when playing away, they wore uniforms that were mostly gray with trim in team colors. Aside from the obvious need to distinguish one team from the other, conventional wisdom held that it was more difficult to properly launder uniforms while on a road trip, thus the "road grays" helped to hide accumulated soil. This convention continued well after its original premise was nullified by the issuance of multiple uniforms and the growth of the
laundromat industry. Starting in the 1970s, with the advent of synthetic fabrics, teams began using more color in their uniforms, notably the
Oakland Athletics in the early 1970s and the
Houston Astros in the mid-1970s. In the late 1970s, the Pittsburgh Pirates began a trend of multiple combinations of differently colored jerseys and trousers and caps .
Starting in the 1990s, MLB clubs began heavily marketing licensed goods, such as caps and uniform jerseys to the public and this has resulted in a wide array of uniforms for each team. Now, some teams have not only a basic home uniform and away uniform, but also special "Sunday game" uniforms and uniforms that are worn only during batting practice and uniforms worn on singular events. On several occasions, the MLB has instituted nostalgia events, during which teams wore uniforms from the past.
The result is that it is now often difficult to say which uniform is a team's "official" one. For example, the
Cincinnati Reds now wear a variety of caps: all red, red crown and black bill, black crown and red bill, and all black. In contrast from the pre-1990s era, in which there usually was just one home uniform and one road uniform , today choices of what combination of uniform elements are worn are now sometimes left up to players. In some cases, aspects of the uniform that are considered official are now rarely worn, such as the
New York Mets' all-blue home cap, which is rarely seen on the field today in favor of an "alternate" black-and-blue cap.
The official rules state that:
- All players on a team must wear identical uniforms during a single game.
- Numbers: All players must wear their uniform numbers on the back of the uniform
- Undershirt: If the undershirt is exposed then all the players on the team must wear matching ones. Numbers or other devices may be worn on the sleeve of the undershirt , except that pitchers may not have such devices on their undershirt sleeves.
- The league office might require that each team have a single uniform for all games or requires that each team have a single, white home uniform and a single, non-white away uniform. With the elimination of the separate American League and National League administrations, it is unknown what the effectiveness of this rule now is.
- Sleeve length: The rules allow for minor variation in sleeve length, but they must be "approximately the same length" and the sleeves may not be "ragged, frayed or slit."
- No attachments: Tape or other attachments of non-matching color may not be used on uniforms.
- No images of baseballs: No "pattern that imitates or suggests the shape of a baseball" may be used on uniforms. Notably, in apparent violation of this rule, the Milwaukee Brewers
The
Milwaukee Brewers are a Major League Baseball [i] team based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin [i]. ...
for many years had a logo that incorporated the image of a baseball, and the logo has made a comeback in 2006 on the hats of the Brewers' Sunday home uniforms.
- No glass buttons or polished metal
- No commercial advertisements on uniforms. This rule is in variance with professional sports, especially outside the United States , in which it is customary for uniforms to prominently display the logo of a sponsoring company.
- Names: "A league may provide that the uniforms of its member teams include the names of its players on their backs. Any name other than the last name of the player must be approved by the League President. If adopted, all uniforms for a team must have the names of its players." Again, with the elimination of separate administrations for the American and National leagues, it is unknown what the provenance of this rule is. . The Chicago Cubs, New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants do not display their players' names on their home uniforms , although the Cubs and Dodgers will return names to the back of all their uniforms in 2007.
On game days that do not require a special uniform it is generally the starting pitcher for a team that chooses the uniform to be worn for that day's game.
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 . 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. The Boston Red Sox and Chicago White Sox took some advantage of the rule in 2004 and 2005 respectively, as each team started the Series with two home victories, giving them good momentum for a sweep. The rule did not help the Yankees in 2003, as they lost the Series to Florida in 6 games.
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. Each person is allowed to vote 25 times. 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. The 2007 All-Star Game will be played in San Francisco at AT&T Park.
Post-season
When the regular season ends after the first Sunday in October , eight teams enter the post-season playoffs. Six teams are division champions; the remaining two "wild-card" spots are filled by the team in each league that has the best record but is not a division champion . Three rounds of series of games are played to determine the champion:
- American League Division Series and National League Division Series, each a best-of-five game series;
- 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
- World Series, a best-of-seven game series played between the champions of each league.
The division winners are seeded 1-3 based on record. The wild-card team is the 4 seed, regardless of its record. The matchup for the first round of the playoffs is usually 1 seed vs. 4 seed and 2 seed vs. 3 seed, unless the wild-card team is from the same division as the 1 seed, in which case the matchup is 1 seed vs. 3 seed and 2 seed vs. 4 seed, as teams from the same division cannot meet in the 1st round. In the first and second round of the playoffs, the better seeded team has home-field advantage, regardless of record.
In the event of a tie in the standings at the close of the regular season, league rules provide for a one-game playoff to determine which of two teams participate in the Division Series. If three teams are involved in a tie, a two-game playoff may be played. If two teams are tied, but a tiebreaker would result in both participating in the Division Series anyway , then no playoff is played and seedings are determined by head-to-head record.
The team belonging to the league that won the mid-season All-Star Game receives home-field advantage in the World Series.
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 10 games, a second positive test resulted in a suspension of 30 games, the third positive test resulted in a suspension of 60 games, 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.
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 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 was widely seen as one of the main reasons why baseball has been dropped from the
Olympics, effective in 2012.
On March 30, 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 is a book published on March 23, 2006 and was written by Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams [i] ...
emerged. 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.
MLB blackout policy
Major League Baseball has several blackout rules. Games are blacked out based on two criteria:
- A local broadcaster has priority to televise games from the team in their market over national broadcasters. For example, TBS shows many Atlanta Braves games nationally and internationally in Canada. Fox Sports Net also shows many games in other areas. If the Braves play a team that FSN or another local broadcaster shows, the local station has the rights for their own local market, TBS will be blacked out for the duration of the game for everyone in the zip code of the market of the team playing against the Braves. A market that has a local team playing in a weekday ESPN or ESPN2 game and is shown on a local station will see ESPNEWS, another game scheduled on ESPN or ESPN2 at the same time , or will be subject to an alternative programming feed.
- FOX has certain rights for afternoon MLB games on Saturdays, and ESPN has the same rights for night games on Sundays. Broadcasters cannot show games of in-market teams regardless of if the game is home or away if the game of the local team has a certain start time . This is to make people watch the out of market game on ESPN or FOX. The reasoning is that since people will not be able to watch their favorite team, they may be willing to settle for some baseball, even if it involves teams they are not as exicted about. This results in higher ratings for the national broadcaster by pulling baseball fans away from watching their own team.
References
National broadcasts
2006
Major League Baseball's current broadcast agreements ends at the end of the 2006 season. Currently, FOX Sports has rights to the
All-Star Game, Saturday afternoon telecasts, shared rights with
ESPN for the Division Series round of playoffs, and exclusive rights to the American League Championship Series, National League Championship Series, and the
World Series.
FOX also airs
This Week in Baseball is a weekly television program [i], originally designed to show highlights of ...
, a production of Major League Baseball. ESPN currently airs
Baseball Tonight is a Sports Emmy Awards [i] winning program that airs on ESPN [i], and is the only ...
, a network program providing live game highlights and analysis,
Sunday Night Baseball is the Major League Baseball [i] game of the week that is televised Sunday nig ...
, as well as various weekly baseball telecasts, including games on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights.
ESPN also airs games on opening day and has shared rights to division series games in 2006.
A new agreement reached with TBS on July 11, 2006 will allow TBS to broadcast any tiebreakers to determine a division or wild card champion.
2007 and beyond
Major League Baseball has three current broadcast partners for the 2007 season and beyond, and a fourth is expected to join as well.
It was announced on July 11, 2006 that FOX Sports will remain with MLB through 2013 and broadcast
FOX Saturday Baseball throughout the entire season, rather than the current May to September format. FOX will also hold rights to the
All-Star Game each season. FOX will also alternate League Championship Series broadcasts, broadcasting the American League Championship Series in odd-numbered years and the National League Championship Series in even-numbered years as part of the new contract. FOX will continue to broadcast all games of the
World Series, which will begin on a Tuesday evening rather than the current Saturday evening format.
ESPN will continue to broadcast Major League Baseball through 2013 as well, beginning with national Opening Day coverage. ESPN will continue to broadcast
Sunday Night Baseball is the Major League Baseball [i] game of the week that is televised Sunday nig ...
,
Baseball Tonight is a Sports Emmy Awards [i] winning program that airs on ESPN [i], and is the only ...
, and a new Monday Night Baseball program. ESPN also has rights to the
Home Run Derby at the All-Star Game each July.
TBS will begin broadcasting playoff baseball nationally in 2007. It is currently a broadcast partner of the
Atlanta Braves, but will end its national Braves broadcasts after the 2007 season as it will air Sunday afternoon regular season games from across the MLB, which can include up to 13 Braves games, nationally from 2008 to 2013 under the new contract. TBS will also have exclusive rights to any tiebreaker games that determine division or wild card champions at the end of each regular season in the event of a tie with one playoff spot remaining, as well as exclusive coverage of the Division Series round of the playoffs. Locally, in the
Atlanta market, TBS will continue to air 45 Braves games per season from 2008 to 2013 after it airs its final 70 national Braves broadcasts in 2007.
A contract with a fourth television station is still in negotiation. It is expected that it would include the remaining League Championship Series telecasts not included under FOX's television agreement.
References
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2516552
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=mlbespn&prov=st&type=lgns
http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/press_releases/press_release.jsp?ymd=20060711&content_id=1552548&vkey=pr_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/hiestand-tv/2006-07-11-hiestand-mlb_x.htm?csp=34
Historical major leagues
