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Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball (MLB) is the highest level of play in North American professional baseball. More specifically, Major League Baseball refers to the organization that operates North American 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. Major League Baseball teams play a 162-game season, which generally begins on the first Sunday in April and ends on the first Sunday in October, with playoffs played in October and early November.

The two leagues follow the same rules, with one exception: the American League operates under the Designated Hitter Rule, while the National League does not. Utilization of the DH Rule in Interleague, All-Star and World Series games is determined by the home team's league rules. In 2000, the American and National Leagues were officially disbanded as separate legal entities with all rights and functions consolidated in the commissioner's office. MLB effectively operates as a single league and as such it constitutes one of the major professional sports leagues of North America.

MLB is controlled by 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 (currently 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 and out of the Major League by virtue of their performance. Major League Baseball is mostly funded by private enterprises, but also partially funded directly by public taxes.

MLB 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 held that baseball is not interstate commerce and therefore not subject to federal antitrust law. This ruling has been weakened only slightly in subsequent years.

Major League Scheduling

The Major League regular season generally runs from the first Sunday in April to the first Sunday in October.

Each team is scheduled to play 162 games during the season. Games are scheduled every day (except as noted in the next paragraph), although not all teams play every day; by rule, each team has a scheduled day off at least once every two weeks. Players and teams prepare for the season in spring training, in Florida and Arizona, during February and March.

Three rounds of playoffs follow the regular season, culminating in the World Series in early November. Playoffs consist of multiple game series which are split between the two teams' home fields; predetermined sites are not used as they are in some other professional sports championships.

An annual "All-Star Game" is conducted halfway through the season, at a pre-determined site, with all teams enjoying a three-day break. National League players make up one team, while American League players form the other. Eight players from each league (one for each field position other than pitcher) are selected by fan vote, while the remainder are selected by the selected coaches of the two League teams (which are the coaches of the previous year's World Series teams).

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, in which American and National League teams play against one another. This break from tradition (previously, the two leagues played completely seperate schedules except for the All-Star Game and World Series) was criticized by the sport's purists but has since proven very lucrative to the franchises. The interleague games are currently confined to the months of May and June. Typically many intra-division games are scheduled toward the end of the season, anticipating the possibility of close divisional races and heightened fan interest.

Generally, when two teams meet, they play two to four games against one another, normally scheduled as one game per day on consecutive days. In the unbalanced schedule currently in use, most teams will travel to visit each other team in their division three times per season, each team in their league's other divisions once per season, and make three visits to teams from the opposite league, totalling 81 games. The remaining 81 games are conducted at home, with other teams visiting on a similar schedule. When games must be rescheduled due to weather or other concerns, it is common for the game to be rescheduled as part of a "double-header", in which two games featuring the same two teams are played back-to-back on the same day.

Most games begin at either 1:05 pm or 7:05 pm local time, although some teams prefer other times, and individual games may be scheduled at other times for a variety of reasons (often relating to being featured on nationwide television). When not over-ridden due to broadcast contracts, the game time is ultimately set by the home team. Most teams prefer to schedule daytime games on Sunday and one chosen weekday, with night games the remainder of the week. However, the Chicago Cubs, by agreement with the City of Chicago, are required to play almost two-thirds of their home games during the day. (The Cubs' stadium, Wrigley Field, was also the last stadium to operate without lights, which were installed in 1988. Prior to the 1988 season, all Cubs home games were played in daylight.)

Draft and Minor Leagues

Each year in June, Major League Baseball conducts a draft for first-year players who have never signed a Major or Minor League contract. These players are generally American and Canadian high school graduates or university students, although players from a limited number of foreign countries may also be drafted. Notably, players from Japan may not be drafted, it being regarded as the exclusive right of the Japanese leagues to do so.

The Major League Baseball Draft is among the least followed of the professional sports drafts in the United States, possibly because other professional sports drafts feature players who will immediately start to play for the team they are drafted by that next year, whereas the MLB has an extensive minor league system to help players mature and hone their skills to be able to compete with those in the major leagues.

After being drafted, players are assigned to minor league teams who are affiliated with the major league team. The minor leagues are organized into several levels, and players normally work their way up over a period of three or more seasons (based on skill and performance) before appearing in the Major Leagues.

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