Major League Baseball
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Major League Baseball | |
|---|---|
| Current season or competition: 2008 Major League Baseball season |
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| Sport | Baseball |
| Founded | 1869 |
| Commissioner | Bud Selig |
| No. of teams | 30 |
| Country(ies) |  Canada United States |
| Most recent champion(s) |
Boston Red Sox |
| TV partner(s) | FOX, ESPN, and TBS |
| Official website | MLB.com |
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 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. Major League Baseball teams play a 162-game season. The American League operates under the Designated Hitter Rule, but the National League does not (inter-league, all-star and World Series game rules are 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. Major League Baseball is often referred to as "America's Pastime".
Major League Baseball 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[citation needed]. 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 despite baseball's own references to itself as an "industry" rather than a "sport." This ruling has been weakened only slightly in subsequent years.[1] [2]
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.
[edit] Current Major League Clubs
The Major League regular season runs from the first Monday in April (with one game the Sunday night before) until late September or early October. 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 late October.
- 1 To be replaced in 2009 by a new stadium also named "Yankee Stadium"
- 2 To be replaced in 2012 by a new stadium currently named "Rays Ballpark"
- 3 To be replaced in 2010 by a new stadium currently named "Twins Ballpark"
- 4 To be replaced in 2010 — 2012 by a new stadium named "Cisco Field"
- 5 Hosting 2008 All-Star Game.
- 6 Milwaukee Brewers 1901; St. Louis Browns 1902 — 1953
- 7 Baltimore Orioles 1901 — 1902
- 8 Washington Senators 1901 — 1960
- 9 located in Philadelphia 1901 — 1954, Kansas City 1955 — 1967
- 10 Washington Senators 1961 — 1971
- 1 To be replaced in 2011 by a new stadium currently named "New Marlins Stadium".
- 2 To be replaced in 2009 by a new stadium named "Citi Field"
- 3 Hosting 2009 All-Star Game
- 4 located in Boston 1876 — 1952; Milwaukee 1953 — 1965
- 5 Montreal Expos 1969 — 2004
- 6 Seattle Pilots 1969; Mil. Brewers 1970 —
- 7 located in Brooklyn 1890 — 1957
- 8 located in New York 1883 — 1957
- * When the Marlins move out of Dolphin Stadium the team will be renamed the "Miami Marlins"
[edit] Teams and schedule
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 ("NL") and 14 in the American League ("AL"). The leagues do not have the same number of teams because an odd number of teams would force at least one team to be off every day, or play a team from the opposite league. 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 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 divisions or (beginning in 1997) 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 (7 X 20) was played in 1919, due to the influenza outbreak, 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 lucrative to the franchises.[citation needed] 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 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.
For a detailed history of the length of the regular season, see Major League Baseball season.
[edit] Team names and colors
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In American professional sports (and usually amateur sports as well), a generally standardized and marketing-oriented structure has evolved for the names and colors, and thus the identities of individual clubs. The structure involves three elements: a geographical designator, traditionally the name of the team's city, although in recent decades the team's state or region has sometimes been used; a nickname, usually connected with either a mascot, the team's colors, or a feature unique to the region or to the club; and team colors, a carryover from heraldry. This approach contrasts with some 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 early organized baseball clubs and has been extended from there to almost all U.S. professional clubs.
Originally, 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 sometimes added, establishing the now familiar pattern (only reversed): Athletic of Philadelphia, Mutual of New York, Olympic of Washington, Forest City of Cleveland, Kekionga of Fort Wayne, Atlantic of Brooklyn, Western of Keokuk.
By 1876, when the National League entered play, baseball clubs were no longer primarily associated with gentlemen's athletic 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. The 1876 New York and Philadelphia clubs still held over the traditional "Mutual" and "Athletic" names, and were usually so referenced in the standings. The plural usage seen sometimes, "Mutuals" or "Athletics", was equivalent to the "Chicagos" or the "Bostons". Modern historians have often retrofitted these names in the modern style, such as "New York Mutuals", which is technically incorrect. "Mutual" was the actual name of the team, and the club had separate "nicknames" that referred to the team colors in a given year, such as "Green Stockings". The Athletics name did persist, however, and the Philadelphia American League team would retain this name even through two relocations.
Throughout this period, club nicknames were ad hoc, bestowed and used at will by sportswriters 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, Milwaukee Brewers, and the like.
Early in the 20th century, the club nickname began to acquire a more important status, eventually an official status, being designated by the club ownership and ultimately used as part of the club's marketing efforts. Sometimes a club would change its nickname or adopt an official name that superseded one or more unofficial names in the past. An example would be the Boston Braves, who were tagged with various nicknames prior to officially adopting "Braves" as their name and mascot. Sometimes such a name change did not catch on with the press and public, which is why there is no longer a "Philadelphia Blue Jays" nor a "Boston Bees". The original Washington Senators were officially the "Washington Nationals" for many decades, but the alternate nickname "Senators" persisted, "Nationals" faded, and the team finally, officially became the "Senators" in the late 1950s. (With modern marketing strategies, such a fate is less likely to befall the current Washington Nationals.)
In contrast, the Brooklyn Dodgers began by adopting the old "Atlantic" designation, then were dubbed the "Bridegrooms" for a while, then the "Trolley Dodgers", then the "Superbas", then the "Robins" (for their manager, Wilbert Robinson), although the alternate nickname "Dodgers" persisted from the moment the team acquired that tag. The Dodgers did not actually put that name on their uniforms until the 1930s. Sometimes teams have changed their nicknames for marketing or other reasons. For example, the Houston Colt 45s became the Houston Astros (short for originally Astronauts) in 1965.
Team colors are sometimes tied in with a team's name, and occasionally they are changed for marketing reasons. One of the most striking examples of the latter was in 1963, when flamboyant owner Charles O. Finley changed the Kansas City Athletics' uniforms from a traditional white/gray with blue and red trim to bright yellow with green trim, a move that sparked controversy, but also one that fit in with the new medium of color television. Before this, home uniforms in MLB were uniformly white with colored trim, while road uniforms were uniformly gray; afterwards many teams displayed a variety of color schemes, notably the Houston Astros and San Diego Padres.
The Chicago Cubs have occasionally worn a bright blue top on the road since 1982, whereas the Chicago White Sox have changed colors many times during that interval, at one or another time wearing navy blue, red, royal blue, and white stockings. In recent years the team has sometimes worn black hosiery.
Interestingly, the St. Louis Cardinals (baseball) once played in the same city as the St. Louis Cardinals (football, now the Arizona Cardinals), but the teams were not named for each other. The St. Louis Cardinals baseball club always played in St. Louis and were originally the St. Louis Brown Stockings (not to be confused with the St. Louis Browns in the American League), while the former St. Louis Cardinals football club (now the Arizona Cardinals), the oldest American football team still in existence, were first known as the Racine Normals, then Racine Cardinals, then the Chicago Cardinals. During their time in St. Louis, the football team was usually referred to by fans as "Big Red" or the "Gridbirds" in order to avoid confusion between the teams.
[edit] Major League Baseball uniforms
The official rules of Major League Baseball require that all players on a team wear matching uniforms, although this rule was not in force in the early days. Originally, teams were primarily distinguished by the colors of their stockings and the success of the Cincinnati Red Stockings popularized the adoption of sock color as the explicit identity of the club. The 1876 Chicago White Stockings actually wore caps of different colors. In 1882, the National League assigned stocking colors to the member clubs: red for Boston, white for Chicago, grey for Buffalo, blue for Worcester, gold for Detroit, green for Troy, and so on. That year, the league also assigned jersey and cap colors, but by player position rather than by club.
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 Kansas City Athletics in 1963, the San Diego Padres unusual brown and yellow scheme beginning in 1969, and the Houston Astros' rainbow stripes 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 (with the options of black, yellow, and white with pin stripes). At one point in the 1970s, the Cleveland Indians had an all-red uniform.
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. From time to time, individual MLB teams have held "Turn Back the Clock Day", regularly-scheduled games in which teams donned uniforms in styles their predecessors wore generations earlier (sometimes called "throwback" uniforms), or other antique-style uniforms such as those of Negro League clubs. In addition, in 1999, MLB staged "Turn Ahead the Clock Day," in which teams wore futuristic, somewhat strange-looking uniforms, including futuristic or science fiction references, such as the New York Mets being referred to as the "Mercury Mets."
The result is that it is now often difficult to say which uniform is a team's "official" one. For example, the Cincinnati Reds used to wear a variety of caps: all red, red crown and black bill, black crown and red bill, and all black, until 2007, when only the all-red and red crown/black bill was brought back. In contrast from the pre-1990s era, in which there usually was just one home uniform and one road uniform (with certain exceptions, such as Oakland and Pittsburgh's complex combinations), 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 New York Yankees, Detroit Tigers, St. Louis Cardinals, San Francisco Giants, Los Angeles Dodgers, and Chicago Cubs are the only teams that don't wear alternate uniforms. The Cubs, Dodgers and Giants had worn alternate uniforms in the past, but currently do not have one.
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 (for example, if it is worn with a sleeveless jersey), 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, Florida Marlins and Philadelphia Phillies for many years had logos that incorporated the image of a baseball. However, while the Philadelphia cap logo clearly depicted the baseball, the logo worn on the uniform jersey did not feature the image of the stylized stitching indicating the image of a baseball. The Brewers logo made a comeback in 2006 on the hats of the Brewers' Sunday home uniforms and is now the Brewers' Friday home uniform. Also, many teams such as the Giants, Nationals, Rangers and the Mariners use uniform logos that clearly depict a baseball, and the New York Mets have featured uniforms with a sleeve logo that imitates the appearance of a baseball since the team's inception in 1962, so it may be that the rule is not enforced, at least for caps. (The purpose of this rule is to prevent one team from deceiving the other. The National Football League has a similar rule, which states that no pattern that imitates or suggests the shape of a football).
- No glass buttons or polished metal
- No commercial advertisements on uniforms. This rule is in variance with other professional sports, such as the Arena Football League in the United States, but especially outside the US (notably soccer), in which it is customary for uniforms to prominently display the logo of a sponsoring company. However, when the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Devil Rays opened the season in Japan in 2004, an ad for Ricoh was clearly visible on the batters' helmets. When the Oakland Athletics and Boston Red Sox opened the 2008 season in Tokyo, not only did both teams wear batting helmets featuring the Ricoh ad; but also, the Red Sox featured a commercial advertisement for a New England-based business on their jerseys.
- 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. (Currently, Ichiro Suzuki of the Seattle Mariners is the only player to have his given name rather than his family name displayed on the back his uniform. Vida Blue also used his first name on the back of his uniform when he played for the San Francisco Giants in the mid-1980s). As of 2007, the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox and San Francisco Giants do not display their players' names on their home uniforms; the Yankees also do not display them on their road uniforms. The New York Mets used alternate home uniforms without last names for the 1999 season. The names were returned the next season. The Chicago Cubs did not have names on their home or alternate jerseys for the 2005 and 2006 seasons. The names are now back on both jerseys. The Los Angeles Dodgers did not have names on the back of their home and road jerseys for the 2005 and 2006 seasons. Names have returned on both jerseys for 2007.
Another apparent violation of the concept of a "uniform" is that some players on a team will wear the traditional knee-breeches or "knickers" while other teammates are wearing the more-recent ankle-length, closely-cut trousers. Many clubs do this at both major and minor league level, with no apparent objections.
On game days that do not require a special uniform (either by team or MLB request) it is generally (but not always) the starting pitcher for a team that chooses the uniform to be worn for that day's game.
In his comedy routine "Baseball & Football," George Carlin observes that in baseball, as compared to football, the manager is required to wear the same uniform the players do. However, this was actually not true in the early years of the game. Player-managers were common, but non-playing managers whose realm was strictly the dugout often wore business suits, a common occurrence at the time. Retired players who became managers were more likely to continue to wear a baseball uniform (John McGraw, for example), especially if they were also active on the coaching lines; managers often doubled as third-base coach. By the late 1940s, nearly all managers were wearing baseball uniforms. Connie Mack was the last major league manager to wear a suit in the dugout until his retirement in the early 1950s; however, in contrast to the uniform-wearing managers, Mack rarely if ever stepped onto the field during a game; instead he sent uniformed coaches onto the field when a managerial presence outside the dugout was required.
[edit] 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. Since 1989, the designated hitter rule is used when the game is played in an AL ballpark; formerly no designated hitters played in the All-Star 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 in the World Series (four of the seven games taking place at their home park). That practice has since been extended indefinitely, since it has become popular with fans. The practice has upset purists over the previous format of the two leagues alternating home-field advantage for the World Series. 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. However, the rule did not help the Yankees in 2003, as they lost the Series to Florida in 6 games, or the Detroit Tigers in 2006, as they lost to the St. Louis Cardinals in 5 games.
Since 1970, the eight position players for each team who take the field initially have been voted into the game by fans; MLB and Gillette entered into an agreement wherein fans would vote on pre-printed punch cards for their choices, with a spot reserved for write-in votes (indeed, that first year, Atlanta outfielder Rico Carty, who led the National League in batting average, was voted into the starting lineup as a write-in candidate). The fan voting had been cancelled since 1957 as a result of the Cincinnati ballot-box-stuffing scandal (a local newspaper had printed pre-voted ballots for fans to send in, resulting in seven of the eight positions going to Cincinnati players). The league overruled the vote, adding St. Louis' Stan Musial and Milwaukee's Henry Aaron to the team, and fan voting was eliminated until the 1970 season. In more recent years, internet voting has been allowed.
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.
[edit] Post-season
| Rank | Team | Titles | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | New York Yankees | 26 | |||
| 2nd | St. Louis Cardinals | 10 | |||
| 3rd | Oakland Athletics | 9 | |||
| 4th | Boston Red Sox | 7 | |||
| 5th | Los Angeles Dodgers | 6 | |||
| T-6th | Cincinnati Reds | 5 | |||
| T-6th | Pittsburgh Pirates | 5 | |||
| T-6th | San Francisco Giants | 5 | |||
| 9th | Detroit Tigers | 4 | |||
| T-10th | Atlanta Braves | 3 | |||
| T-10th | Baltimore Orioles | 3 | |||
| T-10th | Chicago White Sox | 3 | |||
| T-10th | Minnesota Twins | 3 | |||
| T-14th | Toronto Blue Jays | 2 | |||
| T-14th | New York Mets | 2 | |||
| T-14th | Cleveland Indians | 2 | |||
| T-14th | Florida Marlins | 2 | |||
| T-14th | Chicago Cubs | 2 | |||
| T-19th | Arizona Diamondbacks | 1 | |||
| T-19th | Kansas City Royals | 1 | |||
| T-19th | Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim | 1 | |||
| T-19th | Philadelphia Phillies | 1 | |||
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When the regular season ends after the first Sunday in October (or the last Sunday in September), 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 (best second-place team). 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 (with the home field determined by head-to-head record) 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 (due to one being division champion and the other being wild card), 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.
[edit] Stadiums
Unlike some other sports, the exact dimensions of a baseball stadium, other than the configuration of the infield, is not strictly uniform. Baseball parks, therefore, affect both the general ambience as well as the play of the game itself to a greater degree than with any other major sport. Certain parks, such as Wrigley Field, Fenway Park and the newer Oriole Park at Camden Yards are known for their nostalgic aura. Certain parks with deeper dimensions and prevailing wind patterns blowing toward home plate favor pitchers, while smaller parks or parks with prevailing winds blowing towards the outfield favor batters. Asymmetrical dimensions in some parks may affect fielding, batting and strategy. Some parks are known for short home runs near the foul poles, others for allowing long-hit balls to center field to be caught for outs. Some, the most extreme example being the old Polo Grounds in upper Manhattan, were known for both.
Professional baseball in the United States began in the mid-19th century when entrepreneurs and baseball enthusiasts found that people will pay to watch the game played at a high level, requiring the construction of stadiums with grandstands to control attendance. For most of the 19th century, baseball stadiums were generally wooden grandstands constructed quickly over the course of a single offseason. Parks were generally fully owned by the club or the club's owner and investors. As such, they were built not directly within the central business district of a city, but generally a few miles outside of it where land was cheaper and more plentiful. Being an era before strict building codes, stringent liability and emphasis on safety, fires and disasters associated with these stadiums happened frequently.
Philadelphia's Baker Bowl was rebuilt after such a fire in 1895 as the first baseball park constructed primarily of steel and concrete rather than wood, spurring a construction boom within MLB. By 1915, the 16 teams then existing all played in steel and concrete stadiums known today as the Jewel Box stadiums, and, with few exceptions, would remain in them until the last half of the 20th century. Two Jewel Boxes, Fenway Park and Wrigley Field, are still in use today substantially as they were originally built. The last Jewel Box to be built, 1923's Yankee Stadium, was completely reconstructed in the mid-1970s but remains classified as a Jewel Box by most students of baseball history as its general appearance was not substantially changed other than that necessary for modernization. Jewel Boxes were without exception asymmetrical parks, usually built within the confines of a city block or two in a residential neighborhood a few miles from the city center. Since Jewel Boxes (except for Yankee Stadium) were built during the dead-ball era, most originally featured deep fences and emphasized speed rather than power.[citation needed] As the home run became more central to strategy after 1920, most teams pulled fences in to accommodate the power game and its growing popularity with fans over the next several decades.
Government officials began to realize the value of professional sports and built stadiums throughout the 20th century which would be leased to a team. The first such stadium was the massive Cleveland Stadium which began MLB use in 1932. It was also the first park built within the central business district of its home city. More importantly, Cleveland Stadium was the first multi-purpose stadium, built with American football as well as baseball in mind.
In the 1960s and 1970s, virtually all new parks built were multipurpose stadiums whose design was a compromise between the needs of baseball and those of football, with the result of not being ideal for either. The first indoor MLB stadium, the Astrodome, was opened in Houston in 1965 with a semitransparent roof and a grass field. The glare off of the roof made fielding fly balls nearly impossible and the roof was quickly painted and a new synthetic surface, Astroturf, was installed to replace the grass, which wilted without sunlight. Stadium officials nationwide, both at domed and open-air facilities, enjoyed the maintenance benefits of synthetic turf, even as athletes complained about its unnatural, play-affecting and injury-causing properties. As the once-upscale neighborhoods around the old Jewel Box stadiums began to decay, their replacements were generally multipurpose stadiums built in either suburban locations or the central business district. Most of the '60s and '70s multipurpose stadiums shared similar looks and features and are referred to pejoratively as cookie cutter stadiums. Few baseball-specific stadiums were built in this era, but those that were have outlived their multipurpose brethren.
The Sky Dome (now Rogers Centre) opened in Toronto for the 1989 season and featured the first working retractable roof, allowing play no matter what weather conditions existed as in a dome but also allowing for open-air baseball in fair weather. A retractable roof has since become preferred over pure domed stadiums for those locations where weather cancellations are common, since most players, fans and officials prefer the game to be played outdoors.
Most of the multipurpose-era parks, despite their modern conveniences, were almost universally criticized for being "sterile." The perception of new parks lacking charm changed radically with the 1992 opening and resounding success of the retro-styled Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore. Soon, almost all new parks were designed similarly as baseball-specific parks built in similar appearance and function to Jewel Box parks but with modern revenue-enhancing features such as additional luxury boxes and improved concessions and facilities. Most of these new parks are built in a central business district, reversing the suburban trend begun in the 1960s. Unlike many of the Jewel Boxes, most modern MLB parks feature shorter fences near the corners,[citation needed] allowing for more home runs and decreasing the importance of offensive speed.
The building of new stadiums can be controversial, with factors such as cost, tax breaks, and public subsidies playing roles in the debate. Some owners have also been accused of threatening to move to other cities if their demands for a more modern stadium at government expense are not met.
[edit] 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.
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 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 March 30, 2006, Bud Selig launched an investigation on the alleged steroid use by players such as Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi, Mark McGwire and Gary Sheffield as the weight of books like Game of Shadows emerged. The inquiry into steroids' use in baseball is expected to go back no further than 2002, when MLB started testing players for performance-enhancing drugs. On December 13, 2007, former Sen. George Mitchell, who investigated this issue, released his report that has names of MLB Players that could, or have taken, performance-enhancing drugs such as steroids.
[edit] Major League Baseball ethnic demographics
At the start of the 2007 season, there were 750 players on opening day rosters, of which were:
- 565 (75%) U.S.-born (including Puerto Rico):
- 464 (62%) Caucasian
- 68 (9%) African-American
- 33 (4.5%) Hispanic
- 185 (25%) foreign-born:
- 149 (20%) Latin American (75 from Dominican Republic; 47 from Venezuela; 10 from Mexico; 6 from Panama; 2 from Colombia; 2 from the Netherlands Antilles; 1 from Nicaragua)
- 18 (2.4%) Asian (14 from Japan; 3 from South Korea; 1 from Taiwan)
- 18 (2.6%) Other (15 from Canada; 3 from Germany)
At the start of the 2008 season, there were 750 players on opening day rosters, of which were:
- 584 (77.8%) U.S.-born (including Puerto Rico):
- 492 (65.6%) Caucasian
- 73 (9.7%) African-American
- 19 (2.5%) Hispanic
- 166 (22.1%) foreign-born:
- 147 (19.6%) Latin American (76 from Dominican Republic; 44 from Venezuela; 9 from Mexico; 6 from Panama; 3 from Cuba; 4 from Colombia; 2 from the Netherlands Antilles; 3 from Nicaragua)
- 19 (2.5%) Asian (14 from Japan; 3 from South Korea; 2 from Taiwan)
The first Latin American-born man to play in the big leagues was Luis Castro from Colombia, who played for the Philadelphia Athletics in 1902. Moses Fleetwood Walker was the first African-American to play MLB in 1884. In 1947, Jackie Robinson became the first African-American to play in the Major Leagues since 1889, breaking the “color-barrier” as a member of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Masanori Murakami was the first Asian professional baseball player in North America, debuting in 1964 from Japan.
[edit] 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 of the team in their market over national broadcasters. For example, at one time TBS showed many Atlanta Braves games nationally and internationally in Canada. Fox Sports Net (FSN) also shows many games in other areas. If the Braves played a team that FSN or another local broadcaster showed, the local station will have the broadcast rights for its own local market, while TBS would have been blacked out in the same market for the duration of the game. 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, or, in the past, another game scheduled on ESPN or ESPN2 at the same time (if ESPN or ESPN2 operates a regional coverage broadcasting and operates a game choice), or will be subject to an alternative programming feed. MLB's streaming Internet video service is also subject to the same blackout rules.
- 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 whether the game is home or away, if the game of the local team has a certain start time (usually there are no other games scheduled at these times). This, at least theoretically, 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 excited about. This results in higher ratings for the national broadcaster by pulling baseball fans away from watching their own team. Many baseball fans feel this practice is unfair.
All of the Continental United States, except for some small, remote, isolated patches, are within at least one team's blackout territory. Some areas may lie within the territories of two or more. As the accompanying map shows, teams generally have exclusive territorial rights only over their home cities' immediate area, but even then there are exceptions. For example, all of Texas, including the Houston metropolitan area as well as the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, as well as the entire state of Louisiana, is within both the Astros' and Rangers' blackout areas. Outside of the immediate area, several teams may exercise blackout rights within the same territory. The entire state of Iowa, for example, is within the blackout areas of the Cubs, White Sox, Brewers, Twins, Cardinals, and Royals. Southern Nevada likewise lies within six MLB teams' blackout territories. Areas of far western Kansas represent an anomaly; although being geographically closer to Denver than Kansas City, they are included in the blackout territory for the Royals and not the Rockies.
The Toronto Blue Jays' blackout territory includes all of Canada. However, they must share British Columbia and Alberta with the Seattle Mariners, Saskatchewan and Manitoba with the Minnesota Twins, and the Maritimes (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island) with the Boston Red Sox. In the past, the province of Quebec was not included in Toronto's territory, as it belonged to the Montreal Expos exclusively. Toronto and Montreal shared all territory outside of Ontario and Quebec, along with the aforementioned exceptions.
Consumer devices that enable television subscribers to transmit their home television feed outside their host area to a remote location over the Internet, a practice called placeshifting, have drawn the ire of MLB. MLB's position is that subscribers who wish to watch MLB telecasts while traveling either settle for the local telecasts available or subscribe to MLB's own broadcasts for an additional fee. Consumer advocates insist the practice is legal, since the remoted content is already purchased and is merely placeshifted by the subscriber; they claim MLB is asking fans to pay twice for the same content. MLB counters that travelers utilizing placeshifting technology are undercutting the blackout rights MLB grants to local and national broadcasters, as well as MLB's own internet service.[2]
In 2009, MLB plans to launch a Baseball Channel on basic cable similar to the NFL Network. As part of the new network MLB president Bob Dupuy has told owners to reduce their blackouts due to outrage amongst fans and letters pouring into MLB's offices.
[edit] Radio blackouts
In MLB there are no radio blackouts, although ESPN Radio has exclusive rights to the World Series and only the flagship stations of the two participating ballclubs can originate coverage, though their broadcasts are also available on XM Satellite Radio. All other network affiliates of the two clubs must carry the ESPN Radio feed, and they may not even be able to do so if they compete with an ESPN Radio affiliate in the same market. The two flagships must broadcast ESPN Radio national commercials (though they can run live commercial reads during broadcasts and sell ads during typically extended pre/post-game shows).
Additionally, radio stations (including flagships) may not include MLB games in the live Internet streams of their station programming. (MLB makes its own streams of the team networks available for a fee.) Some stations will replace the game with a recorded message explaining why the game cannot be heard on their stream. Others will simply stream the station's regularly scheduled programming that is being preempted by the game.
[edit] References
- MLB Owners, Players Reach Deal on Steroid Testing
- Baseball Officials Announce Tougher Steroids Policy
- MLB Steroid Policy Outlined
[edit] National broadcasts
Major League Baseball is in the transition to a new set of television contracts. The league has three current broadcast partners for the 2007 season and beyond.
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 previous 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, Baseball Tonight, and Monday Night Baseball. ESPN also has rights to the Home Run Derby at the All-Star Game each July.
TBS will air Sunday afternoon regular season games (non-exclusive) nationally from 2008 to 2013. Starting in 2007, TBS has 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. TBS carries the League Championship Series that are not included under FOX's television agreement; TBS shows the National League Championship Series in odd-numbered years and the American League Championship Series in even-numbered years as part of the new contract through 2013.
In January 2009, MLB plans to launch the MLB Network which will air 16 live games that year. (See MLB Network for source.)
[edit] References
- Fox, TBS have seven-year, $3 billion TV deal with MLB
- MLB extends TV agreement with ESPN through 2013
- MLB websides by teams
- USA Today: TBS drops Braves games, joins Fox in rich TV deal
- MLB Standings: Regular Season
- MLB News: TBS signs on to air LCS games
- MLB Standings: Wild Card
[edit] International Broadcasting of Major League Baseball
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- ESPN Deportes televises a large number of Major League Baseball games in Spanish, which air throughout Latin America.
- Five shows MLB on Sunday and Wednesday in the United Kingdom, (including the All-Star Game and the Post Season Games, but not including Spring Training) usually starting at 1 a.m. BST. It is currently presented by Johnny Gould and Josh Chetwynd as "MLB on Five"
- NASN broadcast Major League Baseball several times a week to the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, Scandinavia, and other parts of Western Europe on digital cable and digital satellite.
- TSN, Rogers Sportsnet, and CBC televise Toronto Blue Jays games in Canada. Sportsnet also carries ESPN Sunday Night Baseball, the All-Star Game, most playoff games, and the World Series. Sportsnet Pacific also carries a package of Seattle Mariners games simulcasted from FSN Northwest.
- Major League Baseball produces its own in-house telecasts of the World Series, which are distributed to its international audience. There is a single video feed and broadcasts in several languages.
- Fuji Television, TBS, NTV(Only games at Tokyo Dome),NHK and Nippon Broadcasting System (All in Japan)
- FTV and ESPN Taiwan broacast Major League games in Taiwan daily, mainly focusing on the Yankees games because of the success of native favorite Chien-Ming Wang.
[edit] Historical major leagues
In 1969, the official centennial of professional baseball, the Special Baseball Records Committee appointed by Major League Baseball recognized six "major leagues" in history, four defunct and two still in operation.
- 1876 — : National League (National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs)
- 1882 — 1891: American Association
- 1884: Union Association
- 1890: Players League
- 1901 — : American League
- 1914 — 1915: Federal League
Some researchers contend that some other leagues deserve "major league" status, too.
- 1871 — 1875: National Association of Professional Base Ball Players or National Association (NA)
- 1920 — 1948: significant Negro Leagues
Indeed, the Official Encyclopedia of Baseball published in 1951 and revised since then recognized the NA as a major league. But a new Baseball Encyclopedia project made possible by the digital computer promised publication of far more detailed playing records.
- 1900 Western League. Many of its players were former National League players and future American League players, so some historians have argued that the American league should be recongized from 1900 rather than 1901.
In general, the SBRC ruled that the other leagues kept playing records inconsistently or lacked significant direct impact on the major leagues.
Specifically, the following can be said of these leagues:
- The National Association was the direct precursor of the NL, six of whose eight charter members came from the NA of 1875, and it is generally considered the first professional league. The standard position is that it was a "transitional" organization not quite up to major league standards. The NL was a wholly new entity that took the best of the NA and imposed a discipline that was lacking in the failed NA.
- The AL of 1900 was located in only four of the eight cities it would occupy in the following year. It accepted minor status 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 enter MLB in the late 1940s and early 1950s, and have immediate impact, would seem to argue for major status. On the other hand, it may be argued that the Negro Leagues were closer in quality of play 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.
At the same time, some historians question whether the Union Association of 1884 should be considered "major," because it had only one major-league caliber team (St. Louis) and several clubs failed during the season mid-season, others taking their places. Aside from the official MLB recognition which the Unions enjoy as a matter of fact, any argument for major status rests chiefly on the Union Association's direct impact on the other majors, due to roster-raiding. None of the "non-major" other leagues listed here could make that claim.
The Sporting News, a weekly established in 1886 and later an important publisher of books, did not recognize the Federal League of 1914-1915 for almost ninety years.
[edit] Other major baseball leagues
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This article or section is incomplete and may require expansion and/or cleanup. Please improve the article, or discuss the issue on the talk page. |
Numerous major professional baseball leagues exist throughout the world. The most prominent of these and the most directly comparable to Major League Baseball in real terms (number of teams, organization, funding and caliber of play) are the Central League and Pacific League of Nippon Professional Baseball. Many Japanese baseball teams have played and continue to play exhibition games against their American counterparts, and a number of players have career numbers in both the Japan Professional Baseball League and Major League Baseball.
[edit] See also
- Further information: Category:Years in baseball
- 1972 Major League Baseball strike
- 1981 Major League Baseball strike
- 1994 Major League Baseball strike
- 19th century National League teams
- Continental League - proposed by William Shea as a "third major league"; folded before play began, but forced majors to expand.
- Current Major League Baseball Players by Nationality
- History of baseball, for a detailed history of the Major Leagues.
- Index of Professional Sports teams in the United States and Canada
- List of current Major League Baseball announcers
- List of Major League Rivalries
- List of MLB seasons
- List of Major League Baseball free agents
- Major League Baseball television contracts
- Major League Baseball transactions
- Major League Baseball Draft
- MLB All-Century Team
- MLB All-Time Team
- Major League Baseball scandals
- Major North American professional sports leagues
- Minor League Baseball, for a list of Minor League teams.
- Negro League baseball
- Pesäpallo (Finnish baseball)
[edit] Players, ownership, ballparks and officials
- Baseball Commissioners
- List of highest paid baseball players
- List of major league players with articles
- List of Major League Baseball principal owners
- List of Major League Baseball stadiums
- List of Major League Baseball retired numbers
- List of Major League Baseball teams by payroll
- List of TV markets and major sports teams
[edit] Statistics, milestones and records
- MLB Single Season Records
- Baseball statistics: BA, ERA, etc.
- Baseball Hall of Fame
- 30-30 club and 40-40 club
- 20-20-20 Club
- 300-300 club
- Batting title
- List of MLB individual streaks
- Hitting streak
- 50 home run club
- 50 stolen bases and 50 doubles
- List of lifetime home run leaders through history
- 500 home run club
- List of major league players with 2,000 hits
- 3000 hit club
- 300 win club
- 3000 strikeout club
- 300 Wins-3000 K's club
- Major League Baseball franchise post-season droughts
- Perfect game
- Unassisted triple play
- Triple crown
- Hitting for the cycle
- Major League Baseball titles streaks
- Major League Baseball titles leaders
- Major League Baseball attendance records
- Major League Baseball home run milestones
- List of most experienced baseball players never to play in a World Series
- List of most common Major League Baseball post-season matchups
- List of Major League Baseball no-hitters
- Home run in first at-bat
- Home run in final at-bat
- All time career wins by a manager
- List of attendance figures at domestic professional sports leagues - Major League Baseball in a global context (31,000 per match)
[edit] Post-season awards
- Comeback Player of the Year Award
- Cy Young Award
- Rawlings Gold Glove Award
- Hank Aaron Award
- Manager of the Year Award
- Most Valuable Player Award
- The Sporting News Reliever of the Year Award (prior to 2001, TSN Fireman of the Year)
- Rolaids Relief Man of the Year Award
- Rookie of the Year Award
- Silver Sluggers
- Edgar Martinez Award
[edit] In-season awards
[edit] Exhibition and playoffs
- Spring training
- World Baseball Classic
- All-Star Game
- MLB China Series
- MLB Japan Opening Day 2008
- AL Wildcard winners (since 1994)
- NL Wildcard winners (since 1994)
- One Game Playoffs
- National League pennant winners 1876-1900
- American League pennant winners 1901-68
- National League pennant winners 1901-68
- MLB division winners (since 1969)
- American League Division Series (ALDS)
- National League Division Series (NLDS)
- American League Championship Series (ALCS)
- National League Championship Series (NLCS)
- World Series
[edit] References
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[edit] External links
- Major League Baseball
- Baseball Think Factory
- The Hardball Times
- Baseball Prospectus
- ArmchairGM MLB Portal
- HaveBalls.Net Baseball news
- Ballparks.com
- ESPN.com - Baseball Index
- Aerial and Satellite Photography of Amercian League Stadiums from SightseeBySpace.com
- Aerial and Satellite Photography of National League Stadiums from SightseeBySpace.com
- Baseball History Site
- MLB Power Rankings
