Major League Baseball

In North America, the generic term Major League Baseball generally refers to the top-level caliber of baseball play. Leagues in other parts of the world, notably Japan and Latin America may have equivalent levels of play (and increasingly draw from the same talent pools), but are typically not included when the term is used.

More specifically, "Major League Baseball" (MLB) refers to the two top leagues, the National League and the American League, and the joint organizational structure which exists between them. MLB has a Commissioner, maintains joint umpiring crews, and negotiates marketing and television contracts for the two major leagues. This structure and the major league ownership of minor league baseball is possible because of an 1922 court decision in which baseball was ruled a local affair and not interstate commerce subject to antitrust law, an exemption which does not apply to other sports.

Current Major Leagues At the time of writing the Commissioner of Baseball, Bud Selig, has often floated the idea of further expansion and realignment of the major leagues. At the moment, however, the major leagues are each split into three divisions, and structured as follows:

American League

West	Central	East
Anaheim Angels	Chicago White Sox	Baltimore Orioles
Oakland Athletics	Cleveland Indians	Boston Red Sox
Seattle Mariners	Detroit Tigers	New York Yankees
Texas Rangers	Kansas City Royals	Tampa Bay Devil Rays
	Minnesota Twins	Toronto Blue Jays

National League

West	Central	East
Arizona Diamondbacks	Chicago Cubs	Atlanta Braves
Colorado Rockies	Cincinnati Reds	Florida Marlins
Los Angeles Dodgers	Houston Astros	Montreal Expos
San Diego Padres	Milwaukee Brewers	New York Mets
San Francisco Giants	Pittsburgh Pirates	Philadelphia Phillies
	Saint Louis Cardinals

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

• 1876-present: National League of Professional Baseball Clubs
• 1882-1891: American Association
• 1884: Union Association[?]
• 1890: Players League[?]
• 1901-present: American League
• 1914-1915: Federal League

Some researchers contend that the National Association[?] (1871-1875), the Negro Leagues (primarily during the years from 1921-1946), and the first year of the American League (1900) deserve consideration as major leagues due to the caliber of player and the level of play exhibited. However, game and statistical records for these particular leagues were not kept in a consistent manner.

Commissioners of Baseball

• Kenesaw Mountain Landis (1920-1944)
• Albert Happy Chandler[?] (1945-1951)
• Ford Frick[?] (1951-1965)
• William Eckert[?] (1965-1968)
• Bowie Kuhn[?] (1969-1984)
• Peter Ueberroth[?] (1984-1989)
• Bart Giamatti (1989-1989)
• Fay Vincent[?] (1989-1992)
• Bud Selig (1992-1998) (as acting Commissioner)
• Bud Selig (1998-present)

For detailed history of the Major Leagues see Baseball/History
For list of Minor Baseball teams see Minor league baseball

See also : Baseball, National League Championship Series, American League Championship Series, Cy Young Award, Perfect game, Batting average, List of lifetime home run leaders through history, Negro League baseball, Triple crown, List of highest paid baseball players, List of major league baseball players,Continental League,19th Century National League Teams

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External link

• Baseball-reference.com: a comprehensive, intra-hyperlinked statistical encyclopedia (http://www.baseballreference.com)