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Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball (MLB, sometimes ML) is the only first-class professional baseball tournament in North America. Founded in 1903, it has two main groups, the National League and the American League. Both main groups are divided into three groups, the East Division, the Central Division and the West Division. There are 29 US and one Canadian teams in the Major League. The rules of the tournament are laid down in the Major League Baseball Constitution.

The course of the championship

The tournament consists of two parts, the first part is the regular season, followed by the three-section playoffs (post-season or playoff), which ends with the final called World Series in early November.

Regular season

Teams begin preparing for the championship in February in training camps in Florida and Arizona in particular. The regular season starts at the end of March or beginning of April and lasts until the end of September or beginning of October. During this period, each team plays 162 games, approx. half within the group, over one-third within the league, and the remain ones with other league teams in interleague matches.

Post-Season (Playoff)

At the end of the regular season, 8 teams will advance to the post-season, the playoffs: the group winners (3-3 teams) and the team with the most points in each league, this is the wildcard position. The eight teams will play against each other in three stages. They will remain in the league for the first two rounds and the American and National League champions will only play against each other in the World Series.

World Series

The World Series final match is played in late October or early November, with the American League and the National League winner. Teams play a maximum of seven games but do not play any further matches after four wins.

All-Star Match

In the middle of the season, in early July, there is a three-day break in the championship and that is the time for the All-Star match. Defensive players are selected for the All-Star team based on votes from supporters. Some pitchers are selected by the team manager, some by Major League players.

The teams

In Major League - as in other American professional sports - the same teams participate from year to year. The worst performing teams are not being downgraded at the end of the year like in football. In baseball, there is a minor league (Minor League Baseball), but the teams here belong to Major League clubs and rather have a role in junior education.

Major League Baseball

American League

East
Baltimore Orioles
Boston Red Sox
New York Yankees
Tampa Bay Rays
Toronto Blue Jays

Central
Chicago White Sox
Cleveland Indians
Detroit Tigers
Kansas City Royals
Minnesota Twins

West
Houston Astros
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
Oakland Athletics
Seattle Mariners
Texas Rangers

National League

East
Atlanta Braves
Miami Marlins
New York Mets
Philadelphia Phillies
Washington Nationals

Central
Chicago Cubs
Cincinnati Reds
Milwaukee Brewers
Pittsburgh Pirates
St. Louis Cardinals

West
Arizona Diamondbacks
Colorado Rockies
Los Angeles Dodgers
San Diego Padres
San Francisco Giants

Team Names

Contrary to European tradition, in American professional sports, clubs choose a standard structured name. The name consists of two parts, the first is the geographical location (usually the name of the city) and the second is the club name. In the 20th century, team names were invented by team owners. However, on several occasions fans have ignored the new name invented by management and continue to use the old name. Such a name change attempt was the renaming of „Boston Braves” to „Boston Bees” or „Philadelphia Blue Jays” to „Philadelphia Phillies”. No new names were left.

Team Jerseys

Major League Baseball rules require all players of a team to play in the same uniform. Each team has two types of jerseys, one for home games and one for away games. The national jersey is usually white and the foreign jersey is gray and both uniforms are decorated with team colors and emblems. On the home team's white jersey you usually find the name of the team for example Mets from the New York Mets, while the gray jersey of the away team includes the city or state where the guest team came from, e.g. Texas form Texas Rangers. Of course, there are exceptions, such as the Philadelphia Phillies in the gray jersey for away matches, uses Phillies instead of the Philadelphia. The jerseys of different colors were introduced because at that time for the away team it was difficult to arrange washing, so they chose a color on what dirt was less visible. From the 1990s, clubs wanted to sell more jerseys, so they introduced more kinds of jerseys. So nowadays teams also have special 'Sunday jerseys' or training jerseys as well.