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Major League Baseball

 History of Baseball

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Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league, consisting of teams that play in the American League and the National League. The two leagues merged in 2000 into a single organization led by the Commissioner of Baseball, after 100 years as separate legal entities.

MLB constitutes one of the major professional sports leagues of the United States and Canada. It is composed of 30 teams — 29 in the United States and one in Canada. With the International Baseball Federation, MLB also manages the World Baseball Classic. MLB has the highest season attendance of any sports league with 73,451,522 fans in 2011.

Organizational structure

MLB is governed by the Major League Baseball Constitution that has undergone several incarnations since 1875 with the most recent revisions being made in 2012. Under the direction of the Commissioner of Baseball(currently Bud Selig), Major League Baseball hires and maintains the sport’s umpiring crews, and negotiates marketing, labor, and television contracts.

Major League Baseball 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.

Although there were several challenges to Major League Baseball’s primacy in the sport between the 1870s and the Federal Leaguein 1916, the last such challenge was the aborted Continental League in 1960.

Executives – Category:Major League Baseball central office executives

The chief executive of MLB is the commissioner. There are six executive vice-presidents in charge of the following areas: baseball development, business, labor relations and human resources, finance, administration (whose vice-president is MLB’s Chief Information Officer), and baseball operations.

Multimedia and production

The multimedia branch of MLB is Manhattan–based MLB Advanced Media, which oversees MLB.com and each of the 30 teams’ websites. Its charter states that MLB Advanced Media holds editorial independence from the League, but it is 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.

MLB also owns 67 percent of MLB Network, with the other 33 percent split between several cable operators and satellite providerDirecTV. It operates out of studios in Secaucus, New Jersey, and also has editorial independence from the League.

League organization

As of the 2012 season, Major League Baseball is divided into the American League (14 teams) and the National League (16 teams).

Currently, each league is further subdivided into three divisions — labeled East, Central, and West. The three-division structure dates back to 1994, the first season after the National League expanded to 14 teams. From 1969 through 1993, each league consisted of an East and West division. Through 1996, the two leagues met on the field only during the World Series and the All-Star Game: in 1997, regular-season interleague play was introduced.

In March 1995, two new franchises — the Arizona Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay Devil Rays — were awarded by Major League Baseball, to begin play in 1998. This addition would bring the total number of franchises to 30. In early 1997, Major League Baseball decided to assign one new team to each league: Tampa Bay joined the American League and Arizona joined the National League. The original plan was to have an odd number of teams in each league (15 per league, with 5 in each division). MLB also planned to introduce interleague play in 1997, but — with each league having an odd number of teams — interleague play would have had to be used throughout the entire season, to allow every team to play every day. It was unclear, though, if interleague play would continue after the 1998 season, as it had to be approved by the players’ union. For this and other reasons, it was decided that both leagues should continue to have an even number of teams; one existing club would have to switch leagues. The Milwaukee Brewers agreed in November 1997 to move from the American League to the National League, thereby making the National League a 16-team league.

Following the 2011 season, Major League Baseball announced its plan to move the Houston Astros from the NL Central to the AL West for the 2013 season, resulting in both leagues having three divisions of five teams each and allowing all teams to have a more balanced schedule. (MLB required the Astros to accept this move as a condition of approving their sale to Jim Crane.) Because each league will have an odd number of teams, interleague play will occur throughout the season, so that every team will be able to play every day.

The two leagues were once separate, rival corporate entities, but that distinction has all but disappeared. In 1903, the two leagues began to meet in an end-of-year championship series called the World Series. In 1920, the weak National Commission, which had been created to manage relationships between the two leagues, was replaced with the much more powerful Commissioner of Baseball, who had the power to make decisions for all of professional baseball unilaterally. In 2000, the American and National Leagues were dissolved as legal entities, and Major League Baseball became a single, overall “league” de jure (albeit with two components called “leagues”), although it had operated as a de facto single entity for many years.

The same rules and regulations are used in both leagues, with one exception: the American League operates under the Designated Hitter Rule, while the National League does not. This difference in rules between leagues is unique to MLB; the other sports leagues of the US and Canada have one set of rules for all teams.

History of baseball in the United States – Differing definitions of Major League Baseball’s founding year

For professional baseball‘s founding year, Major League Baseball (professional baseball’s current official organization) uses 1869 — the year the first professional team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings, was established — and held official celebrations for professional baseball’s 100th anniversary in 1969 and its 125th anniversary in 1994, both of which were commemorated with league-wide shoulder patches. The modern Chicago Cubs and Atlanta Braves franchises trace their histories back to the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players in the early 1870s. The first game in the National League of Professional Baseball Clubs — on Saturday, April 22, 1876 (at the Jefferson Street Grounds, Philadelphia) — is often pointed to as the beginning of Major League Baseball.

Founding

The first attempt at a national major league was the short-lived National Association, which existed from 1871 to 1875. Two current major league franchises, the Atlanta Braves and the Chicago Cubs, can trace their origins to the National Association.

Currently, there are two major leagues: the National League (founded in 1876) and the American League (major-league status in 1901).

Other leagues

Several other defunct leagues are officially considered to be major, and their statistics and records are included with those of the two current major leagues. These include the Union Association (1884), the American Association (1882–1891, not to be confused with later minor leagues of the same name), the Players’ League (1890) and the Federal League (1914–1915). In the late 1950s, a serious attempt was made to establish a third major league, the Continental League, but that league never played.

Rise

In the 1860s, aided by the Civil War, “New York”-style baseball expanded into a national game and spawned baseball’s first governing body, The National Association of Base Ball Players, was formed. The NABBP existed as an amateur league for twelve years. By 1867, more than 400 clubs were members, although most of the strongest clubs remained those based in the northeastern part of the country.

In 1870, a schism developed between professional and amateur ballplayers, after the 1869 founding of the first professional baseball team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings. The NABBP split into two groups. The National Association of Professional Base Ball Players was formed in 1871.   Some consider it to have been the first major league.  Its amateur counterpart disappeared after only a few years.

In 1876, the National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs — which still exists — was established, after the National Association proved ineffective. The emphasis was now on “clubs” rather than “players”. Clubs could now enforce player contracts, preventing players from jumping to higher-paying clubs. For their part, clubs were required to play the full schedule of games, instead of forfeiting scheduled games when the club was no longer in the running for the league championship, which happened frequently under the National Association. A concerted effort was made to curb gambling on games which was leaving the validity of results in doubt.

The early years of the National League were tumultuous, with threats from rival leagues and a rebellion by players against the hated “reserve clause”, which restricted the free movement of players between clubs. Competitive leagues formed regularly and also disbanded regularly. The most successful was the American Association (1881–1891), sometimes called the “beer and whiskey league” for its tolerance of the sale of alcoholic beverages to spectators. For several years, the National League and American Association champions met in a postseason championship series — the first attempt at a World Series.

The Union Association survived for only one season (1884), as did the Players League (1890).   Both leagues are considered major leagues by many baseball researchers because of the perceived high caliber of play (for a brief time anyway) and the number of star players featured. However, some researchers have disputed the major-league status of the Union Association, pointing out that franchises came and went and contending that the St. Louis club, which was deliberately “stacked” by the league’s president (who owned that club), was the only club that was anywhere close to major-league caliber.

National League Baltimore Orioles, 1896

There were dozens of leagues, large and small, at this time. What made the National League “major” was its dominant position in the major cities, particularly New York City. The larger cities offered baseball teams national media distribution systems and fan bases that could generate more robust revenues, enabling teams to hire the best players in the country.

The resulting bidding war for players led to widespread contract-breaking and legal disputes. One of the most famous involved star second baseman Napoleon Lajoie, who in 1901 went across town in Philadelphia from the National League Phillies to the American League Athletics. Barred by a court injunction from playing baseball in the state of Pennsylvania the following year, Lajoie was traded to the Cleveland team, where he played and managed for many years.

The war between the American and National leagues caused shock waves throughout the baseball world. At a meeting at the Leland Hotel in Chicago in 1901, the other baseball leagues negotiated a plan to maintain their independence. On September 5, 1901, Patrick T. Powers, president of the Eastern League, announced the formation of the second National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues, the NAPBL or “NA” for short.

Ban Johnson had other designs for the NA. While the NA continues to this day (known as “Minor League Baseball“), he saw it as a tool to end threats from smaller rivals who might some day want to expand in other territories and threaten his league’s dominance.

After 1902, the three leagues — the NL, the AL, and the NAPBL — signed a new National Agreement. The new agreement tied independent contracts to the reserve-clause national league contracts. Baseball players became a commodity. The agreement also set up a formal classification system for independent minor leagues that regulated the dollar value of contracts, the forerunner of the system refined by Branch Rickey that is still used today.

It also gave the NA great power. Many independents walked away from the 1901 meeting. The deal with the NA punished those other indies who had not joined the NA and submitted to the will of the ‘majors.’ The NA also agreed to the deal to prevent more pilfering of players with little or no compensation for the players’ development. Several leagues, seeing the writing on the wall, eventually joined the NA, which grew in size over the next several years.

Dead-ball era

Cy Young, 1911 baseball card

Dead-ball era

At this time the games tended to be low scoring, dominated by such pitchers as Walter JohnsonCy YoungChristy MathewsonMordecai Brown, and Grover Cleveland Alexander, to the extent that the period 1900–1919 is commonly called the “dead-ball era”. The term also accurately describes the condition of the “baseball”. A baseball cost three dollars, a hefty sum then, equal to $40.21 today (in inflation-adjusted U.S. dollars). Club owners were therefore reluctant to spend much money on new balls, if not necessary. It was not unusual for a single baseball to last an entire game, by the end of which, the ball would be dark with grass, mud, and tobacco stains, and misshapen from contact with the bat. Balls were replaced only if they were hit into the crowd and lost, and many clubs employed security guards solely to retrieve balls hit into the stands.

Home runs were thus rare, and “small ball” — singles, buntsstolen bases, the hit-and-run play, and other tactics — dominated the strategies of the time.   Hitting methods, like the Baltimore Chop, were used to increase the number of infield singles.

The foul strike rule was a major rule change that, in just a few years, sent baseball from a high-scoring game to one where scoring runs became a struggle. Prior to this rule, foul balls were not counted as strikes: a batter could foul off any number of pitches with no strikes counted against him; this gave an enormous advantage to the batter. In 1901, the National League adopted the foul strike rule, and the American League followed suit in 1903.

World War II era

On January 14, 1942, Major League Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis wrote a letter to U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt regarding the continuation of baseball during the war, called the Green Light Letter. In this letter, the commissioner pleaded for the continuation of baseball in hopes for a start of a new major league season. President Roosevelt responds “I honestly feel that it would be best for the country to keep baseball going. There will be fewer people unemployed and everybody will work longer hours and harder than ever before. And that means that they ought to have a chance for recreation and for taking their minds off their work even more than before.”

With the approval of President Roosevelt, Major League Baseball began its spring training in 1942 with little repercussions. Although some men were being pulled away from the baseball fields and sent to the battlefield, baseball continued to field teams.

Breaking the color barrier – Jackie Robinson: A Life Story

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In the mid-1940s, Branch Rickey, president and general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, selected player Jackie Robinson from a list of promising Negro leagues players. After obtaining a commitment from Robinson to “turn the other cheek” to any racial antagonism directed at him, Rickey agreed to sign him to a contract for $600 a month. In what was later referred to as “The Noble Experiment”, Robinson was the first black baseball player in the International League since the 1880s, joining the Dodgers’ farm club, the Montreal Royals, for the 1946 season.

Jackie Robinson’s number 42 was retired by the Major League Baseball in 1997.

The following year, the Dodgers called Robinson up to the major leagues. On April 15, 1947, Robinson made his major league debut at Ebbets Field before a crowd of 26,623 spectators, including more than 14,000 black patrons. Black baseball fans began flocking to see the Dodgers when they came to town, abandoning their Negro league teams which they had followed exclusively. Robinson’s promotion met a generally positive, although mixed, reception among newspapers and white major league players. Manager Leo Durocher informed his team, “I do not care if the guy is yellow or black… I’m the manager of this team, and I say he plays. What’s more, I say he can make us all rich. And if any of you cannot use the money, I will see that you are all traded.” After a strike threat by some players, National League President Ford Frick and Baseball Commissioner Happy Chandler let it be known that any striking players would be suspended. Robinson received significant encouragement from several major league players, including Dodgers teammate Pee Wee Reese who said, “You can hate a man for many reasons. Color is not one of them.”

That year, Robinson earned the inaugural Major League Baseball Rookie of the Year Award (separate National League and American League rookie of the year honors weren’t awarded until 1949).[128]

Less than three months later, Larry Doby became the first African-American to break the color barrier in the American League with the Cleveland Indians. He too faced the same type of discrimination as Robinson and went on to a Hall of Fame career. The next year, a number of other black players entered the major leagues. Satchel Paige was signed by the Indians and the Dodgers added three other black players besides Robinson.

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