MLB Attendance

Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. The NL and AL were formed in 1876 and 1901, respectively. Beginning in 1903, the two leagues signed the National Agreement and cooperated but remained legally separate entities until 2000, when they merged into a single organization led by the Commissioner of Baseball. MLB is headquartered in Midtown Manhattan. It is also included as one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada.

Baseball's first all-professional team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings, was founded in 1869. Before that, some teams had secretly paid certain players. The first few decades of professional baseball were characterized by rivalries between leagues and by players who often jumped from one team or league to another. The period before 1920 was the dead-ball era, when home runs were rarely hit. Professional baseball in the United States survived the Black Sox Scandal, a conspiracy to fix the 1919 World Series. The sport rose in popularity in the 1920s and survived potential downturns during the Great Depression and World War II. Shortly after the war, Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier.

The 1950s and 1960s were a time of club expansion and relocation for the AL and NL. Modern stadiums with artificial turf surfaces began to change the game in the 1970s and 1980s. Home runs dominated the game during the 1990s, and media reports disclosed the use of anabolic steroids among MLB players in the mid-2000s. In 2006, an investigation produced the Mitchell Report, which implicated many players in the use of performance-enhancing substances, including at least one player from each team.

Each team plays 162 games per season, and six teams in each league advance to a four-round postseason tournament that culminates in the World Series, a best-of-seven championship series between the two league champions that dates back to 1903. Baseball games are broadcast on television, radio, and the internet throughout North America and in several other countries. MLB has the highest total season attendance of any sports league in the world with more than 69.6 million spectators in 2018.

MLB also oversees Minor League Baseball, which comprises lower-tier teams affiliated with the major league clubs. MLB and the World Baseball Softball Confederation jointly manage the international World Baseball Classic tournament.

MLB is the second-wealthiest professional sport league by revenue after the National Football League (NFL).

Since the first World Series in 1903, the New York Yankees have the most championships with 27. The Houston Astros are the reigning World Series champions, as they defeated the Philadelphia Phillies 4–2 in the 2022 World Series, to mark the end of the 2022 season.

Organizational structure

MLB is governed by the Major League Baseball Constitution. This document has undergone several incarnations since its creation in 1876. Under the direction of the Commissioner of Baseball, MLB hires and maintains the sport's umpiring crews, and negotiates marketing, labor, and television contracts. MLB maintains a unique, controlling relationship over the sport, including most aspects of Minor League Baseball. This is due in large part to the 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; MLB is the only league that has such a status, and has not faced any competition since this case. This ruling has been weakened only slightly in subsequent years. The weakened ruling granted more stability to the owners of teams and has resulted in values increasing at double-digit rates. There were several challenges to MLB's primacy in the sport, with notable attempts to establish competing leagues occurring during the late 1800s, from 1913 to 1915 with the short-lived Federal League, and in 1960 with the aborted Continental League.

The chief executive of MLB is the commissioner, currently Rob Manfred. The deputy commissioner of baseball administration and chief legal officer is currently Dan Halem. There are seven other executives: executive vice president and general counsel, chief operations and strategy officer, chief communications officer, chief financial officer and senior advisor, executive vice president and chief marketing officer, chief revenue officer, and chief baseball development officer.

The multimedia branch of MLB is MLB Advanced Media, which is based in New York City. This branch 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 provider DirecTV. It operates out of studios in Secaucus, New Jersey">World Series, sec. 3.2.2 (Game-by-Game), note 2; as of 2008, the 1981 Los Angeles Dodgers are the last team to win a World Series after losing the first two games on the road. thereby gaining some momentum for the rest of the series.

International play

Since 1986 an All-Star team from MLB is sent to a biennial end-of-the-season tour of Japan, dubbed as MLB Japan All-Star Series, playing exhibition games in a best-of format against the All-Stars from Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) or recently as of 2014 their national team Samurai Japan.

In 2008, MLB played the MLB China Series in the People's Republic of China. It was a series of two spring-training games between the San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers. The games were an effort to popularize baseball in China.

MLB played the MLB Taiwan All-Star Series in Taiwan in November 2011. It was a series of five exhibition games played by a team made up of MLB players called the MLB All-Stars and the Chinese Taipei national baseball team. The MLB All-Stars swept the series, five games to zero. At the end of the 2011 season, it was announced that the Seattle Mariners and the Oakland Athletics would play their season openers in Japan. In October 2013, Phil Rogers of the ''Chicago Tribune'' wrote that MLB was considering postseason all-star tours in Taiwan and Korea; baseball is increasing in popularity in both countries.

The Arizona Diamondbacks opened the 2014 season against Los Angeles Dodgers on March 22–23 in Australia. The teams played each other at the historic Sydney Cricket Ground, which has a seating capacity of 46,000. The two games represented the first MLB regular-season play held in that country. The games counted as home games for the Diamondbacks, so they played 79 home games at Chase Field.

In 2019, the Red Sox were the home team in a regular-season two-game series against the Yankees. The games, which were the first regular-season MLB games held in Europe, were played on June 29–30 at London Stadium with the Yankees winning both games.

Together with the World Baseball Softball Confederation, MLB sponsors the World Baseball Classic, an international baseball tournament contested by national teams.

Performance-enhancing drugs

In 1998, both Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa hit more home runs than the record of 61 set by Yankees right fielder Roger Maris in 1961. Barry Bonds topped the record in 2001 with 73 home runs. McGwire, Bonds, and Sosa became the subjects of speculation regarding the use of performance-enhancing substances. McGwire later admitted that he used a steroid hormone that was still legal in baseball during the 1998 season. Baseball's original steroid testing policy, in effect from 2002 to 2005, provided for penalties ranging from a ten-game suspension for a first positive test to a one-year suspension for a fourth positive test. Players were tested at least once per year, with the chance that several players could be tested many times per year.

A 2006 book, ''Game of Shadows'' by ''San Francisco Chronicle'' investigative reporters Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada, chronicled alleged extensive use of performance enhancers, including several types of steroids and growth hormone by baseball superstars Barry Bonds, Gary Sheffield, and Jason Giambi. Former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell was appointed by Selig on March 30, 2006 to investigate the use of performance-enhancing drugs in MLB. The appointment was made after several influential members of the U.S. Congress made negative comments about both the effectiveness and honesty of MLB's drug policies and Commissioner Selig.

The day before the Mitchell Report was to be released in 2007, Selig said, "I haven't seen the report yet, but I'm proud I did it." The report said that after mandatory random testing began in 2004, HGH treatment for athletic enhancement became popular among players, as HGH is not detectable in tests. It pointed out that HGH is likely a placebo with no performance-enhancing effects. The report included substance use allegations against at least one player from each MLB team.

According to ESPN, some people questioned whether Mitchell's director role with the Boston Red Sox created a conflict of interest, especially because no "prime oxplayers were in the report." The report named several prominent Yankees who were parts of World Series clubs; there is a long-running and fierce Yankees–Red Sox rivalry. Former U.S. prosecutor John M. Dowd brought up Mitchell's conflict of interest, but he later said that the former senator had done a good job. Mitchell acknowledged that his "tight relationship with Major League Baseball left him open to criticism", but he said that readers who examine the report closely "will not find any evidence of bias, of special treatment of the Red Sox".

On January 10, 2013, MLB and the players union reached an agreement to add random, in-season HGH testing. They also agreed to implement a new test to reveal the use of testosterone for the 2013 season. The current MLB drug policy provides for an 80-game suspension for a first positive test, a 162-game suspension for a second positive test, and a lifetime suspension for a third positive test. In 2009, allegations surfaced against Alex Rodriguez and David Ortiz, and Manny Ramirez received a 50-game suspension after testing positive for banned substances. In early April 2011, Ramirez retired from baseball rather than face a 100-game suspension for his second positive steroid test. He would later unretire, having the suspension dropped to 50 games, and would serve those in 2012.

Media coverage

Television

Several networks televise baseball games, including Fox, ESPN, TBS, and MLB Network. Since 2008, Fox Sports has broadcast MLB games on ''Fox Saturday Baseball'' throughout the entire season; Fox previously only broadcast games from May to September. Fox also holds rights to the All-Star Game each season. Fox also alternates League Championship Series broadcasts, broadcasting the American League Championship Series (ALCS) in odd-numbered years and the National League Championship Series (NLCS) in even-numbered years. Fox broadcasts all games of the World Series. ESPN continues to broadcast MLB games as well, beginning with national Opening Day coverage. ESPN broadcasts ''Sunday Night Baseball'' and ''Baseball Tonight''. ESPN also has rights to the Home Run Derby at the All-Star Game each July.

TBS has aired Sunday afternoon regular season games (non-exclusive) nationally, but beginning in 2022 this will be replaced by Tuesday night games. In 2007, TBS began its exclusive rights to any tiebreaker games that determine division or wild card champions. It also airs 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 NLCS in odd-numbered years and the ALCS in even-numbered years.

In January 2009, MLB launched the MLB Network, featuring news and coverage from around the league, and airing 26 live games in the 2009 season. Each team also has local broadcasts for all games not carried by Fox on Saturdays or ESPN on Sunday nights. These games are typically split between a local broadcast television station and a local or regional sports network (RSN), though some teams only air local games through RSNs or through their own team networks. As Canada only contains one team, Sportsnet broadcasts Toronto Blue Jays games nationally. The channel is owned by Rogers Communications, who is also the parent company of the Blue Jays. Sportsnet also televises Fox's Saturday afternoon games, the All-Star Game, playoff games, and the World Series. In April 2011, TSN2 began carrying ESPN ''Sunday Night Baseball'' in Canada. TVA Sports airs Blue Jays games in French.

Several MLB games are broadcast exclusively on Internet television. After a year of exclusive games on Facebook, MLB partnered with YouTube to stream weekly games on the service beginning in the 2019 season, and extending until 2022. In 2022, MLB made a deal with Apple Inc. to launch ''Friday Night Baseball'' on its Apple TV+ streaming service, and NBC Sports to broadcast MLB Sunday Leadoff, a package of early Sunday afternoon games on Peacock.

Blackout policy

MLB has several blackout rules. A local broadcaster has priority to televise games of the team in their market over national broadcasters if the game is not exclusive to the national broadcaster. A market that has a local team playing in a non-exclusive game will receive an alternative programming feed on the national broadcaster. MLB's streaming internet video service is also subject to the same blackout rules.

Radio and Internet

ESPN Radio holds national broadcast rights and broadcasts ''Sunday Night Baseball'' weekly throughout the season in addition to all playoff games. The rights to the World Series are exclusive to ESPN. In 2021, TUDN Radio picked up Spanish-language rights to MLB games, starting with that year's postseason.

In addition, each team employs its own announcers, who broadcast during the regular season. Most teams operate regional networks to cover their fan bases; some of these supposedly regional networks (such as the New York Yankees Radio Network) have a national reach with affiliates located across the United States. Major League Baseball has an exclusive rights deal with XM Satellite Radio, which includes the channel MLB Network Radio and live play-by-play of all games. Many teams also maintain a network of stations that broadcast their games in Spanish; , the Los Angeles Dodgers are the only team that produces radio broadcasts in a third language, with selected games broadcast in Korean. Both Canadian teams (the Montreal Expos before their move to Washington, DC in 2005, and the Toronto Blue Jays) have produced radio broadcasts in French.

MLB games are also broadcast live on the internet. All television and radio broadcasts of games are available via subscription to MLB.tv at Major League Baseball's website, MLB.com, and radio-only broadcasts are also available via subscription to MLB.com Gameday Audio. Radio station affiliates are officially forbidden from streaming games through their Internet feeds. Blackout rules are still applied for live television broadcasts, but not radio broadcasts.

International broadcasting

ESPN Deportes televises many MLB games in Spanish throughout Latin America. Wapa 2 airs games in Puerto Rico, including spring training games and most of the World Baseball Classic games involving the team from Puerto Rico. In Brazil, ESPN Brasil has exclusive rights on TV (ESPN and ESPN2) and Internet (WatchESPN),.

Five in the United Kingdom previously screened MLB games, including the All-Star Game and the postseason games, on Sunday and Wednesday usually starting at 1 a.m. BST. Most recently, Johnny Gould and Josh Chetwynd presented ''MLB on Five'' on that station. The channel covered baseball beginning on its opening night in 1997, but for financial reasons, the decision was made not to pick up MLB for the 2009 season. BT Sport ESPN show live and recorded games several times a week—it is available with BT Sport and (on a subscriber-basis) Virgin Media in the UK. ESPN America televised many games in the UK and dozens of other countries; in May 2013, ESPN announced that it would shut down the channel on July 31, 2013.

In Australia, MLB games are regularly shown on ESPN Australia (subscription).

In the Middle East, North Africa and France, MLB games are broadcast on beIN Sports channels.

In Germany MLB games will be broadcast from 2022 exclusively on Sport1 until 2026.

In Hungary, MLB games are broadcast on Sport1 as of 2020.

See also

* Australian Baseball League
* Baseball Assistance Team (B.A.T.)
* Baseball in Canada
* Baseball in the United States
* Bob Feller Act of Valor Award
* Comparison of Major League Baseball and Nippon Professional Baseball
* List of all-time Major League Baseball win–loss records
* List of American and Canadian cities by number of major professional sports franchises
* List of current Major League Baseball stadiums
* List of former Major League Baseball stadiums
* List of Major League Baseball awards
* List of Major League Baseball managers
* List of Major League Baseball retired numbers
* List of Major League Baseball spring training ballparks
* List of professional sports leagues
* List of professional sports teams in the United States and Canada
* Major League Baseball attendance records
* Major League Baseball draft
* MLB Industry Growth Fund
* Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities

References

Explanatory notes

Citations

Further reading

* Banner, Stuart. ''The Baseball Trust: A History of Baseball's Antitrust Exemption.'' New York: Oxford University Press, 2013.
* Bouton, Jim. ''Ball Four: My Life and Hard Times Throwing the Knuckleball in the Major Leagues''. World Publishing Company, 1970.
* Buchanan, Lamont, ''The World Series and Highlights of Baseball'', E. P. Dutton & Company, 1951.
* Cohen, Richard M., Neft, David, Johnson, Roland T., Deutsch, Jordan A., ''The World Series'', 1976, Dial Press.
* Deutsch, Jordan A., Cohen, Richard M., Neft, David, Johnson, Roland T., ''The Scrapbook History of Baseball'', Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1975.
* King, Corretta. Jackie Robinson. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987.
* James, Bill. ''The Historical Baseball Abstract''. New York: Villard, 1985 (with many subsequent editions).
* Lanigan, Ernest, ''Baseball Cyclopedia'', 1922, originally published by ''Baseball Magazine''.
* Lansch, Jerry, ''Glory Fades Away: The Nineteenth Century World Series Rediscovered'', Taylor Publishing, 1991. .
* Murphy, Cait. ''Crazy '08: How a Cast of Cranks, Rogues, Boneheads, and Magnates Created the Greatest Year in Baseball History.'' New York: Smithsonian Books, 2007. .
* Okkonen, Marc. ''Baseball Uniforms of the 20th Century: The Official Major League Baseball Guide'', 1991.
* Ritter, Lawrence. ''The Glory of their Times''. New York: MacMillan, 1966. Revised edition, New York: William Morrow, 1984.
* Ross, Brian. "Band of Brothers". ''Minor League News'', April 6, 2005. Available a
Minor League News

* Seymour, Harold. ''Baseball: The Early Years''. 2v. New York: Oxford University Press, 1960. .
* Turkin, Hy, and Thompson, S. C., ''The Official Encyclopedia of Baseball'', 1951, A.S. Barnes and Company
* Tygiel, Jules. ''Past Time: Baseball as History''. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. .
* ''The New York Times'', ''The Complete Book of Baseball: A Scrapbook History'', 1980, Bobbs Merrill.

External links

*
*
MLB
' on YouTube

{{Authority control

1869 establishments in the United States
Sports leagues established in 1869
Baseball governing bodies in the United States
Professional sports leagues in Canada
Professional sports leagues in the United States
Sports organizations established in 1869
Multi-national professional sports leagues