Major League Baseball - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Overview

Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball

Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League

National League

The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League , is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball, and the world's oldest extant professional team sports league. Founded on February 2, 1876, to replace the National Association of Professional...

and the American League

American League

The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, or simply the American League , is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a minor league based in the Great Lakes states, which eventually aspired to major...

. The two leagues

Sports league

League is a term commonly used to describe a group of sports teams or individual athletes that compete against each other in a specific sport. At its simplest, it may be a local group of amateur athletes who form teams among themselves and compete on weekends; at its most complex, it can be an...

merged in 2000 into a single MLB organization led by the Commissioner of Baseball

Commissioner of Baseball

The Commissioner of Baseball is the chief executive of Major League Baseball and its associated minor leagues. Under the direction of the Commissioner, the Office of the Commissioner of Baseball hires and maintains the sport's umpiring crews, and negotiates marketing, labor, and television contracts...

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

Current Major League Baseball franchises

Below is the information about the current Major League Baseball Franchise, including game times, team colors, etc.-Organizational Alignment:The Commissioner of baseball, Bud Selig, has often floated the idea of international expansion and realignment of the major leagues...

— 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada.

Discussions

What is the largest state, other than Alaska, that does NOT have a Major League Baseball team?

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Timeline

1876 The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs of Major League Baseball is formed.

1914 Babe Ruth makes his debut in Major league baseball.

1920 Ray Chapman of the Cleveland Indians is hit on the head by a fastball thrown by Carl Mays of the New York Yankees, and dies early the next day. To date, Chapman is the second player to die from injuries sustained in a Major League Baseball game, the first being Doc Powers in 1909.

1935 The first night game in Major League Baseball history is played in Cincinnati, Ohio, with the Cincinnati Reds beating the Philadelphia Phillies 2-1 at Crosley Field.

1939 The first Major League Baseball game is telecast, a doubleheader between the Cincinnati Reds and the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field, in Brooklyn, New York.

1941 Bob Feller of the Cleveland Indians throws the only Opening Day no-hitter in the history of Major League Baseball, beating the Chicago White Sox 1-0.

1941 Joe DiMaggio hits safely for the 56th consecutive game, a streak that still stands as a MLB record.

1951 The "Shot Heard 'Round the World", one of the greatest moments in Major League Baseball history, occurs when the New York Giants' Bobby Thomson hits a game winning home run in the bottom of the ninth inning off of the Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Ralph Branca, to win the National League pennant after being down 14 games.

1958 Walter O'Malley's Los Angeles Dodgers host the first Major League Baseball game played on the West Coast of the United States.

1972 Hank Aaron becomes the first player in the history of Major League Baseball to sign a $200,000 contract.

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