Professional baseball is very popular in the United States. It is one of the few countries in the world where baseball is extremely popular. People watch the MLB or Major League Baseball every year and eagerly await matches, not to mention the all-star match, the Midsummer Classic. They’re not as popular as football matches which are watched across all nations such as Poland, which you can read more about if you click here, or Spain, but it’s becoming more popular by the minute.
But, some people who are new to baseball do not know how the MLB works and what its organization structure looks like. Here is what you need to know about the MLB and its organization.
It is Governed by a Constitution
There is a document, called the Major League Baseball Constitution, which was created in 1876. It has been changed through the years to accommodate new things and account for various other changes which also took place in the world of baseball. The Commissioner of Baseball governs the entire league, as well as largely the Minor League Baseball, by enforcing the Constitution. They control everything from marketing, labor, salaries, umpires and even television contracts. It is one of the more controlling sports, where a central authority overseers everything. They have their own multimedia company, called MLB Advanced Media, which takes care of their site, MLB.com, as well as the sites of all the 30 clubs playing in the league. Similarly, MLB Productions takes care of broadcasting and video while MLB Network takes care of the broadcasts, it being the primary baseball TV channel.
It Has Two Leagues and 30 Teams
The MLB is divided into two leagues, the American League and National League, which were separate until the year 2000, when they merged into a single entity. Each of the leagues has 15 teams. Each of the leagues is divided into three divisions, East, Central and West.
It Lasts for Six Months and Has 162 Matches for Each Team
The baseball season starts in early February, but that is the spring training part of the season. The regular season starts in the first week of April and ends in the last week of October, usually. Each of the 30 teams plays a total of 162 matches. Once the regular season ends, additional matches might be played to decide the 10 teams which will go into the postseason.
The postseason has Wild Card teams, 2 teams out of each league who play against one another. After they finish, two teams advance and play in their respective leagues, namely the American and National League Division Series. Four teams play in each of the two series. They play two best-of-fives and four out of the eight teams participating move into the Championship Series, which can be considered a semi-final. Two teams move into the World Series, or finals.
This is how the MLB works. There are some more details, while this is the gist of things.