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Baseball Major League |
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Major League Baseball (MLB) is the highest level of play in
North American professional baseball. More specifically, Major League Baseball
refers to the organization that operates North American baseball's two major
leagues, the National League and the American League, by means of a joint
organizational structure which has existed between them since 1903. Major League
Baseball teams play a 162-game season. The two leagues follow the same rules,
with one exception: the American League operates under the Designated Hitter
Rule, while the National League does not. Utilization of the DH Rule in
Interleague, All-Star and World Series games is determined by the home team's
league rules. In 2000, the American and National Leagues were officially
disbanded as separate legal entities with all rights and functions consolidated
in the commissioner's office. MLB effectively operates as a single league and as
such it constitutes one of the major professional sports leagues of North
America.
MLB is controlled by an agreement that has undergone several incarnations since
1876, then called the NL Constitution, with the most recent revisions being made
in 2005. Major League Baseball, under the direction of its Commissioner
(currently Bud Selig), hires and maintains the sport's umpiring crews, and
negotiates marketing, labor, and television contracts. As is the case for most
North American sports leagues, the "closed shop" aspect of MLB effectively
prevents the yearly promotion and relegation of teams into and out of the Major
League by virtue of their performance. Major League Baseball is mostly funded by
private enterprises, but also partially funded directly by public taxes[citation
needed]. MLB 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.
The production/multimedia wing of MLB is New York-based MLB Advanced Media which
oversees MLB.com and all 30 of the individual teams' websites. Its charter
states that MLB Advanced Media holds editorial independence from the League
itself, but it is indeed 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. |
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