Baseball in the United States

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Baseball in the United States
Fenway Park in Boston is the oldest ballpark in Major League Baseball.
CountryUnited States
Governing bodyUSA Baseball
National team(s)Men's national team;
Women's national team
First played1862
National competitions
Club competitions
International competitions

Major League Baseball (MLB) is the highest level of baseball in the United States.[1] The sport is one of the most popular sports in the U.S. for both participants and spectators.[2][3] The World Series of MLB is the culmination of baseball's postseason each October. It is played between the winner of each of the two leagues, the American League and the National League, and the winner is determined through a best-of-seven playoff.[4]

As baseball developed over 150 years ago in the Northeastern United States, it has been played and followed in the region longer than any other region in the nation. As of 2022, the Philadelphia Phillies, founded in 1883, are the oldest continuous same-name, same-city franchise in both Major League Baseball and all of American professional sports.[5]

An extensive

minor league baseball system covers most mid-sized cities in the United States. Minor league baseball teams are organized in a six-tier hierarchy, in which the highest teams (AAA) are in major cities that do not have a major league team but often have a major team in another sport, and each level occupies progressively smaller cities. The lowest levels of professional baseball serve primarily as development systems for the sport's most inexperienced prospects, with the absolute bottom, the rookie leagues, occupying the major league squads' spring training
complexes and making no effort to earn money on their own.

Then, every four years in March, the World Baseball Classic is held, which is the national team game, the most popular baseball national team game.[6] The Team USA won its first championship in 2017 and lost to Japan in 2023 to win the second place.

Some limited independent professional baseball exists, the most prominent being the Atlantic League, which occupies mostly suburban locales that are not eligible for high level minor league teams of their own. Outside the minor leagues are collegiate summer baseball leagues, which occupy towns even smaller than those at the lower end of minor league baseball and typically cannot support professional sports. Summer baseball is an amateur exercise and uses players that choose not to play for payment in order to remain eligible to play college baseball for their respective universities in the spring. At the absolute lowest end of the organized baseball system is senior amateur baseball (also known as Town Team Baseball), which typically plays its games only on weekends.

Major League Baseball

Main article: Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball (MLB) is a

minor league baseball leagues, which comprise about 240 teams affiliated with the major-league clubs. With the World Baseball Softball Confederation, MLB manages the international World Baseball Classic
tournament.

Baseball's first professional team was founded in Cincinnati in 1869. 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 in baseball was known as the dead-ball era; players rarely hit home runs during this time. Baseball survived a conspiracy to fix the 1919 World Series, which came to be known as the Black Sox Scandal. The sport rose in popularity in the 1920s, and survived potential downturns during the Great Depression and World War II. Shortly after the war, baseball's color barrier was broken by Jackie Robinson.

New York Giants, before their transfer to California beginning with the 1958 season. The Yankees' chief rivals, the Boston Red Sox, also enjoy a huge following in Boston and throughout New England. The fierce National League rivalry between the former Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants was transferred to the West Coast when the teams became the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants, and California has always been among the US states which have supplied the most players in the major leagues. Philadelphia sports fans have rooted for the Phillies since 1883, as they are the oldest continuous, one-name, one-city franchise in all of professional American sports.[10] Philadelphia Phillies fans are known for their rabid support of their team throughout Philadelphia and the Delaware Valley, and have famously been dubbed as the "Meanest Fans in America".[11] Chicago sports fans also avidly follow the Chicago Cubs and the Chicago White Sox despite the comparative lack of success for the teams over their histories.[12]

The 1950s and 1960s were a time of expansion for the AL and NL, then new stadiums and artificial turf surfaces began to change the game in the 1970s and 1980s.

performance-enhancing substances
, including at least one player from each team.

Today, MLB is composed of

best-of-seven championship series between the two league champions that dates to 1903. Baseball broadcasts are aired throughout North America and in several other countries throughout the world. Games are aired on television, radio, and the Internet. MLB has the highest season attendance of any sports league in the world with more than 74 million spectators in 2013.[14]

Minor league baseball

Main article: Minor League Baseball

Minor League Baseball is a hierarchy of professional baseball leagues in the Americas that compete at levels below Major League Baseball (MLB) and provide opportunities for player development and a way to prepare for the major leagues. All of the minor leagues are operated as independent businesses. Most are members of the umbrella organization known as Minor League Baseball (MiLB), which operates under the Commissioner of Baseball within the scope of organized baseball.

Except for the

farm system", "farm club", or "farm team(s)" because of a joke passed around by major league players in the 1930s when St. Louis Cardinals' general manager Branch Rickey
formalized the system, and teams in small towns were "growing players down on the farm like corn."

Since 2021, the Minor League Baseball hierarchy is separated into the classes of AAA, AA, High-A, Low-A and Rookie. This came as a result of the reorganization of Minor League Baseball, which added or contracted new teams, as well as the elimination of Short-Season A and Rookie-Advanced.

Major League Baseball and Minor League Baseball teams may enter into a PDC for a two- or four-year term. At the expiration of a PDC term, teams may renew their affiliation, or sign new PDCs with different clubs, though many relationships are renewed and endure for extended time periods. For example, the Omaha Storm Chasers (formerly the Omaha Royals) have been the AAA affiliate of the Kansas City Royals since the Royals joined the American League in 1969, but the Columbus Clippers changed affiliations, after being associated with the New York Yankees from 1979, to the Washington Nationals in 2007 and have been affiliated with the Cleveland Guardians since 2009.

A few minor league teams are directly owned by their major league parent club, such as the Springfield Cardinals, owned by the St. Louis Cardinals, and all of the Atlanta Braves' affiliates except the Carolina Mudcats. Minor League teams that are owned directly by the major league Club do not have PDCs with each other and are not part of the reaffiliation shuffles that occur every other year.

A special minor league is the Arizona Fall League. It operates outside the Minor League Baseball hierarchy and is owned by MLB as a whole; teams generally assign prospects from the AAA and AA classes to the league's six teams.

Today, 19 affiliated minor baseball leagues operate with 246 member clubs in large, medium, and small towns, as well as the suburbs of major cities, across the United States, Canada,

the Dominican Republic, and Venezuela.[15]

World Baseball Classic

Main articles: World Baseball Classic, United States national baseball team, and United States women's national baseball team
Team USA logo.

The

FOX
. The World Baseball Classic is held every March, every three to four years in the United States and other countries, and is the biggest international baseball tournament in the world.

The United States national baseball team, more commonly referred to as Team USA, has competed in all iterations of the tournament. They reached the quarterfinals in 2006, the semifinals in 2009, the quarterfinals in 2013, before finally winning their first championship in 2017.

The

Wild Card Series. Viewership peaked at 6.5 million as Shohei Ohtani struck out Mike Trout to secure Japan's 3rd World Baseball Classic Championship.[16]

Independent baseball

Independent baseball leagues also exist, primarily placing their teams in suburban municipalities that lack minor league baseball teams of their own. Most such leagues operate with a level of talent comparable to the middle and lower ends of the minor league system; the Atlantic League, which operates mostly in the Northeast megalopolis, aims to be comparable in level of play to the higher level minor leagues.

College baseball

Main article: College baseball

College baseball is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of

minor leagues are more extensive. Moving directly from high school to the professional level is more common in baseball than in football or basketball. However, if players enroll at a four-year college, they must complete three years to regain eligibility, unless they reach age 21 before starting their third year of attendance. Players who enroll at junior colleges (i.e., two-year institutions) regain eligibility after one year at that level, Bryce Harper being a notable example. In 2013, there are 298 NCAA Division I teams
in the United States.

As with most other U.S. intercollegiate sports, competitive college baseball is played under the auspices of the NCAA or the NAIA. The NCAA writes the rules of play, while each sanctioning body supervises season-ending tournaments. The final rounds of the NCAA tournaments are known as the College World Series; one is held on each of the three levels of competition sanctioned by the NCAA. The College World Series for Division I takes place in Omaha, Nebraska in June, following the regular season. The playoff bracket for Division I consists of 64 teams, with four teams playing at each of 16 regional sites (in a double-elimination format). The 16 winners advance to the Super Regionals at eight sites, played head-to-head in a best-of-three series. The eight winners then advance to the College World Series, a double elimination tournament (actually two separate four-team brackets) to determine the two national finalists. The finalists play a best-of-three series to determine the Division I national champion.

Players seeking a professional career in baseball after college typically continue playing by way of

Cape Cod League
down to leagues that draw primarily from regional colleges. The one feature common to all collegiate summer baseball leagues is the use of wooden baseball bats like those used in the professional game; college baseball uses metal bats.

Adult and semi-professional baseball

See: Baseball awards § U.S. adult and semi-professional baseball

Amateur baseball

Main article: Amateur baseball in the United States

High-school baseball

See:
High school sports
.

Youth baseball

See: Baseball awards#U.S. youth baseball

Popularity

During the 21st century baseball has experienced a decline of popularity in terms of television viewership and participation among children.[17][18][19][20]

See also

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Baseball in the United States.

References

  1. ^ "INSIDE STORY: Major League Baseball still going strong in USA's sporting popularity race". Sport360.com. Retrieved 2016-10-21.
  2. ^ a b "Major League Baseball still leads the NBA when it comes to popularity". Uk.businessinsider.com. Retrieved 2016-10-21.
  3. ^ Barra, Allen (30 October 2013). "Sorry, NFL: Baseball Is Still America's Pastime". Theatlantic.com. Retrieved 2016-10-21.
  4. ^ "The Twilight of Baseball". Newyorker.com. 28 August 2014. Retrieved 2016-10-21.
  5. ^ "Philadelphia Phillies", Baseball Almanac, retrieved October 1, 2022
  6. ^ "World Baseball Classic Final Viewership: How many people watched the epic showdown between Team USA and Samurai Japan?". www.sportskeeda.com. March 23, 2023.,
  7. Football Association
    was organized in 1863, it was an amateur league until 1888.
  8. ^ "Year In Review: 2000 National League". Baseball-almanac.com. Retrieved September 5, 2008.
  9. ^ "Is the Game Over?". The New York Times. 29 September 2013. Retrieved 2016-10-21.
  10. ^ "Phillies Timeline: 1800s". History Highlights. Philadelphia Phillies. Retrieved June 5, 2008.
  11. ^ "Eagles, Phillies top GQ list of 'Worst Fans in America'". Philadelphia Daily News. March 17, 2011. Retrieved 13 June 2015.
  12. ^ "The Cubs Confront the Curse: Is This the Year?". The New York Times. 9 October 2016. Retrieved 2016-10-21.
  13. ^ Beck, Jacob (17 June 2013). "The Only Good Reason to Ban Steroids in Baseball: To Prevent an Arms Race". Theatlantic.com. Retrieved 2016-10-21.
  14. ^ "Baseball is struggling to hook kids — and risks losing fans to other sports". Washingtonpost.com. Retrieved 2016-10-21.
  15. ^ "Teams by Name – MiLB.com Official Info – The Official Site of Minor League Baseball". MiLB.com. Retrieved July 22, 2015.
  16. ^ "From Record-Breaking Television, Attendance And Merchandise Sales, 2023 World Baseball Classic Was A Home Run". Forbes. March 23, 2023.
  17. ^ Cook, Bob. "Even More Reasons Why Children Are 'Abandoning' Baseball". Forbes.
  18. ^ Brown, Maury. "From Terrible Teams To Rising Costs: Why MLB Attendance Is Down Over 7% Since 2015". Forbes.
  19. ^ Love, Juliette (October 22, 2019). "How Popular Is Baseball, Really?". The New York Times – via NYTimes.com.
  20. ^ Zirin, Dave (July 2, 2019). "Why No One Watches Baseball Anymore" – via www.thenation.com.
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