Professional baseball
Encyclopedia
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...

is a team
Team
A team comprises a group of people or animals linked in a common purpose. Teams are especially appropriate for conducting tasks that are high in complexity and have many interdependent subtasks.A group in itself does not necessarily constitute a team...

 sport
Sport
A Sport is all forms of physical activity which, through casual or organised participation, aim to use, maintain or improve physical fitness and provide entertainment to participants. Sport may be competitive, where a winner or winners can be identified by objective means, and may require a degree...

 which is played by several professional leagues throughout the world. In these 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...

, and associated farm team
Farm team
In sports, a farm team, farm system, feeder team or nursery club, is generally a team or club whose role is to provide experience and training for young players, with an agreement that any successful players can move on to a higher level at a given point...

s, players
Baseball positions
There are 9 fielding positions in baseball. Each position conventionally has an associated number which is used to score putouts...

 are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system.

United States and Canada

Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...

 in the United States and Canada consists of 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...

 (founded in 1876) 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...

 (1901). Historically, teams in one league never played teams in the other until the World Series
World Series
The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball, played between the American League and National League champions since 1903. The winner of the World Series championship is determined through a best-of-seven playoff and awarded the Commissioner's Trophy...

, in which the champions of the two leagues played against each other. This changed in 1997 with the advent of interleague play
Interleague play
Interleague play is the term used to describe regular season Major League Baseball games played between teams in different leagues, introduced in . Before the 1997 season, teams in the American League and National League did not meet during the regular season...

.

In addition to the major leagues, many North American cities and towns feature minor league
Minor league baseball
Minor league baseball is a hierarchy of professional baseball leagues in the Americas that compete at levels below Major League Baseball and provide opportunities for player development. All of the minor leagues are operated as independent businesses...

 teams. An organization officially styled Minor League Baseball
Minor league baseball
Minor league baseball is a hierarchy of professional baseball leagues in the Americas that compete at levels below Major League Baseball and provide opportunities for player development. All of the minor leagues are operated as independent businesses...

, formerly the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues, oversees nearly all minor league baseball in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. The minor leagues are divided into classes AAA, AA, High A, Low A, Short-Season A, Advanced Rookie, and Rookie. These minor-league divisions are affiliated with major league teams, and serve to develop young players and rehabilitate injured major-leaguers. The Mexican League is a Minor League Baseball member league that operates without affiliations to Major League teams. The phrase Organized Baseball is often applied as an umbrella term for all leagues — Major and minor — under the authority of 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...

.

Operating outside of the Minor League Baseball organization are many independent minor leagues such as the Golden League
Golden Baseball League
The Golden Baseball League, based in San Ramon, California, was an independent baseball league. It later merged with the Northern League and the United Baseball League to form the North American League in the western United States, western Canada and Mexico....

, Atlantic League
Atlantic League of Professional Baseball
The Atlantic League of Professional Baseball is a professional, independent baseball organization located primarily in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, especially the greater metropolitan areas of the Northeast megalopolis. It operates in cities not served by Major or Minor League...

, Frontier League
Frontier League
The Frontier League, based in Sauget, Illinois, is a professional, independent baseball organization located in the Midwestern United States, Western Pennsylvania, and Southern Ontario. It operates mostly in cities not served by Major or Minor League Baseball teams and is not affiliated with either...

, CanAm League as well as many others.

Dominican Republic

  • Dominican Professional Baseball League (LIDOM)

Mexico

  • Mexican Pacific League (winter league)
  • Mexican League (Triple-A)

Puerto Rico

  • Puerto Rico Baseball League

Famous Puerto Rican players that have played major league baseball Pudge aka ivan rodriguez. Iván Rodríguez Torres (born November 30, 1971, in Manatí, Puerto Rico), nicknamed "Pudge" and "I-Rod",[1] is a Major League Baseball catcher for the Washington Nationals. In his career, he has played for the Texas Rangers (on two different tours, comprising the majority of his career), Florida Marlins, Detroit Tigers, New York Yankees, Houston Astros, and Washington Nationals. His best year was in 1999 when he hit for a career average 332, and hit 35 home runs and drove 113 runs batted in, he scored 116 runs, he 199 hits, 25 stolen bases, 29 doubles, and he won the award for MVP that year, and he is the only catcher in MLB to catch over 2,000 games and only catcher with 13 gold gloves and multiple all star games.

Japan

Japan has had professional baseball since the 1930s. Nippon Professional Baseball consists of two leagues, the Central League
Central League
The or is one the two professional baseball leagues that constitute Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship plays against the winner of the Pacific League in the annual Japan Series. It currently consists of six teams from around the country,The Central League...

 and the Pacific League
Pacific League
The or is one of the two professional baseball leagues constituting Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship competes against the winner in the Central League for the annual Japan Series...

, each with six teams.

Korea

South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...

 has had professional baseball since 1982. There are 8 teams in Korea Professional Baseball league.

Australia

  • Australian Baseball League
    Australian Baseball League
    The Australian Baseball League was a baseball league, established in 1987 and disbanded in 1999.-Formation:Before the formation of the Australian Baseball League, the Claxton Shield, established in , was Australia's premier baseball tournament...

  • Greater Brisbane League
    Greater Brisbane League
    The Greater Brisbane League or formerly the Greater Brisbane Baseball Board league is the largest baseball league in the Australian state of Queensland and covers all teams from Brisbane North, South, West, Metro as well as two Gold Coast teams. These are from age groups Little League through to...

  • New South Wales Major League
    New South Wales Major League
    The New South Wales Major League is the highest level of play for the sport of baseball in New South Wales. It is currently composed of clubs predominantly from Sydney, with one club from the Central Coast...


Historic leagues

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, African-American players were barred from playing the major leagues
Baseball color line
The color line in American baseball excluded players of black African descent from Organized Baseball, or the major leagues and affiliated minor leagues, until Jackie Robinson signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers organization for the 1946 season...

, though several did manage to play by claiming to be Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...

ns or Indians
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...

. As a result, a number of parallel Negro Leagues
Negro league baseball
The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams predominantly made up of African Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be used narrowly for the seven relatively successful leagues beginning in...

 were formed. However, after Jackie Robinson
Jackie Robinson
Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson was the first black Major League Baseball player of the modern era. Robinson broke the baseball color line when he debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947...

 began playing with the major-league Brooklyn Dodgers
Los Angeles Dodgers
The Los Angeles Dodgers are a professional baseball team based in Los Angeles, California. The Dodgers are members of Major League Baseball's National League West Division. Established in 1883, the team originated in Brooklyn, New York, where it was known by a number of nicknames before becoming...

 in 1947, the Negro Leagues gradually faded. The process of integration did not go entirely smoothly; there were some ugly incidents, including pitchers who would try to throw directly at an African-American player's head. Now, however, baseball is fully integrated, and there is little to no racial tension between teammates.

Between 1943 and 1954, the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League
All-American Girls Professional Baseball League
The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League was a women's professional baseball league founded by Philip K. Wrigley which existed from 1943 to 1954. During the league's history, over 600 women played ball.-History:...

 fielded teams in several Midwestern towns.

See also

  • Baseball#Around-the-world
  • Baseball awards#International
  • List of organized baseball leagues#Professional baseball
  • Professional#Sports
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