Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball (MLB) 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. The two leagues merged in 2000 into a single MLB organization led by the Commissioner of Baseball after 100 years as separate legal entities.[4]

MLB constitutes one of the major professional sports leagues of the United States and Canada. It is composed of 30 teams 29 in the United States and one in Canada. With the International Baseball Federation, MLB also manages the World Baseball Classic.

The Major League Baseball season has been 162 games long for each team since 1961 in the American League and 1962 in the National League. The preceding 154-game schedule was adopted in 1904 and modified only in 1919. The Major League Baseball championship season cannot be scheduled over fewer than 178 days, nor more than 183 days, with exceptions made for "International Openers"[1]. In recent seasons, the schedule runs from the beginning of April to the end of September, followed by the post-season tournament in October. The endpoints of the season have gradually changed through the years. In the late 19th century, the championship season began in late April and ran through late October. By the early 20th century, however, the season was running from late April to late September or early October, with the World Series capping the season in October, sometimes actually starting in the last days of September.

The gradual elimination of scheduled doubleheaders over the last three decades of the 20th century has necessitated pushing the start of the season earlier and earlier. The championship season begins with a single game the night of the first Sunday of April (occasionally the last Sunday in March) and runs 26 weeks through the last Sunday of September or first Sunday of October. Not every team plays every day, but there is a game between some teams every day except during the All-Star Game break. Further, no team is scheduled off days on any day of the week except Mondays and Thursdays. Therefore, every day of the championship season that is not a Monday or a Thursday will have every team playing, barring unscheduled postponements and the all star break. While every Monday and Thursday will have some teams off,the amount of games played on a given Monday or Thursday can vary greatly from just 3 or 4 games being played to being just 2 or 3 games short of a full schedule. Another recent trend has been to hold one or more games outside of the United States and Canada a day or two prior to the "official" Opening Day. The championship season was suspended for one week due to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and resulting disruptions in travel, resulting in games scheduled for September 1117 being rescheduled to the first week of October and the playoffs and World Series being rescheduled one week later than their originally planned dates, which resulted in the World Series continuing into early November.

Meanwhile, the addition and eventual expansion of the League Championship Series, and then the addition of the Division Series, has extended the post-season into late October, and recently half a week into November. It is currently unclear how the likely expansion of the playoffs (from 8 teams to 10 teams) in 2012 will affect the playoff schedule [2]. Mathematically, though, it will require 4 teams to play in a round before the division series, while the 6 other teams have a bye. Other than simple rain-outs, the World Series has been delayed only once: in 1989 due to the San Francisco earthquake, which slightly damaged both teams' stadiums (San Francisco and Oakland), requiring a delay of one week in mid-series. While extending the playoff tournament has boosted TV ratings, it has also meant a greater possibility of snow falling during baseball's premier event[3], as the weather in the northern United States is often markedly colder in late October than it is in early October. On October 10, 2009, a scheduled NLDS game between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field was postponed one day due to a snow storm that blew through Denver, Colorado.