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Major Leagues

Major League Baseball (MLB) is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada. Specifically, Major League Baseball refers to the organization that operates the National League and the American League by a joint organizational structure that has developed gradually between them since 1901.

In 2000, the two leagues ceased to be separate legal entities, with the commissioner's office assuming all responsibilities for running MLB. MLB effectively operates as a single league and as such it constitutes one of the major professional sports leagues of the United States and Canada. It is currently composed of 30 teams — twenty-nine in the United
States and one in Canada. In conjunction with the International Baseball Federation, MLB also manages the World Baseball Classic. Start your binary options trading career at www.binaryoptionscenter.org

Each season consists of 162 games per team, which typically begins on the first Sunday in April and ends on the first Sunday in October, with the postseason played in October and sometimes into early November. The same rules and regulations are played between the two leagues with one exception: the
American League operates under the Designated Hitter Rule, while the National League does not. Use of the DH rule in inter-league play and the World Series is determined by the home team's league rules. As of 2010, the All-Star Game uses the DH rule regardless of location.

Several other defunct leagues are officially considered to be major, and their statistics and records are included with those of the two current Major Leagues. These include the Union Association (1884), the Players League (1890) and the Federal League (1914–1915). In the late 1950s, a serious attempt was made to establish a third major league, the Continental League, but that league never played. Several Negro League players have been enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame. However, the Negro Leagues are not officially considered major, primarily because the statistical record is incomplete.

Japanese professional baseball, divided into the Pacific League and the Central League, are not officially considered major leagues. No Japanese players have been inducted into the Hall of Fame; however, Sadaharu Oh is famous on both sides of the Pacific for holding the all-time unofficial world record for career home runs: 868.

The current MLB regular season is a 162-game schedule, organized typically 3-game series, with occasional 2- or 4-game series, and the rare 5-game series. Postponed games or continuations of suspended games can result in an ad hoc 1-game or 5-game series. A team's series are organized into homestands and road trips that group multiple series together. Teams generally play games six days per week, commonly having Monday or Thursday as an off day. Frequently, games are scheduled at night, but during the vacation months of June, July, and August, more day games are played.