Major League Baseball

Background

Major League Baseball is the highest-level professional baseball organization in America, and the oldest professional sports league in the US. It generates the second-highest revenue among the Big Four US sports organizations (NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL).

The organization consists of 30 teams in two leagues, with 780 active players. The MLB season is the longest in professional sports, with 162 games played during the regular season, typically from April through September, ending with the World Series championship in October. 

Deadball Era

As early as the Civil War, writers were calling baseball the “national pastime,” but no professional league took hold until the forming of the National Association of Professional Baseball Players in 1871, culminating in the creation of the National League in 1876. 

The American League was founded in 1901, and after a bitter rivalry, the NL and AL signed an agreement in 1903. Champions from each league competed in a World Series for the first time that year.

During the Deadball Era, a single baseball was used for most of the game. Pitchers doctored it with spit, nail files, and licorice for a competitive edge, leading to discolored, mangled, and lopsided baseballs by the game's end.

This ended in 1920 when Cleveland Indians star shortstop Ray Chapman was hit in the head by a ball too dirty to see and died. The rules were changed to require an umpire to replace a dirty baseball and outlawed the spitball.

Antitrust Exemption

A reserve clause was added to baseball contracts in 1879, giving owners the rights to players even after the contract expired. The AL added the clause in 1903. 

Players fought the clause for years, citing the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. But in 1922, the Supreme Court ruled professional baseball was neither interstate nor commerce. Players unionized in 1966, and by 1975, an arbitration panel ruling led to the dismantling of the only antitrust exemption in professional sports. 

Today, MLB uses a service-time system, and players are eligible for free agency after a contract expires. In 1966, the average salary for Major League Baseball players was $17,664. By 1992, this figure rose to $1M, and in 2023, it surpassed $4.5M (see table).

Jackie Robinson

In the early 1940s, Brooklyn Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey began scouting Negro League players to break baseball’s long-standing color barrier. Jackie Robinson was signed in 1945 and made his major league debut on Opening Day 1947.

Robinson won Rookie of the Year and spent 10 seasons in the majors, winning a World Series in 1955. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1962. The Dodgers retired his number, 42, in 1972, and MLB retired it league-wide in 1997 (see legacy).

Doping in Baseball

Performance-enhancing drugs have been in baseball since at least 1889 (read history) and retired players said amphetamines were regularly in post-WWII clubhouses. 

A public reckoning came at the 1985 Pittsburgh Drug Trials when over a dozen MLB players took the stand. Mets star Keith Hernandez, who was given immunity, testified 40% of players used cocaine.  

Public speculation about steroid use in baseball began after the single-season home run record was broken in 1998 by Mark McGwire, but MLB did not have testing. In 2002, newly retired Ken Caminiti was the first to admit to using steroids as a player, citing how common PEDs were in the league (read expose). In 2010, McGwire admitted to using steroids throughout his career. 

Today, MLB tests all players when they report to Spring Training and once randomly during the season.

Future

MLB has gone from a segregated league in 1946 to a global game today. Nearly 28% of the players on the 2024 Opening Day rosters were born outside the US. The sport's highest-valued contract in 2024 belongs to Japan-born Shohei Ohtani. 

In 2023, MLB implemented rule changes to speed up the game, drawing renewed interest in baseball. The league has also embraced newly legalized sports betting, with several teams opening stadium sportsbooks.

Baseball is expected to return to the Olympics in 2028. However, MLB has historically never allowed players to participate.