Baseball/Major leagues

In North America, the term Major League baseball generally refers to the top-level caliber of play in North America. Leagues in other parts of the world, notably Japan and Latin America may have equivalent levels of play (and increasingly draw from the same talent pools), but are typically not included when the term is used.

Current Major Leagues

At the time of writing the Commissioner of Baseball, Bud Selig, has often floated the idea of further expansion and realignment of the major leagues. At the moment, however, the major leagues are each split into three divisions, and structured as follows:

American League

West	Central	East
Anaheim Angels	Chicago White Sox	Baltimore Orioles
Oakland Athletics	Cleveland Indians	Boston Red Sox
Seattle Mariners	Detroit Tigers	New York Yankees
Texas Rangers	Kansas City Royals	Tampa Bay Devil Rays
	Minnesota Twins	Toronto Blue Jays

National League

West	Central	East
Arizona Diamondbacks	Chicago Cubs	Atlanta Braves
Colorado Rockies	Cincinnati Reds	Florida Marlins
Los Angeles Dodgers	Houston Astros	Montreal Expos
San Diego Padres	Milwaukee Brewers	New York Mets
San Francisco Giants	Pittsburgh Pirates	Philadelphia Phillies
	Saint Louis Cardinals

Historical Major Leagues

In 1969, the centennial of professional baseball, a commission chartered by Major League Baseball identified the following leagues as "major leagues". The list is sometimes disputed by baseball researchers. The MLB list included the following:

• 1876-present: National League of Professional Baseball Clubs
• 1882-1891: American Association
• 1884: Union Association
• 1890: Players League
• 1901-present: American League
• 1914-1915: Federal League

Some researchers contend that the National Association (1871-1875), the /Negro Leagues (primarily during the years from 1921-1946), and the first year of the American League (1900) deserve consideration as major leagues due to the caliber of player and the level of play exhibited.

For detailed history of the Major Leagues see Baseball/History
For list of Minor Baseball teams see Minor league baseball