The Major League Baseball regular season is composed of 162 games played during the year against the 30 teams in the league. Since 1903, MLB has been divided into two leagues, the American League (AL) and the National League (NL).
Both leagues signed a national agreement in 1903 to be combined under the MLB banner and start a championship title game known as the World Series, which has the best team of the AL face the best team from the NL.
While MLB has changed a lot over the years, with more teams and games being played now than back in 1903, it has still been a pastime sport that all Americans love and enjoy to this day.
Road to the World Series: MLB Playoffs
The goal of MLB teams is to make it to the MLB playoffs and then ultimately the World Series. Teams with the best record in each of the six divisions between the AL and NL will make it to the MLB playoffs, while two wild card teams from the AL and two wild card teams from the NL will be selected from the remaining teams in each league with the best record that didn’t win their division.
The current format is much different from MLB’s format in the past.
Back in 1903, there were no playoff games, as only the team with the best record in both the AL and NL would face each other in the World Series.
But when 1969 came around, MLB added a two-team playoff and split teams into two separate conferences within the AL and NL.
Both leagues got an Eastern Division and Western Division, with the team with the best record in each division facing each other in a best of five playoff game, with the winner advancing to the World Series.
The two-team playoff would last until 1994 when MLB changed the number of divisions in each league from two to three.
The change allowed the top team in each division to go to the MLB playoffs and added one extra team that had the best record in the league but didn’t win their division.
The format would remain in play until a new agreement changed the playoff format again for MLB.
In 2012, MLB added a one-game playoff between the two teams with the best record that didn’t win their division.
The winner of the one-game playoff would then face the highest-seeded division team in a best two out of three, while the other two divisional winners faced each other in the same format. For 2022, there have been talks about altering the playoff format yet again.
MLB World Series: Baseball’s Championship Game
Baseball’s championship game, the World Series, puts the best of the AL against the best of the NL in a best-out-of-seven series. When the World Series first began in 1903, the World Series was the best out of nine series between the best AL and NL teams.
The format would go to seven in 1905; the two teams set to play the 1904 World Series never played due to the NL champion New York Giants’ refusal to play the game.
The World Series would go back to a best of nine format for three years from 1919 to 1921 before returning to the best-of-seven format in 1922.
In the history of the World Series, no team has more World Series appearances or wins than the New York Yankees. The Yankees have won the World Series 27 times while appearing in baseball’s championship game 40 times over the years.
The Yankees have proven in the past that they are one of the most dangerous teams in MLB history, which has helped them get the nickname of “The Evil Empire” from other teams that dislike them and their winning ways.