The Random Thread and The Boyfriend Fan Club!

[MickeyisBeast]

Founding
The first attempt at a national major league was the short-lived National Association, which existed from 1871 to 1875. Two current Major League franchises, the Atlanta Braves and the Chicago Cubs, can trace their origins to the National Association.

Currently, there are two major leagues: the National League (founded in 1876) and the American League (founded in 1901).

 

[AmandaSparks730]

...PSY GUY?! xD

YES, HIM!

PSYCO JAKE?! xD

Alexis Jordan sounds a lot like Selena Gomez...

PSYCHOLOGY, not PSYCHO, XD.

 

[MickeyisBeast]

Other Leagues
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 American Association (1882–1891, not to be confused with later minor leagues of the same name), 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.

 

[AmandaSparks730]

Blue's Clues is on!

Oh, fudge. It's with crappy Joe, and not Steve. *UNWATCH!*

 

[MickeyisBeast]

Rise
In the 1860s, aided by the Civil War, "New York"-style baseball expanded into a national game and baseball's first governing body, The National Association of Base Ball Players, was formed. The NABBP existed as an amateur league for twelve years. By 1867, more than 400 clubs were members, although most of the strongest clubs remained those based in the northeastern part of the country.

 

[AmandaSparks730]

Well, in that case, let's watch The Jetsons.

 

[MickeyisBeast]

Deadball Era

At this time the games tended to be low scoring, dominated by such pitchers as Walter Johnson, Cy Young, Christy Mathewson, Mordecai Brown, and Grover Cleveland Alexander, to the extent that the period 1900–1919 is commonly called the "dead-ball era". The term also accurately describes the condition of the "baseball". A baseball cost three dollars, a hefty sum then equal to $37.74 today (in inflation-adjusted US dollars). Club owners were therefore reluctant to spend much money on new balls, if not necessary. It was not unusual for a single baseball to last an entire game, by the end of which, the ball would be dark with grass, mud, and tobacco stains, and misshapen from contact with the bat. Balls were replaced only if they were hit into the crowd and lost, and many clubs employed security guards solely to retrieve balls hit into the stands.

Home runs were thus rare, and "small ball"—singles, bunts, stolen bases, the hit-and-run play, and other tactics—dominated the strategies of the time.[19] Hitting methods, like the Baltimore Chop, were used to increase the number of infield singles.[20]

The foul strike rule was a major rule change that, in just a few years, sent baseball from a high-scoring game to one where scoring runs became a struggle. Prior to this rule, foul balls were not counted as strikes: a batter could foul off any number of pitches with no strikes counted against him; this gave an enormous advantage to the batter. In 1901, the National League adopted the foul strike rule, and the American League followed suit in 1903.

 

[MickeyisBeast]

The World War II era
On January 14, 1942, Major League Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis wrote a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt regarding the continuation of baseball during the war, called the Green Light Letter. In this letter, the commissioner pleaded for the continuation of baseball in hopes for a start of a new Major League season. President Roosevelt responds "I honestly feel that it would be best for the country to keep baseball going. There will be fewer people unemployed and everybody will work longer hours and harder than ever before. And that means that they ought to have a chance for recreation and for taking their minds off their work even more than before."[21]

With the approval of President Roosevelt, Major League Baseball began its spring training in 1942 with little repercussions. Although some men were being pulled away from the baseball fields and sent to the battlefield, baseball continued to field teams.

 

[LondonUnderground]

YES, HIM!



PSYCHOLOGY, not PSYCHO, XD.

YU KNO THAT IS WHAT I CALL HIM MANDEM! xD

 

[LondonUnderground]

what did you say to him anyway?

 

[wicked.witch.of.wdw]

Okay, so, this is basically the most hilarious thing I've ever seen XD

http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/8062/buzzrhapsody.jpg

 

[MickeyisBeast]

Expanding west, south and north

For half a century, from 1903 to 1953, the two major leagues consisted of two eight team leagues. The 16 teams were located in just ten cities, all in the northeastern and midwestern United States: New York City had three teams and Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia and St. Louis each had two teams. St. Louis was the southernmost and westernmost city with a major league team. The longest possible road trip, from Boston to St. Louis, took about 24 hours by railroad. The era of expansion and realignment began in 1953 when the National League's Boston Braves became the Milwaukee Braves. In 1954, the St. Louis Browns became the Baltimore Orioles. In 1955, the Philadelphia Athletics became the Kansas City Athletics. These were three of the least successful major league franchises, even though the Braves were usually an above-.500 team, and they and the Browns had each won a league championship during the 1940s. These three moves were not controversial. The next pair of franchise moves is still controversial.

 

[AmandaSparks730]

Mom's cheering up her friend who just went through a breakup.

 

[poohbearluver]

Can someone explain to me the Survivor thing?

 

[MickeyisBeast]

A baseball uniform is a type of uniform worn by baseball players, and by some non-playing personnel, such as field managers and coaches. It is worn to indicate the person's role in the game and — through the use of logos, colors, and numbers — to identify the teams and their players, managers, and coaches.[42]

The New York Knickerbockers were the first baseball team to use uniforms, taking the field on April 4, 1849, in pants made of blue wool, white flannel shirts (jerseys) and straw hats.[43][43][44][45][46] The practice of wearing a uniform soon spread, and by 1900, all major league teams had adopted them. By 1882, most uniforms included stockings, which covered the leg from foot to knee, and had different colors that reflected the different baseball positions.[47] In the late 1880s, the Detroit Wolverines and Washington Nationals of the National League and the Brooklyn Bridegrooms of the American Association were the first to wear striped uniforms.[43][48]

 

[MickeyisBeast]

Spring training
Spring training is a series of practices and exhibition games preceding the start of the regular season. Spring training allows new players to audition for roster and position spots, and gives existing team players practice time prior to competitive play. Spring training has always attracted fan attention, drawing crowds who travel to the warmer climates to enjoy the weather and watch their favorite teams play, and spring training usually coincides with spring break for many college students. Autograph seekers also find greater access to players during Spring Training.

 

[AmandaSparks730]

YU KNO THAT IS WHAT I CALL HIM MANDEM! xD

XD!

what did you say to him anyway?

 

[MickeyisBeast]

Regular Season
The current MLB regular season is a 162 game schedule, organized into series of normally 3 games, but they can also be 2, 4, or 5 games long. These 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. From mid-May into late-June teams participate in Interleague Play in which fans get the chance to see teams that rarely play each other. Over the course of a season teams are competing for 1 of the 4 playoff berths in their league. They can win one of these berths by either winning the division they are in, or by capturing a wild card. In many seasons, post-season teams are not determined until the very end of the season, while in other years, a post-season team can be decided as early as August.

 

[MickeyisBeast]

All-Star Game
In early July — just after the midway point of the season — a three-day break is taken and the Major League Baseball All-Star Game is held. The All-Star game features a team of players from the National League (NL) — led by the manager of the previous NL World Series team — and a team of players from the American League (AL), similarly managed, in an exhibition game. From 1959 to 1961, two games were held, one in July and one in August. The designated-hitter rule was used in the All-Star game for the first time in 1989. Following games used a DH when the game was played in an AL ballpark. Starting in 2010, the DH rule will be in effect regardless of venue.

 

[MickeyisBeast]

Post-season
When the regular season ends after the first Sunday in October (or the last Sunday in September), eight teams enter the post-season playoffs. Six teams are division champions; the remaining two "wild-card" spots are filled by the team in each league that has the best record but is not a division champion (best second-place team). Three rounds of series of games are played to determine the champion:

1.American League Division Series and National League Division Series, each a best-of-five-games series.
2.American League Championship Series and National League Championship Series, each a best-of-seven-games series played between the surviving teams from the ALDS and NLDS.
3.World Series, a best-of-seven-games series played between the champions of each league.