subject: Why Are There More Baseball Teams In The National League? [print this page] Ask someone who is not a big baseball buff how many teams are in the two Major Leagues and you will probably get equal numbers. After all, that is what people assume there are two leagues, divided equally in half. While that is a true scenario in other sports leagues, it is not the case in Major League baseball. There is actually an uneven number of baseball teams and the major reason for this is simple, It prevents the need for virtually meaningless inter-league games to pad and fill out the schedule for each season.
You might be wondering why an inter-league game would be considered to be virtually meaningless. It is simple, actually, the only games that will have anything to do with standings and determining who is going to the post season and who is not are those that are played against teams in your own league. Each season consists of 162 games and typically will start on the first Sunday in April and will run until the first Sunday in October when the playoffs will kick off. Play off games can continue until November in many cases, depending on the teams that are playing for the title.
The odd number of baseball teams in the game came about in 1998 when the Milwaukee Brewers moved to the National League to help make scheduling better for the sport overall. At that time the National League ended up with sixteen teams while the American League retained fourteen instead of each having fifteen. Inter-league play does occur which can be a problem not only for scheduling but for rule considerations as well, while the majority of the rules are the same, there is one rule that is different between the two leagues. The American League uses the Designated Hitter rule while the National League does not have this rule. When the two leagues meet each other, the decision of whether or not the rule will be used for that particular game will be decided by the home league. However, as of April 2010, the Designated Hitter rule will automatically stand in the All Star Game no matter which league is hosting the event.
All baseball teams in the Major League and some of the teams in the Minors are ruled by the Commissioner and Officers of Major League Baseball. That entity, in conjunction with the International Baseball Federation hosts the World Baseball Classic as well. The Commissioner's office makes rulings about disputes, salaries and other aspects of maintaining and running the two leagues which are considered to be individual entities for legal purposes.
Each of the baseball teams in the Major League starts the new baseball season with a clear record and may start their training camps at different times with most of them heading to spring training facilities (the majority of them are in Florida) as early as late February. Most teams go to training in March to be ready for that opening day game in April.
