American League


The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the American League, is the younger of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a minor league based in the Great Lakes states, which eventually aspired to major league status. It is sometimes called the Junior Circuit because it claimed Major League status for the 1901 season, 25 years after the formation of the National League.
Since 1903, the American League champion has played in the World Series against the National League champion with only two exceptions: 1904, when the NL champion New York Giants refused to play their AL counterpart, and 1994, when a 1994–95 [Major League Baseball strike|players' strike] resulted in the cancellation of the Series. Through 2025, American League teams have won 68 of the 121 World Series played since 1903. The New York Yankees have won 27 World Series and 41 American League titles, the most in major league history. The Philadelphia/Kansas City/Oakland Athletics have won the second most AL titles with 15, followed by the Boston Red Sox with 14.
For decades, Major League baseball clubs only played teams from their own league during the regular season and playoffs, with only the two pennant winners meeting in the World Series. The AL and NL also employed and trained their own umpires, who only worked regular season games in their own league. These differences resulted in the leagues developing slightly different strategies and styles of play. The American League was usually regarded as the less "traditional" league during the 20th century, a reputation most exemplified by the introduction of the designated hitter rule in 1973, which encouraged AL managers to largely abandon "smallball" tactics. However, with the advent of free agency in the 1970s allowing for more player movement between leagues, the introduction of regular season interleague play in 1997, umpires working games across MLB beginning in 1999, and the NL's adoption of the designated hitter rule in 2022, the difference in play between the two major leagues has diminished considerably.
Though both leagues agreed to be jointly governed by a commissioner in 1920, they remained separate business entities with their own presidents and management. This was the case until after the 1999 season, when the American League legally merged with the National League under the auspices of Major League Baseball, which now operates much like other North American professional sports leagues, albeit with two "leagues" instead of "conferences".

History

Originally a minor league known as the Western League, which existed from 1885 to 1899 with teams in mostly Great Lakes states, the league changed its name to the American League for the 1900 season and the next year developed into a second major league as a competitor to the older National League. This was prompted by the NL dropping four teams following the 1899 season after having absorbed its previous rival, the American Association, which disbanded in 1891 after ten seasons.
In its early history of the late 1880s, the minor Western League struggled until 1894, when Ban Johnson became the president of the league. Johnson pushed the league to rise to major league status, after the name change to the American League was decided in a league meeting in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, at the former Republican Hotel. A historical marker is at the intersection of North Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and West Kilbourn Avenue where the hotel once stood.
In March 1904, Johnson moved the league's headquarters from Chicago to New York.
Babe Ruth, noted as one of the most prolific hitters in Major League Baseball history, spent the majority of his career in the American League with the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees. From 1973 to 2022 The American League had one notable difference versus the rival National League, as it had the designated hitter rule. Under the rule, a team may use a batter in its lineup who is not in the field defensively, replacing the pitcher in the batting order, compared to the old rule that made it mandatory for the pitcher to bat. In the last two decades, the season schedule has allowed occasional interleague play. In 1969, the AL were divided into East and West divisions, with a postseason playoff series for the pennant and the right to play in the World Series.
File:Walter Johnson and Calvin Coolidge shake hands FINAL.jpg|thumb|U.S. President Calvin Coolidge, and Washington Senators (1901–60)|Washington Senators] pitcher Walter Johnson, shake hands following the Senators' 1924 American League championship at Griffith Stadium, Washington, D.C.
Until the late 1970s, league umpires working behind home plate wore large, balloon-style chest protectors worn outside the shirt or coat, while their colleagues in the National League wore chest protectors inside the shirt or coat. In 1977, new umpires had to wear the inside chest protector, although those on staff wearing the outside protector could continue to do so. Most umpires made the switch to the inside protector, led by Don Denkinger in 1975 and Jim Evans the next year, although several did not, including Bill Haller, Russ Goetz, George Maloney, Bill Kunkel and Jerry Neudecker, who became the last full-time MLB umpire to use the outside protector in 1985.
In 1994, the league, along with the National League, reorganized again, this time into three divisions and added a third round to the playoffs in the form of the American League Division Series, with the best second-place team advancing to the playoffs as a wild-card team, in addition to the three divisional champions. In 1998, the newly franchised Tampa Bay Devil Rays joined the league, and the Arizona Diamondbacks joined the National League: i.e., each league added a fifteenth team. An odd number of teams per league meant that at least one team in each league would have to be idle on any given day, or alternatively, that odd team out would have had to play an interleague game against its counterpart in the other league. The initial plan was to have three five-team divisions per league with inter-league play year-round—possibly as many as 30 interleague games per team each year.
For various reasons, it soon seemed more practical to have an even number of teams in both leagues. The Milwaukee Brewers agreed to change leagues to become the National League's 16th team, moving from the AL Central to the NL Central. At the same time, the Detroit Tigers were moved from the AL East to the AL Central, making room for the Devil Rays in the East. Even after expansion, the American League then continued with 14 teams. This situation changed again in 2013 when the Houston Astros moved from the National League Central division to the American League West. The Astros had been in the NL for 51 years since beginning as an expansion team in 1962. Since their move, both leagues now consist of 15 teams.

Interleague play, and merger

For the first 96 years, American League teams faced their National League counterparts only in exhibition games or in the World Series. Beginning in 1997, interleague games have been played during the regular season and count in the standings. As part of the agreement instituting interleague play, the designated-hitter rule was used only in games where the American League team is the home team, until the 2022 season, when the universal DH rule was implemented.
In 2023, American League teams played 46 regular season interleague games against all 15 National League teams, 23 at home and 23 on the road.
In 2000, the American League ended its status as a legally independent entity when the American and National Leagues were both merged into the legal entity Major League Baseball. This left MLB as a single league, divided into two parts, also called leagues. This change in legal status had no effect on play, scheduling, and so forth.

Teams

Charter franchises

There were eight charter teams in 1901, the league's first year as a major league, and
the next year the original Milwaukee Brewers moved to St. Louis to become the St. Louis Browns, and the year after the New York Highlanders replaced the disbanded original Baltimore Orioles. Those eight franchises constituted the league for 52 seasons until the Browns moved to Baltimore and took up the Orioles name. The eight original teams and their counterparts in the "Classic Eight" were:

Expansion, renaming, and relocation summary

Current teams

American League East

American League Central

American League West

Timeline

The first line is the transformation of the American League to a major league in 1901. The second line is the beginning of the expansion era in 1961. The third line marks the legal merger of the American and National Leagues into a single Major League Baseball in 2000.
World Series championships are shown with a "•", American League Pennants before the World Series are shown with a "#", and American League Pennants who lost the World Series are shown with a "^". No World Series was played in 1904, so the pennant winners for each league are indicated. Due to the 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike, there were no pennant or World Series winners in 1994, so this year is left blank.

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bar:ATH # Philadelphia Athletics / Kansas City Athletics / Oakland Athletics / Athletics
bar:MIN # Washington Senators / Minnesota Twins
bar:NYY # New York Highlanders / Yankees
bar:TEX # Washington Senators / Texas Rangers
bar:LAA # Los Angeles Angels / California Angels / Anaheim Angels / Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
bar:HOU # Houston Colt.45s / Houston Astros
bar:KC # Kansas City Royals
bar:MIL # Seattle Pilots / Milwaukee Brewers
bar:SEA # Seattle Mariners
bar:TOR # Toronto Blue Jays
bar:TB # Tampa Bay Devil Rays / Tampa Bay Rays
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  1. Note on dates: A team's bar begins with the season that team played its first game, and ends with the season after that team played its last game. For example, the Cincinnati Red Stockings played their first game in 1876, the first season of the National League, and played their last game in 1880. Therefore, their bar goes from 1876 to 1881.
  2. --- Charter Members of the American League
bar:BLA from:1901 till:1903 link:/wiki/Baltimore_Orioles_
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at:BOS at:1967 $champ2 mark:
at:BOS at:1975 $champ2 mark:
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at:BOS at:2018 $champ mark:
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at:CWS at:2005 $champ mark:
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bar:CLE from:1902 till:1903 color:navy
bar:CLE from:1903 till:1915 color:red text:"Cleveland Naps" textcolor:navy $Up
bar:CLE from:1915 till:2022 color:red2 text:"Cleveland Indians" textcolor:navy
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at:CLE at:2016 $champ2 mark:
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at:ATH at:1989 $champ mark:
at:ATH at:1990 $champ2 mark:
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at:MIN at:1987 $champ mark:
at:MIN at:1991 $champ mark:
  1. --- 1903: New York replaces Baltimore
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at:NYY at:1942 $champ2 mark:
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at:NYY at:1949 $champ mark:
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at:NYY at:1951 $champ mark:
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at:NYY at:1955 $champ2 mark:
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at:NYY at:1976 $champ2 mark:
at:NYY at:1977 $champ mark:
at:NYY at:1978 $champ mark:
at:NYY at:1981 $champ2 mark:
at:NYY at:1996 $champ mark:
at:NYY at:1998 $champ mark:
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at:NYY at:2001 $champ2 mark:
at:NYY at:2003 $champ2 mark:
at:NYY at:2009 $champ mark:
at:NYY at:2024 $champ2 mark:
  1. --- 1961 Expansion
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at:TEX at:2010 $champ2 mark:
at:TEX at:2011 $champ2 mark:
at:TEX at:2023 $champ mark:
bar:LAA from:1961 till:end link:/wiki/Los_Angeles_Angels
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  1. --- 1962 Expansion
bar:HOU from:1962 till:end link:/wiki/Houston_Astros
bar:HOU from:1962 till:2013 color:nl1 text:""
bar:HOU from:2013 till:end color:orange text:"Houston Astros" $Down
at:HOU at:2017 $champ mark:
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at:HOU at:2021 $champ2 mark:
at:HOU at:2022 $champ mark:
  1. --- 1969 Expansion
bar:KC from:1969 till:end link:/wiki/Kansas_City_Royals
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at:KC at:1985 $champ mark:
at:KC at:2014 $champ2 mark:
at:KC at:2015 $champ mark:
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bar:MIL from:1998 till:end color:nl1 text:""
at:MIL at:1982 $champ2 mark:
  1. --- 1977 Expansion
bar:SEA from:1977 till:end link:/wiki/Seattle_Mariners
bar:SEA from:1977 till:end color:teal2 text:"Seattle Mariners" textcolor:white $Right2
bar:TOR from:1977 till:end link:/wiki/Toronto_Blue_Jays
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at:TOR at:1992 $champ mark:
at:TOR at:1993 $champ mark:
at:TOR at:2025 $champ2 mark:
  1. --- 1998 Expansion
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at:TB at:2008 $champ2 mark:
at:TB at:2020 $champ2 mark:

Presidents

Following the 1999 season, the American and National Leagues were merged with Major League Baseball, and the leagues ceased to exist as business entities. The position of the American League President and National League President became honorary.
Member of the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum|Baseball Hall of Fame]
Honorary President