American League Baseball

In 1903 the American Major league baseball organization split up into two leagues covering all the major league baseball teams in the United States, the National League and the American League. The American League baseball was originally known as the Western League, the strongest minor baseball league in the United States. The president of the Western league Ban Johnson started competing with the National League. Johnson hired major league players for his new by starting offering good salaries the baseball players, ignoring the reserve clause in the NL contracts. The low salaries paid by National League clubs with a $2,400 salary maximum, made it easy to hire good American League baseball players such as Cy Young, John McGraw and Willie Keeler. Baseball teams in the American League expanded their schedule to 154 games in 1904.
If you ever wondered how many baseball teams there are in the American League, here is your answer. The number of baseball teams in the American League is 14. Originally the baseball teams in the American league consisted out of ten teams, but after the first and second expansion in 1961 and 1969 the number of baseball teams in the American League grew to 12. The third expansion took place in 1977 and then finally became the 14 team-league we now know. The American League baseball symbol and logo is also called the “14 star-version”. The logo depicts 14 stars - as in 14 American league baseball teams – surrounding a baseball, which is in the claws of an eagle that holds a small banner with the word American League. The American League has used this symbol since 1977.

National and American League baseball teams play with the rules and the rulebook provided through the Major League Baseball Organization. But there are a few differences in the way baseball is played, for example all American League baseball teams play with the designated hitter rule. This means a designated hitter bats in place of the pitcher. The American baseball league has established this rule in 1973.

American League baseball scores can be found on the pages of the individual American league teams, in newspapers as well as on the official pages of Major League Baseball. After the regular season, eight teams (NL and AL together) enter the post-season playoffs. In the American League the team to get to the finals is determined through the American League Division Series and the American League Championship Series. After that National and American league baseball teams compete at the end of the regular and post season in the World Series. The World Series is the playoffs in baseball.