National League is one of the two top professional baseball leagues in the United States and Canada. The other league is the American League. Together, they make up baseball’s major leagues.
The National League consists of 15 teams divided into three divisions—East, Central, and West. Each team in the league plays 162 games during the regular season. The major league season starts in late March or early April and ends in late September or early October. Each team plays half of its games at home and half on the road. In the National League, most of the games are between National League teams. Several interleague games are also played against teams in the American League. The two leagues also play an all-star game in the middle of the regular season. This game matches outstanding players from each league.
The National League team that finishes the regular season with the best record in each division wins that division. The three division winners qualify for postseason playoffs, along with three wild card teams—that is, the teams that have the best records in the league without winning a division.
During the playoffs, the wild card team with the worst regular-season record plays a three-game series against the division winner with the worst regular-season record. At the same time, the other two wild card teams play each other in a three-game series. The winner of each of those three-game series advances to play one of the other two division winners in a five-game series. The winners play in the seven-game National League Championship Series (NLCS). The victor wins the National League “pennant,” and then plays the American League pennant winner in the World Series for the major league baseball championship.
The National League was founded in 1876. It replaced the National Association, the first professional baseball league, which dissolved after the 1875 season. The new league consisted of eight teams. The American League began as the Western League, a minor (lower) league that existed from 1894 to 1899. The league was reorganized and renamed the American League in 1900 to compete with the National League. It began play as a second major league in 1901. The two leagues played the first World Series in 1903. The National League expanded to 10 teams in 1962, to 12 teams in 1969, to 14 teams in 1993, and to 16 teams in 1998. It was reduced to 15 teams in 2013.
A president headed the National League from 1876 to 1999, when the position was abolished. Today, an executive called the commissioner of baseball leads both leagues.
