American League is one of the two top professional baseball leagues in the United States and Canada. The other league is the National League. Together, they make up baseball’s major leagues.
The American 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 American League, most of the games are between American League teams. Several interleague games are also played against teams in the National 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 American League team that finishes the regular season with the best record in each division wins that division. The 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 American League Championship Series (ALCS). The victor wins the American League “pennant.” It then plays the National League pennant winner in the World Series for the major league baseball championship.
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 with eight teams. The two leagues met in the first World Series in 1903. The American League expanded to 10 teams in 1961, 12 teams in 1969, 14 teams in 1977, and 15 teams in 2013.
A president headed the league from 1901 to 1999, when the position was abolished. Today, an executive called the commissioner of baseball leads both major leagues.
