What's the difference between the American and National Baseball Leagues?

Most people know that Major League Baseball is divided into two separate leagues: The American League and the National League. The National League, formed in 1876, is the older of the two leagues that make up the professional Major League Baseball organization in the United States and Canada. The main difference in the two is that the American League uses the designated hitter rule to replace pitchers during at-bats, and the National League does not.

Alexander Cartwright, an architect and sportsman in New York City, is widely recognized as the father of modern organized baseball. He was instrumental in founding the first organization devoted to playing baseball, the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club, in 1845. He wrote 20 rules about the field layout and how the game was played. The most important one was that players had to be tagged or forced out rather than having the ball thrown at them [source: Dickey]. Of course, the rules were modified as the game evolved, but Cartwright gave us the essence of baseball.

Baseball's popularity spread, with teams that toured the country and paid players. The first league was the National Association of Baseball Players, formed in 1871 and disbanded in 1875 because of poor leadership, inadequate rules and related problems.

William Hulbert, a Chicago businessman and team executive, enlisted Albert Spalding, a star pitcher with the dominant team, the Boston Red Stockings, to help form a new league with businessmen rather than players running the show. They formed the National League, with eight teams.

How did the National League fare at first – and how did the American League come into existence? Read on.

The National and American Leagues

For 25 years, the National League dominated major league baseball. Attempts to form rival associations flopped, mainly because of lack of money and organization. But a former sportswriter named Byron Bancroft (Ban) Johnson rebelled and eventually broke through. Johnson developed a well-run second league, but it was a minor league because the agreement that governed baseball dictated that the National League was the only major league. Johnson pulled out of that agreement and established the American League as a second, independent major league in 1901. Because the teams in the American League paid more, they were able to get a lot of players from the National League [source: Koppett].

Besides stealing players from the National League, the American League started beating the older one in attendance. There were spats about minor league players, which cities to play in and where to build ballparks.

By early 1903, the two leagues made peace, coming up with a National Agreement to oversee such things as schedules, rules and recruiting. A three-man National Commission oversaw everything. In 1903, the champions of the two leagues squared off for the first official Major League Baseball World Series. After the "Black Sox" scandal erupted over Chicago White Sox players deliberately losing the 1919 World Series, a new National Agreement was adopted in 1921, and the three-man National Commission in charge of Major League Baseball was replaced with one powerful baseball commissioner.

Over the years, teams have moved and changed names, and the leagues have expanded. In 2012, the National League had 16 teams and the American League had 14 teams. Once the Houston Astros switch to the American League in 2013, the numbers will be 15 and 15.

Outstanding players from the two leagues meet once a year for an All-Star Game. Since 1997, teams from the two leagues have met during the regular season for interleague play. Of course, the champions of the two leagues still meet each fall for the World Series.

Play between the two leagues has been more complicated since the American League adopted a major rule change in 1973. The American League's designated hitter (DH) rule allows a tenth player, a hitter who does not play in the field but bats regularly in place of the pitcher. Pitchers don't have to bat.

Since pitchers are usually poor hitters, the rule has changed the game. It was adopted because hitting had been declining. It worked in terms of some increase in batting averages, hits and runs. Some people think it makes the game more exciting. The DH rule has been good for players who are good hitters but poor fielders. The DH rule also affects pitching strategy because managers don't have to take a pitcher out of the game and use a pinch hitter when offense is crucial. (Designated hitters replace pitchers, who typically aren't great hitters.) Games don't have as many boring delays while teams change pitchers. And American League teams value pitchers without any worry about their hitting ability.

When teams from the two leagues play each other, the designated hitter rule is used in American League ballparks only.

Author's Note

I love baseball, especially the Baltimore Orioles. But I'd never thought a lot about the history of the game as we know it. It wasn't as easy as I had thought it would be to find the history. There's a lot of information online about players, statistics, etc., but my search for authoritative information took me to a university library and some books. I was interested to learn of the squabbles between leagues in the early days. Sometimes we think everything used to be pure, and only in contemporary times do we have squabbles over business, money, leadership and so on, but my research showed me that's not the case.

Sources

Bendix, Peter. "The History of the American and National League, Part I." Beyond the Boxscore. (Aug. 5, 2012) http://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2008/11/18/664028/the-history-of-the-america
Bendix, Peter. "The History of the American and National League, Part II." Beyond the Boxscore. (Aug. 5, 2012) http://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2008/11/20/665854/the-history-of-the-america
Dickey, Glenn. The History of American League Baseball Since 1901. Stein and Day, New York. 1980.
Dickey, Glenn. The History of National League Baseball Since 1876. Stein and Day, New York. 1979.
Koppett, Leonard. Koppett's Concise History of Major League Baseball. Temple University Press, Philadelphia. 1998.
Nilsson, Jeff. "The History of Baseball's Designated Hitter Rule: Or, The Decline and Fall of Western Civilization?" The Saturday Evening Post. Jan. 9, 2001. (Aug. 3, 2012) http://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2010/01/09/archives/then-and-now/history-baseballs-designated-hitter-rule.html
Rader, Benjamin G. Baseball: A History of America's Game. University of Illinois Press, Urbana and Chicago. 1992.
Ritter, Lawrence S. The Story of Baseball. William Morrow and Co. New York, 1983.
Schlossberg, Dan. The Baseball Book of Why. Jonathan David Publishers, Inc., New York. 1984.
World Book Encyclopedia. "Baseball." The World Book Encyclopedia, Vol. 2. World Book Inc., Chicago. 1984.

What's the difference between the American and National Baseball Leagues?

The National and American Leagues

Author's Note

Related Articles

Sources