History UsefulNotes / MajorLeagueBaseball

[[caption-width-right:1000:[[labelnote:Map of MLB teams in 2028]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mlb_map_2028.png After their three year temporary lease is up, the A's will move from Sacramento to their permanant home in Las Vegas.[[/labelnote]]]]

The [[OldestOnesInTheBook oldest professional sports league]] in North America, MLB consists of 30 teams (29 in the United States, 1 in Canada) split between two leagues: the National League and the American League. The MLB season goes from the end of March to the beginning of October across a gauntlet of [[VictoryByEndurance 162 games]], with the six best teams in each league playing in an additional month of playoffs. This eventually culminates in the [[BigGame World Series]], a best-of-seven[[note]]Whoever wins four games first wins the series.[[/note]] contest between the pennant-winning (i.e., league champion) teams of the AL and NL. The current defending World Series (and therefore MLB) champions are the [[UsefulNotes/DFWMetroplex Texas]] Rangers, having won in 2023 for their first-ever championship (after previously losing the World Series in 2010 and 2011).

'''Future Name/Location:''' Athletics (2025-2027),[[note]]A's PR said that they will not be adopting "Sacramento Athletics" during this interim period, although they did [[AmbiguousSituation trademark the name]].[[/note]] Las Vegas Athletics (NET 2028-)\\

'''Home Ballpark:''' Guaranteed Rate Field (since 1991)\\

'''Home Ballpark:''' Kauffman Stadium (since 1973)\\

'''Future Name/Location:''' Athletics (2025-NET 2028),[[note]]A's PR said that they will not be adopting "Sacramento Athletics" during this interim period, although they did [[AmbiguousSituation trademark the name]].[[/note]] Las Vegas Athletics (NET 2028-)\\

'''Future Ballparks:''' Sutter Health Park (2025–NET 2028), New Las Vegas Stadium[[note]]Tentative name.[[/note]] (NET 2028 onward)\\

Since late 2020, there have been rumblings around the majors of possible expansion, with [[UsefulNotes/NorthCarolina Charlotte, Raleigh-Durham]], UsefulNotes/MexicoCity, [[UsefulNotes/TheFreeAndSovereignStatesOfMexico Monterrey]], UsefulNotes/{{Montreal}} (for a potential Expos revival), UsefulNotes/{{Nashville}}, UsefulNotes/{{Orlando}}, UsefulNotes/{{Portland}}, [[UsefulNotes/{{Utah}} Salt Lake City]], [[UsefulNotes/OtherCitiesInTexas San Antonio]], and UsefulNotes/{{Vancouver}} being among the top candidate cities for expansion or relocation. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred had previously stated that expansion would not be a priority until the stadium situations for both the Oakland Athletics and Tampa Bay Rays were settled.[[note]]The A's home, the Oakland Coliseum, has been in use since 1968 and is the last of the poor-quality "cookie cutter" stadiums. The Rays' home, Tropicana Field, is also rather old and low quality (being built in 1991 with a Tampa Bay expansion team in mind) and is in the hard-to-reach city of St. Petersburg.[[/note]] As of 2024, however, this roadblock has essentially been lifted, since the Athletics have been confirmed to relocate to UsefulNotes/LasVegas (though no earlier than 2028, assuming everything goes right).[[note]] As 2024 is the last year of the current stadium deal between the A's and the Coliseum, and a new Vegas ballpark won't be ready until '28, the team will call Sacramento their interim home between 2025 and NET 2027.[[/note]] Meanwhile, the Rays have announced they will build a new ballpark adjacent to Tropicana Field, with an opening date of no later than 2028. More information about some of the expansion candidates can be viewed in the folder below.

'''Home Ballpark:''' Tropicana Field (1998-NLT 2027)\\
'''Future Ballpark:''' Gas Plant Stadium[[note]]Tentative name.[[/note]] (NLT 2028 onwards)\\

They've proven immensely successful early in centuries, winning one World Series in the 1900s,[[note]]The first ever modern World Series in 1903.[[/note]] four in the 1910s (in which the newly built Braves Field was used for both the 1915 and 1916 Red Sox due to Fenway Park having been used as the Braves' home for their own World Series as their own stadium was too small and to take advantage of the larger seating capacity Braves Field had at the time),[[note]]They played in and won five of the first fifteen Series ever played.[[/note]] two in the 2000s, and two in the 2010s--but won no World Series at all from 1918 to 2004 (this is sometimes known as "The Curse of the Bambino", although despite what the [[CulturalTranslation American film version of]] ''Film/FeverPitch'' told you, barely any hardcore Sox fans believed that this curse was why they kept losing). That finally ended in 2004 when the Red Sox, coming off a MiracleRally that saw them come back from an unprecedented 3 games to nothing hole to beat the Yankees, swept the rival Cardinals in the World Series (during [[WeirdMoon a lunar eclipse]], nonetheless) while avenging their last two losses to the same Cards back in 1946 and 1967.

They've won three more championships since then [[note]](including beating the same Cardinals again in a rematch which was spurned on by the events of the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombing in which the attack took place right ''next'' to Fenway Park at the finish line)[[/note]], effectively ending their "loser" status for good, even becoming the second most successful sports team in the whole Northeast since then (not that the bar is too high), just behind the New England Patriots who have won 6 Super Bowls in a 20 year span (also based in Beantown, though in nearby Foxboro) they're the only Boston team who has ''yet'' to lose a World Series championship, having gone undefeated since their 2004 championship [[note]]unlike the Patriots, Celtics and Bruins who have lost a combined 7 championships during the same stretch[[/note]], although the team was accused of technological sign-stealing (intercepting the opposing team's messages) during its World Series-winning 2018 season, all but ending their dominance as they have since slipped back to mediocrity, except for a surprising run to the 2021 ALCS where they lost to the hated Astros in 6 games.[[note]]Stealing signs by itself is not against the rules; teams will often try to do so once they get a runner to second base (giving that player a view of the catcher's signs). What is ''very'' illegal is the use of technology to steal signs in real time (while the Astros later admitted to stealing signs during their 2017 World series win (while their 2019 World Series run was still on going) and were properly fined and stripped of draft picks (and leading them to fire their GM (who was banned for the entire year) and manager following their 2019 World Series loss), the Red Sox likewise managed to escape serious repercussions (in a similar way to their hated rivals the Yankees) by mostly on account of how dominant their 2018 squad was (aside from the firing and eventual rehiring of their manager Alex Cora who was suspended the entire 2020 season for his role in the Astros Scandal).[[/note]]

The Red Sox are SeriousBusiness in Boston (to the point that their NL counterparts the Braves were forced to move to Milwaukee in 1952 as the Red Sox grew to be too popular), and the rivalry between them and the Yankees is the biggest FandomRivalry in North American sports, if not sports period [[note]]the closest contenders are the UsefulNotes/{{NBA}}'s Celtics-Lakers rivarly and the UsefulNotes/{{NHL}}'s Bruins-Canadiens rivarly, making the city of Boston notorious for having epic rivalries with 3 out of the 4 Big Sports Leagues[[/note]]. When viewed from outside the rivalry, however, the Red Sox have since the end of the curse merely become the lesser of two evils (the result of [[HeWhoFightsMonsters adopting Yankee-like spending habits]]). For a while they were said to be "Film/{{Moneyball}} on an unlimited budget", as their (then) general manager Theo Epstein used those ideas to great effect. In addition to their legendary rivarly with the Yankees, they also have notable rivalries with the Tampa Bay Rays [[note]]which has gotten far more heated in recent years due to then-former Red Sox GM Chaim Bloom, the former GM of the Rays, who has been accused by die-hard Red Sox fans as being a spy whose loyal to Tampa Bay by outright sabotaging the team by not allowing the Sox to re-sign members of their 2018 World Series team (in an attempt at rebuilding the far larger payroll Red Sox club in the exact same way he turned the far lower payroll Rays into a powerhouse), such as allowing the unpopular trade of popular outfielder Mookie Betts to the Dodgers to go through (despite him wanting to stay in Boston) that netted them Alex Verdugo, letting most of their pitching staff aside from ace Chris Sale walk and most recently not re-signing shortstop Xander Bogaerts who would sign with the Padres once they signed an aging Trevor Story from Colorado to replace him at shortstop[[/note]], the Chicago White Sox,[[note]](known amongst fans of both Sox clubs as the Battle of the Laundry. Though them being indirectly involved with the Red Sox selling Babe Ruth to the Yankees may have also played a part when the Yankees acquired disgruntled pitcher Carl Mays who flat out quit the Red Sox and league president Ban Johnson suspended Mays for breaking his lease with Boston, forcing both Sox clubs and the Yankees' to form an EnemyMine known as the ''Insurrectos'' against The Big Five, a move that would later pave the way for the Red Sox to eventually sell Ruth to New York)[[/note]] the Los Angeles Angels,[[note]](which is again a greater part of the infamous Celtics-Lakers rivarly bleeding into baseball)[[/note]] and the St. Louis Cardinals.[[note]](whom they split 4 World Series wins with, and have had an epic rivarly that now bleeds into all 4 sport leagues which continues to this day with the NHL's Blues, the NFL's Rams also had a so-so rivarly with the Patriots until the Rams left St. Louis to return to Los Angeles, the NBA's Hawks (now based in Atlanta) also started their rivarly with the Boston Celtics, while based in St. Louis)[[/note]]

In another strange quirk, they've won at least three games in all thirteen of their World Series appearances, winning nine of them and losing the other four in the maximum seven games; because of this the Red Sox are the only Boston team to have never won the championship in the full seven games.

The Reds were then lead in the 50's by slugging superstar Ted Kluszewski, but struggled mightly during this time as most of their stars from the 40's that last won them the World Series had long since retired, despite producing a soon-to-be legend in Frank Robinson. Due to the rise of Soviet Communism within the US media the Reds were briefly renamed to the ''Redlegs'', only to switch back by the end of the decade once they saw it was a color rather than a sign of Communism, despite this the communist jokes persisted until their next World Series appearance in 1961 only to again lose to the powerhouse Yankees in 5 games [[note]]becoming the shortest World Series[[/note]]. The 60's despite having winning teams and a leading superstar in Robinson, the team was in serious financial trouble due to being in a smaller market and team owner Bill [=DeWitt=] threatening to move the team elsewhere where he would infamously trade Robinson to Baltimore, a move that spawned the Rosie Reds fanbase to prevent the team from leaving [[note]]which also had future Reds owner Marge Schott amongst them (see below)[[/note]]. The glory days of the Reds were the '70s, when they were called the ''Big Red Machine'' that began with a new GM in Bob Howsam the team began adopting his way, by banning all ''facial'' hair and long hair back in the late 60's that would last for the next three decades [[note]]humorously the Yankees themselves wouldn't adopt the Reds' policy until George Steinbrenner (whom had a history with the United States Air Force) arrived, though he would allow players to grow mustaches, something the Reds would ban outright[[/note]], and stocking up on players throughout the 60's, before appearing in two more to start the 70's off where the Big Red Machine truly took off (losing first to the powerhouse Baltimore Orioles in 1970 [[note]]including to former Red superstar and Hall of Famer Frank Robinson, whom they traded to Baltimore in 1965 that jumpstarted Baltimore's own Dynasty[[/note]] and again to the Mustache Gang Athletics in 1972 during their three-peat [[note]]known amongst baseball historians as "The Hairs vs Squares" due to the known facial hair of the mustachios A's who proceeded to outright mock the infamously clean shaven Reds squad and their controversial clean shaven policy[[/note]]) before finally securing victory in 1975 during an epic 7 game World Series over the Boston Red Sox [[note]]which became famous for Fisk's epic wave to the ball to stay fair as he hit a home run to end Game 6 to extend the series to Game 7[[/note]] and starting an unprecedented winning streak in Game 7 by going ''9-0'' in World Series games by repeating in 1976 by sweeping the powerhouse Yankees (getting revenge over their defeats in 1939 and 1961 in the process). Longtime ESPN broadcaster Joe Morgan was a member of the Big Red Machine, and he would never let you forget it. Another bright spot came in 1990, when the Reds swept the World Series against the heavily-favored A's, getting revenge for their defeat in 1972.

Historically, they've had flashes of success interspersed with long periods of losses. For an example of the first, they won their first World Series in 1914 in Boston with the Miracle Braves squad who went from literally ''dead last'' at mid-season to suddenly catch fire (which began the day after July 4th) and won the pennant at the end of the season over the New York (now San Francisco) Giants and won the championship in a sweep against the heavily favored Connie Mack's Philadelphia Athletics squad [[note]]the series was played in Fenway Park as the Braves' own stadium proved to be too small to host the World Series, the series win paved way for the construction of Braves Field, now known today as Nickerson Field[[/note]], they would manage one more World Series appearance in the the late 40's with the help of legendary pitching duo Warren Spahn and Johnny Sain (to the point they inspired a legendary poem to be written by a member of the ''Boston Post'' that soon entered the baseball vocabulary: "''Spahn and Sain and pray for rain''") where they lost to the Cleveland Indians in what would be their last World Series win to date [[note]]the 1948 World Series almost became an all-Boston World Series (likely would have been called the Fenway Series as both teams played at Fenway Park, though not at the same time) as the Red Sox held a one game playoff to decide the winner of the AL pennant which they proceed to lose to Cleveland[[/note]].

The greater popularity of the Red Sox and their slugging superstar Ted Williams forced the Braves to move west to Milwaukee in 1952, then there's the team of Hank Aaron, who broke Babe Ruth's career home run record [[note]]Ruth's 714th and final home run was when he was on the ''Braves''[[/note]] despite receiving numerous death threats and alongside Spahn and fellow slugger Eddie Matthews helped the Braves win their second World Series in 1957 against the powerhouse Yankees in 7 games (their only World Series win against the Yankees, and the city of Milwaukee their only World Series championship), they nearly pulled off a repeat in 1958 only to lose the World Series to the Yankees in 7 games, with the Bronx Bombers coming back from a 3-games-to-1 deficit. However their stay in Milwaukee would be much shorter than their stay in Boston, due to a lukewarm stadium and the strain of playing for a small market city, forced the Braves to move South to Atlanta in 1965.

After Aaron (who would end his career in Milwaukee when they got another team in the Brewers), they went from mediocre to horrible in the mid-to-late 1980s. In 1991, they went worst-to-first, went on an absolute tear in the second half of the season, defeated the Pirates on a controversial call in the NLCS, and lost in the World Series to the Minnesota Twins in an epic 7 game series, considered by many to be one of the best since the 1975 World Series[[note]]the Twins also went from worst-to-first as well the same season[[/note]]. Then, in 1992, they basically did the same thing all over again, except this time losing the World Series to the Toronto Blue Jays (who would proceed to repeat their championship the following year).

However, the team surprised many the next season as several prospects were called up and broke out and the Reds proceeded to contend for a wild card playoff spot deep into the month of September, only to lose out to the Diamondbacks and Marlins. Their main rivals are the Pittsburgh Pirates [[note]] due to their infamous battles during the Big Red Machine Era that saw the Reds dominating the Pirates in which Cincinnati went on to win both the 75 and 76 World Series, except for 1979 where Pittsburgh got the better of the aging Machine[[/note]], which was kept upon the Reds moving from the NL West to the NL Central and once had a strong rivarly with the Los Angeles Dodgers [[note]]due to both teams dominances during the 70's up until the Reds last World Series win[[/note]].

The Pirates have, for reasons that are probably all complete coincidence, an unusual number of ethnicity/nationality-related firsts. This includes the first Latin American Hall of Famer (Clemente), the first all-Black starting lineup (in 1971), the first signing of players from India (who didn't reach the Major League club, but were the subject of the movie ''Film/MillionDollarArm''), the first Egyptian player (Sam Khalifa, briefly their shortstop in the mid-1980s) and more recently the first Lithuanian and sub-Saharan African players in the Major Leagues. In terms of rivals, Pittsburgh has a nasty one with the nearby Cincinnati Reds (due to their battles back in the 70's during the Big Red Machine Era, along with the aftermentioned brawls) and a friendly one with the Philadelphia Phillies.

Probably the highest-profile Cardinals fan today is Creator/JonHamm (a St. Louis native).

After that season, they signed two-way superstar UsefulNotes/ShoheiOhtani in free agency with a 10-year, ''$700 million'' contract, the largest in North American sports history[[note]]with $680 million of that actually being paid over the 10 years ''after the contract ends''[[/note]] (though he's only hitting in 2024 while recovering from elbow surgery), and in the process reignited their hatred with their AL brethren the Angels[[note]]though to be fair in Ohtani's defense, he did grew up as a lifelong Dodgers fan and was originally going to sign with them back in 2014 when he first attempted to make the jump from the Pacific, only to sign with the Angels in 2017 when the Dodgers wouldn't sign off on his talents as a two-way player who can bat and pitch[[/note]], and then shortly after signed fellow Japanese superstar sensation Yoshinobu Yamamoto to the largest deal in history for a player coming directly from Japan, outbidding the Mets, ''Yankees'' and the ''Red Sox''. All but becoming the most hated team in baseball since the rival Astros' cheating scandal with many opposing fans accusing the Dodgers of buying their way to a championship, essentially becoming the Yankees in spirit.

However, the team surprised many the next season as several prospects were called up and broke out and the Reds proceeded to contend for a wild card playoff spot deep into the month of September, only to lose out to the Diamondbacks and Marlins.

The Pirates have, for reasons that are probably all complete coincidence, an unusual number of ethnicity/nationality-related firsts. This includes the first Latin American Hall of Famer (Clemente), the first all-Black starting lineup (in 1971), the first signing of players from India (who didn't reach the Major League club, but were the subject of the movie ''Film/MillionDollarArm''), the first Egyptian player (Sam Khalifa, briefly their shortstop in the mid-1980s) and more recently the first Lithuanian and sub-Saharan African players in the Major Leagues.

After that season, they signed two-way superstar UsefulNotes/ShoheiOhtani in free agency with a 10-year, ''$700 million'' contract, the largest in North American sports history[[note]]with $680 million of that actually being paid over the 10 years ''after the contract ends''[[/note]] (though he's only hitting in 2024 while recovering from elbow surgery), and in the process reignited their hatred with their AL brethren the Angels, and then shortly after signed fellow Japanese superstar sensation Yoshinobu Yamamoto to the largest deal in history for a player coming directly from Japan, outbidding the Mets, Yankees and the Red Sox. All but becoming the most hated team in baseball since the rival Astros' cheating scandal with many opposing fans accusing the Dodgers of buying their way to a championship, essentially becoming the Yankees.

%%!!!Portland, Oregon

Montreal is different in comparison to the rest of the potential expansion candidates, and that's not just because of its Francophone population. The city was home to the Expos from 1969 to 2004, after which stadium and ownership issues forced them to relocate to Washington DC and become the Nationals. As such, the city has been a favorite among various baseball fanbases for an expansion team, albeit more in the form of "Bring back the Expos!" compared to an actual expansion team. Montreal has some additional benefits too, being the second-largest city in Canada (and the market size that entails), having active support among residents and government officials for an Expos return, and already being home to the [[UsefulNotes/NationalHockeyLeague Canadiens]], [[UsefulNotes/CanadianFootballLeague Alouettes]], [[UsefulNotes/MajorLeagueSoccer CF Montreal]] in other pro sports leagues. However, the city also has some difficulties: first and foremost, they'd need to build the stadium before a team gets established, as there would be little patience for a temporary bout in Olympic Stadium considering how it was a major reason for the Expos' departure. Additionally, Montreal already had an expansion bid fail in the past couple of years, thanks to MLB putting the kibosh on a proposed split season for the Tampa Bay Rays[[note]]Where the Rays would play half their home games in St. Petersburg and the other half in Montreal.[[/note]] in 2022. Nonetheless, there is a clear passion of a return of baseball in the city, something that MLB might keep its eye on in preparation of the next round of expansion.

The capital of Tennessee has been a frontrunner for a potential MLB team, especially since the [[UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeague Oilers/Titans]], [[UsefulNotes/NationalHockeyLeague Predators]], and [[UsefulNotes/NationalBasketballAssociation Grizzlies]] in Memphis already beat them to the punch by more than twenty years.[[note]]And if you [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg include]] UsefulNotes/MajorLeagueSoccer, you also have Nashville SC existing since 2020.[[/note]] However, Nashville has been no stranger to baseball throughout its history, thanks in part to [[UsefulNotes/PowerFiveConferences Vanderbilt University]]'s historically successful program (especially compared to the Commodores' ButtMonkey status in football). They have also been home to the minor league Nashville Sounds, who are the AAA affiliate of the Brewers and have been calling the city home since 1978. Although some have complained that Nashville is in "[[InsistentTerminology Braves Country]]," the city's growth in the past three decades--the metro area more than doubling in population since 1990--has nonetheless caught the attention of MLB, who had the city host their Winter Meetings in 2015 and 2023. One must also mention Music City Baseball, an expansionary bidding group aiming to establish an MLB team in Nashville. Their planned ball club's name would be the Nashville Stars, honoring an old Negro League team from the 1930s and 1940s that shared the name.

Montreal is different in comparison to the rest of the potential expansion candidates, and that's not just because of its Francophone population. The city was home to the Expos from 1969 to 2004, after which stadium and ownership issues forced them to relocate to Washington DC and become the Nationals. As such, the city has been a favorite among various baseball fanbases for an expansion team, albeit more in the form of "Bring back the Expos!" compared to an actual expansion team. Montreal has some additional benefits too, being the second-largest city in Canada (and the market size that entails), having active support among residents and government officials for an Expos return, and already being home to the [[UsefulNotes/NationalHockeyLeague Canadiens]] and [[UsefulNotes/MajorLeagueSoccer CF Montreal]] in other pro sports leagues. However, the city also has some difficulties: first and foremost, they'd need to build the stadium before a team gets established, as there would be little patience for a temporary bout in Olympic Stadium considering how it was a major reason for the Expos' departure. Additionally, Montreal already had an expansion bid fail in the past couple of years, thanks to MLB putting the kibosh on a proposed split season for the Tampa Bay Rays[[note]]Where the Rays would play half their home games in St. Petersburg and the other half in Montreal.[[/note]] in 2022. Nonetheless, there is a clear passion of a return of baseball in the city, something that MLB might keep its eye on in preparation of the next round of expansion.