The Major Leagues and the Minor Leagues

While we tend to think of baseball as a fast action sport, it actually requires a lot of patience. Players have to wait for their turn at bat, to run the bases or to stand in the outfield and catch balls that would otherwise be outs. This builds patience and improves attention and focus.

Each Major League Baseball team consists of 25 active player-eligible roster members and is led by an on-field manager and coaching staff. The on-field manager is responsible for managing game strategy and assisting the coach in developing players, while the general manager (GM) is in charge of the business side of the organization, including selecting, trading, signing and negotiating contracts with players, assembling and maintaining a competitive roster, promoting the team and its brand, and preparing to enter into free agency at the end of each season.

In addition to the Major Leagues, there are a number of minor leagues, each with its own unique level of play and training regimen. The levels of the Minor Leagues vary from class to class, with a few levels that serve as “stepping stones” between the different leagues.

The Major Leagues consist of two divisions: the American League (AL) and National League (NL). Each league has 15 teams, with half of each team’s games played against other teams in their own division and the other half against teams in the other division. There are also a small number of interleague games each year.