Major League Baseball
美国职业棒球大联盟
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization that constitutes one of the four major professional sports leagues in North America. It is the oldest league of the four. Teams play in the American League (AL) and National League (NL), which operated as separate legal entities from 1901 and 1876 respectively. In 2000, the leagues merged into a single organization led by the Commissioner of Baseball. The organization oversees minor baseball leagues, which operate about two hundred and forty teams affiliated with the major-league clubs. With the International Baseball Federation, the league also manages the international World Baseball Classic tournament.
美国职业棒球大联盟(简称MLB)是一个职业棒球组织，在北美四大主要职业体育联盟中历史最为悠久。美国联盟(简称AL)和国家联盟(简称NL)分别自1901年和1876年开始作为独立合法的团体运营，它们都有各自的球队。在2000年，这两个联盟合并成一个由大联盟执行长领导的单一组织——美国职业棒球大联盟。大联盟监管一些小的棒球联盟，这些联盟负责管理着隶属于各大主要联盟俱乐部的240支球队。随着国际棒球联盟的建立，美国职业棒球大联盟也负责举办国际性的世界棒球经典赛。
Baseball's first professional team was founded in Cincinnati in 1869. Today, MLB is composed of thirty teams: Twenty-nine in the United States and one in Canada. Teams play one hundred and sixty-two games each season. Five teams in each league advance to a four-round postseason tournament that culminates in the World Series, a best-of-seven championship series between the two league champions that dates to 1903. Baseball broadcasts are aired throughout North America and in several other countries throughout the world. MLB has the highest season attendance of any sports league in the world with more than seventy-four million spectators in 2013.
1869年在辛辛那提组建了美国第一支职业棒球队。现在，美国职业棒球大联盟有30支球队，其中29支球队在美国境内，1支球队在加拿大境内，这些球队每个赛季要打162场比赛。美国联盟和国家联盟各派5支球队进行一场4个回合的季后赛，这也是世界职业棒球大赛的高潮部分，即两个联盟的冠军队进行一场7战4胜制的冠军赛，这种赛制从1903年就已开始实施。棒球赛在北美全境和世界上其他几个国家通过广播进行实时报道。美国职业棒球大联盟比世界上任何一个体育联盟的赛季出席率都要高， 2013年它的出席观众人数超过了7400万人。
