Current Major League Baseball franchises

This article gives general information/overview about each of the 30 current Major League Baseball franchises, including geographic locations, divisional alignment/league affiliations, schedule length/format, game times, and team colors.

In all, there are 30 teams in the two leagues: 15 in the older National League ("NL") and 15 in the American League ("AL"). Each has its teams split into three divisions grouped generally by geography. They are (number of teams in each division in parenthesis): NL East (5), NL Central (5), NL West (5), AL East (5), AL Central (5), and AL West (5). From 1998 to 2012, there were 16 teams in the National League, and 14 teams in the American League. This changed in the 2013 season when the Houston Astros were moved to the AL West, placing 5 teams in each division and 15 teams in both leagues. The teams are hosted by 17 American states, 1 Canadian province (Ontario), and the District of Columbia.

Each team's regular season consists of 162 games, a duration established in 1961 in the American League and 1962 in the National League. From 1904 into the early 1960s, except for 1919, a 154-game schedule was played in both leagues (in which each team played its seven opponents 22 times apiece). Expansion from eight to ten teams in each league in the early 1960s resulted in a revised schedule of 162 games (in which each team played its nine opponents 18 times) in their expansion years, for the American League in 1961 and the National League in 1962. Although the schedule remains at 162 games to this day, the layout of games played was changed when Divisional play began in 1969, so that teams played more games against opponents within their own division than against the other divisions or (beginning in 1997) the other league.

Unplanned shortened seasons were played in 1918 due to the United States entering World War I, and in 1972, 1981, 1994, and 1995 due to . A 140-game schedule (with each team playing its seven opponents 20 times) was used in 1919, due to the influenza outbreak, and the schedule before 1904 varied from year to year.

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