Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league. A total of 30 teams now play in two divisions, the American League (AL) and National League (NL), with 15 teams in each. The AL and NL operated as separate legal entities from 1901 and 1876 respectively, until 2000, when they were merged into a single organization known as Major League Baseball. After cooperating but remaining legally separate entities since 1903, in 2000 the leagues merged into a single organization led by the Commissioner of Baseball. The organization also oversees minor league baseball leagues, which comprise about 240 teams affiliated with the major-league clubs. With the World Baseball Softball Confederation, MLB manages the international World Baseball Classic tournament.

Baseball's first professional team was founded in Cincinnati in 1869. The first few decades of professional baseball were characterized by rivalries between leagues and by players who often jumped from one team or league to another. The period before 1920 in baseball was known as the dead-ball era; players rarely hit home runs during this time. Baseball survived a conspiracy to fix the 1919 World Series, which came to be known as the Black Sox Scandal. The sport rose in popularity in the 1920s, and survived potential downturns during the Great Depression and World War II. Shortly after the war, baseball's color barrier was broken by Jackie Robinson.

MLB Tonight

MLB Tonight is the signature program that airs on MLB Network and is simulcast on MLB Network Radio. The show offers complete coverage of all Major League Baseball games from 6pm ET till 1am ET during the regular season, and gives news from all 30 MLB teams during the offseason. It is taped live in Studio 3 of the MLB Network facility in Secaucus, New Jersey, but also features segments taped in Studio 42. The program aired from the beginning of Spring Training to the end of the World Series and was replaced in the offseason by Hot Stove, until it started to air in the offseason, and Hot Stove became MLB Network's weekday morning show. The show won the Sports Emmy Award for best Daily Outstanding Studio Show for 2010, 2011 and 2012.

Air times

MLB Tonight airs seven days per week, starting at 6 P.M. ET on weekdays until the last MLB game of the night has ended. MLB Tonight is followed by Quick Pitch, MLB Network's highlights show of record.

On Saturdays, the show airs before and/or after the Saturday Night Baseball game. In 2012, the Sunday edition of MLB Tonight was expanded to air from 1 P.M. to 8 P.M. ET.

MLB Network

MLB Network is an American television sports channel dedicated to baseball. It is primarily owned by Major League Baseball, with television providers Comcast (through its NBC Sports Group), DirecTV, Time Warner Cable and Cox Communications having minority ownership. The channel's headquarters and studios are located in the Secaucus, New Jersey facility which formerly housed MSNBC's studios and also house the studios for the MLBAM ran NHL Network. Tony Petitti, former executive producer of CBS Sports, was named the network's first president. Petitti served as MLB Network's president until December 2014 when he was appointed as Chief Operating Officer of Major League Baseball. Rob McGlarry who worked as Senior and later Executive Vice-president of Business Affairs at MLB Network since 2009 was named the network's second President.

As of February 2015, MLB Network is available to approximately 69,991,000 television households (60.1% of cable, satellite, and telco customers) in the United States.