2014 Major League Baseball season
The 2014 Major League Baseball season began on March 22 at the Sydney Cricket Ground in Sydney, Australia, between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Arizona Diamondbacks. The North American part of the season started on March 30 and ended on September 28. The Major League Baseball All-Star Game's 85th edition was held on July 14 at Target Field in Minneapolis, Minnesota, home of the Minnesota Twins. The American League (AL) beat the National League (NL) 5–3. With the win, the AL champion earned home-field advantage during the World Series. This year  the Houston Astros hosted the Civil Rights Game on May 30 at Minute Maid Park. They played host to the Baltimore Orioles. This was also the final season of Bud Selig as the Commissioner of Baseball. Selig served as the Executive Council Chairman from 1992 to 1998, acting as the commissioner, and then was appointed as the official commissioner in 1998. On August 14, 2014, the franchise owners selected Rob Manfred to become the new Commissioner, starting in 2015. Postseason. Bracket. Schedule. No significant changes were made to the 2014 schedule. As was the case in 2013, each team played  19 games against each division opponent for a total of 76 games, and six or seven games against each team from the other two divisions in its league for a total of 66 games. All teams played 20 interleague games, with the majority of match-ups following the divisional rotation in place since 2004. For 2014, the matchups were AL East vs. NL Central, AL Central vs. NL West, and AL West vs. NL East. Teams played four games against a designated "rival" in two back-to-back two-game series, one home and one away. Unlike in 2013, when  all of these series were played during the same week, these rivalry series were spread from early May through mid-August. The table below shows the interleague rivals for the 2014 season. Rule changes. On August 15, 2013, Major League Baseball announced that it would expand its video review process for the 2014 season, and MLB clubs unanimously approved the new rules on January 16, 2014. Managers were now able to challenge certain plays no more than twice per game, including force plays, fair or foul balls, and batters hit by a pitch, among others. If a manager exhausted his  ability to challenge plays during the game and after the beginning of the seventh inning, the umpire crew chief could choose to invoke instant replay on any reviewable call. Calls that were challenged were reviewed by an umpiring crew at MLB headquarters in New York City, which made the final ruling. On December 11, 2013, the Playing Rules Committee voted overwhelmingly to outlaw home-plate collisions between runners and catchers. On February 24, 2014, the new rule was put into effect as Rule 7.13 was released. Managerial changes. Field managers. Off-season. At the end of the 2013 season, the  following teams made replacements to their managers. Detroit Uniforms. Patches. Anniversaries and special events. The following teams will wear commemorative patches for special occasions: Throwbacks. In addition to ten Cubs throwback uniforms to mark the 100th anniversary of Wrigley Field, selected teams wore throwbacks throughout the season: Television. National. United States. This was first year of the new eight-year TV contracts with ESPN, Fox Sports, and TBS. ESPN will air Sunday night games, some Monday Night games and Wednesday night games, while Fox Sports will air Saturday games and TBS will air Sunday games. Contract provisions in ESPN's  contract virtually eliminated local blackouts among the network's Monday and Wednesday night games, allowing ESPN coverage to co-exist with that of the local broadcasters in home markets. Sunday Night Baseball blackout rules will still apply. Fox Sports' contract also covers Fox Sports 1, which began its first year of Major League Baseball coverage. Fox Sports 1 televised 40 regular-season games (mostly on Saturdays) and possibly up to 15 playoff games. The increase in televised games from previous years is due to a provision in the contract that allows for Fox Sports 1 to take a game between  two teams in which Fox operates the teams' individual RSNs and elevate it into a national broadcast. As a result, MLB regular season coverage on the Fox network was reduced to 12 weeks beginning in 2014. In the post-season, TBS and ESPN aired two Wild Card Games. TBS, Fox Sports 1 and MLB Network aired the Division Series, while TBS aired the American League Championship Series. The Fox network and Fox Sports 1 aired the National League Championship Series, and the Fox network exclusively aired the All-Star Game and the World Series. Canada. This is the first year  of eight-year contracts for national broadcasts in Canada. Sportsnet, owned by Rogers Communications (and sister company of the Toronto Blue Jays), continues to be the primary rightsholder, retaining rights to the All-Star Game, the Home Run Derby, and most postseason games. In total (including Canada-wide rights to all Blue Jays games which are acquired directly from the team), Sportsnet's various channels will carry almost 300 MLB games per season until 2021. As part of the deal, Rogers Cable became the Canadian launch partner for MLB Network, which was not previously available in Canada, and did not  secure carriage on any Canadian providers other than Rogers that year. Despite this, MLB Network's Division Series telecasts were kept exclusive to that channel in Canada as well. Separately, TSN announced its own eight-year deal to expand its MLB coverage. Having carried ESPN's "Sunday Night Baseball" since 2010 under sublicense from Sportsnet, TSN and TSN2 will now carry all of ESPN's regular-season coverage (ESPN being a minority partner in TSN), adding "Monday Night Baseball" and "Wednesday Night Baseball", totalling over 75 games per year. French-language rights, previously held exclusively by TSN's French-language  sister channels RDS and RDS2, will now be split with TVA Sports, with each group airing approximately 70 games per season (TVA Sports also carries additional Blue Jays games acquired directly from the team). RDS will continue to carry the All-Star Game and the World Series, but the remaining postseason rights will be split equally between RDS and TVA Sports. Radio. ESPN Radio aired its 17th season of national coverage, including Sunday night games, Saturday games, Opening Day and holiday games, the All-Star Game and Home Run Derby, and the entire postseason. Local. The New York Yankees left  WCBS, which was their radio home for 12 years, but the rights remained with CBS Radio's New York cluster, as they moved to WCBS's sister station WFAN with a new rights agreement, which allows an FM simulcast with WFAN-FM, which would mark the first time the Yankees are heard on FM radio in their hometown. The move to WFAN means that the New York Mets moved to WOR (purchased by Clear Channel in late 2012) for the 2014 season, as they had been on WFAN since the station had adopted the all-sports format in 1987. This  will be the final year in which the Chicago Cubs will air on WGN. WGN has had some form of broadcast relationship with the Cubs since 1925 and has been the exclusive broadcaster of the team since 1958; for many years, the Cubs and WGN were both owned by Tribune Company. The spin-off of the Cubs to new ownership, combined with continued financial losses, the Cubs' persistent on-field futility and the pending end of the rival Chicago White Sox's contract with WSCR after the 2015 season, prompted Tribune to end its relationship with the Cubs. Cubs broadcasts  will move to CBS Radio's WBBM for 2015 and, if the White Sox do not renew with WSCR, to WSCR for 2016 and beyond.