Editing National League (baseball) (section)

===Partnership with the American League===
After eight seasons as a 12-team league, the NL contracted back to eight teams for the 1900 season, eliminating its teams in [[Baltimore Orioles (1882–1899)|Baltimore]], [[Cleveland Spiders|Cleveland]], [[Louisville Colonels|Louisville]] (which has never had another major league team since), and [[Washington Senators (1891–1899)|Washington]]. This provided an opportunity for competition. Three of those cities received franchises in the newly christened American League (AL) when the minor Western League changed its name to the AL in 1900, with the approval of the NL, which regarded the AL as a lesser league since they were a party to the National Agreement. The AL declined to renew its National Agreement membership when it expired the next year, and on January 28, 1901, the AL officially declared itself a second major league in competition with the NL. By 1903, the upstart AL had placed new teams in the National League cities of [[Boston]], Chicago, New York, [[Philadelphia]], and [[St. Louis]], as well as the "abandoned" NL cities Cleveland and Washington (and, temporarily, Baltimore). Only the Cincinnati Reds and Pittsburgh Pirates had no AL team in their markets. The AL among other things enforced a strict conduct policy among its players.

The National League at first refused to recognize the new league, but reality set in as talent and money was split between the two leagues, diluting the league and decreasing financial success. After two years of bitter contention, a new version of the National Agreement was signed in 1903. This meant formal acceptance of each league by the other as an equal partner in major-league baseball, mutual respect of player contracts, and an agreement to play a postseason championship—the [[World Series]].

Major League Baseball narrowly averted radical reorganization in November 1920. Dissatisfied with [[American League]] President and [[National Baseball Commission]] head [[Ban Johnson]], NL owners dissolved the league on November 8 during heated talks on MLB reorganization in the wake of the [[Black Sox Scandal]]. Simultaneously, three AL teams also hostile to Johnson ([[Boston Red Sox]], [[Chicago White Sox]], and [[New York Yankees]]) withdrew from the AL and joined the eight NL teams in forming a new National League; the 12th team would be whichever of the remaining five AL teams loyal to Johnson first chose to join; if none did so an expansion team would have been placed in [[Detroit]], by far the largest one-team city at that time. Four days later, on November 12, both sides met (without Johnson) and agreed to restore the two leagues and replace the ineffective National Commission with a one-man Commissioner in the person of federal Judge [[Kenesaw Mountain Landis]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Koppett |first1=Leonard |title=Koppett's Concise History of Major League Baseball |date=2004 |publisher=Carroll & Graf Publishers |location=New York |isbn=9780786712861 |page=141}}</ref>

The National League circuit remained unchanged from 1900 through 1952. In 1953 the [[Boston Braves|Braves]] moved from Boston to [[Milwaukee]]; in 1966 they moved again, to [[Atlanta]]. In 1958 the [[Brooklyn Dodgers]] and the [[New York Giants (baseball)|New York Giants]] moved to Los Angeles and San Francisco, respectively, bringing major league baseball to the West Coast of the U.S. for the first time.