The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, or simply the American League (AL), is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a minor league based in the Great Lakes states, which eventually aspired to major league status. It is often called the Junior Circuit because it claimed Major League status for the 1901 season, 25 years after the formation of the National League (the "Senior Circuit").
At the end of every season, the American League champion plays in the World Series against the National League champion. Through 2012, American League teams have won 62 of the 108 World Series played since 1903, with 27 of those coming from the New York Yankees alone. The 2012 American League champions are the Detroit Tigers. The New York Yankees have won 40 American League titles, the most in the league's history, followed by the Philadelphia/Kansas City/Oakland Athletics (15) and the Boston Red Sox (12).
Read more about American League: History, Other Leagues
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“First in booze, first in shoes, and last in the American League.”
—Administration in the State of Miss, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“No slogan of democracy; no battle cry of freedom is more striving then the American parent’s simple statement which all of you have heard many times: ‘I want my child to go to college.’”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)
“Stereotypes fall in the face of humanity. You toodle along, thinking that all gay men wear leather after dark and should never, ever be permitted around a Little League field. And then one day your best friend from college, the one your kids adore, comes out to you.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)