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=Professional Sports=

Professional sports are very popular in America today. There are a variety of sports played professionally in cities all around the United States and some in Canada. The athletic events draw large crowds and make a lot of money. People travel to stadiums to watch their favorite teams play and many watch games on TV from the comfort of their own homes. The four major professional sports organizations that I will look at are: Major League Baseball, National Football League, National Basketball Association, and the National Hockey League.

MLB[[image:mlb.jpg width="150" height="83" align="right" caption="MLB logo"]]
Baseball is a very popular sport in America and is often called the nation’s pastime. Professional baseball is run through Major League Baseball. MLB is one of the major professional sports leagues of the United States. It has 30 teams, 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. In each season, they play 162 games which usually begins in April and ends in October, with the playoffs played in October and sometimes into early November. Major League Baseball is switching to three main television broadcast partners, FOX, ESPN and TBS. Each Major League Baseball team also has their own minor league teams where players train and develop skills to play in the big leagues.

NFL[[image:nfl.jpg width="150" height="187" align="right" caption="NFL logo"]]
The National Football League is the largest professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association. It changed the name to the National Football League in 1922. The league has thirty-two teams from the United States. The league is divided into two conferences the American Football Conference (AFC) and National Football Conference (NFC), and each conference has four divisions that have four teams each. The regular season is a seventeen-week schedule. Each team plays 16 games and has 1 bye week that they don’t play a game in. The season starts September and ends in December or early January. At the end of each regular season, six teams from each conference play in the NFL playoffs, with the championship game, known as the Super Bowl. Commercials during the Super Bowl are really popular and make companies a lot of money. All-star players meet in the Pro Bowl in Hawaii.

NBA[[image:nba.jpg width="149" height="114" align="right" caption="NBA logo"]]
The National Basketball Association is a professional basketball league, that has thirty teams, twenty-nine teams in the United States and one in Canada. The league was founded in New York City on June 6, 1946 as the Basketball Association of America (BAA). The league adopted the name National Basketball Association in 1949 after merging with the National Basketball League. During the regular season, each team plays 82 games, 41 home and 41 away. The season begins in October and ends in April. The playoff go through late April. 

NHL[[image:nhl.jpg align="right" caption="NHL logo"]]
The National Hockey League is an association which runs a professional hockey league. The NHL has 30 teams, 24 in the US and 6 in Canada. The Stanley Cup, the oldest professional sports trophy in North America, is given each year to the league playoff champion at the end of each season. The names of all the players on the winning team are engraved on it. The league was started in 1917 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The entire 2004–05 season was canceled because of a players strike but, the league has had a successful comeback. In 2009, the NHL enjoyed record-high sponsorships, crowds and television viewers. The NHL draws many highly skilled players from all over the world. Right now, the league has players from about 20 different countries.