The 1954 major league baseball season began on April 13, 1954. The regular season ended on September 26, with the New York Giants and Cleveland Indians as the regular season champions of the National League and American League, respectively. The postseason began with Game 1 of the 51st World Series on September 29 and ended with Game 4 on October 2. The Giants swept the Indians in four games, capturing their fifth championship in franchise history, since their previous in . Going into the season, the defending World Series champions were the New York Yankees from the season.
The 21st Major League Baseball All-Star Game was held on July 13 at Cleveland Stadium in Cleveland, Ohio, home of the Cleveland Indians. The American League won, 11âÂÂ9, ending the National League's four-win streak.
In a continuation of the relocation trend that began the previous season, the St. Louis Browns moved from St. Louis, Missouri to Baltimore, Maryland, leaving St. Louis a one-team city, and seeing the return of American League baseball to Baltimore after 52 seasons. The previous American League relocation involved the same franchise, when the Milwaukee Brewers moved to St. Louis as the Browns, 53 seasons earlier. The season would also prove to be the last season of the Athletics franchise in Philadelphia, moving to Kansas City, Missouri the following season as the Kansas City Athletics.
During the 1953 Winter Meetings, the National League relaxed requirements for relocation, changing the necessary votes from unanimous between the eight teams to 75% (effectively six). This eased the eventual relocation of the Giants and Dodgers to California in .
On Opening Day, April 13, the Pittsburgh Pirates and St. Louis Cardinals became the ninth and tenth teams in professional baseball to break the color line when they fielded Curt Roberts and Tom Alston, respectively; the Cincinnati Redlegs became the 11th team just four days later when they fielded future Nino Escalera and Chuck Harmon, while the Washington Senators became the 12th team on September 6 when they fielded Carlos Paula.
The 1954 schedule consisted of 154 games for all teams in the American League and National League, each of which had eight teams. Each team was scheduled to play 22 games against the other seven teams of their respective league. This continued the format put in place since the season (except for ) and would be used until in the American League and in the National League.
Opening Day took place on April 13, featuring all sixteen teams, the first time since . The final day of the regular season was on September 26, which saw fourteen teams play, and was the first time since that the scheduled regular season didn't end with all sixteen teams. The World Series took place between September 29 and October 2.
The 1954 season saw the following rule changes:
5 tie games (5 in AL, 0 in NL), which are not factored into winning percentage or games behind (and were often replayed again) occurred throughout the season.
The Boston Red Sox, Cleveland Indians, and Philadelphia Athletics had two tie games each, while the Chicago White Sox, Detroit Tigers, New York Yankees, and Washington Senators each had one each.
The postseason began on September 29 and ended on October 2 with the New York Giants sweeping the Cleveland Indians in the 1954 World Series in four games.
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With the relocation of the St. Louis Browns from St. Louis, Missouri to Baltimore, Maryland as the Baltimore Orioles, they leave Busch Stadium (where they played 52 seasons) and move into Baltimore Memorial Stadium. They would go on to play there for 38 seasons through .
The Philadelphia Athletics would play their last game at Connie Mack Stadium on September 19 against the New York Yankees, relocating to Kansas City, Missouri at Municipal Stadium as the Kansas City Athletics for the start of the season.
ABC aired the Saturday Game of the Week for the second consecutive year. The All-Star Game and World Series aired exclusively on NBC.