The 1970 major league baseball season began on April 6, 1970, while the regular season ended on October 1. The postseason began on October 3. The 67th World Series began with Game 1 on October 10 and ended with Game 5 on October 15, with the Baltimore Orioles of the American League defeating the Cincinnati Reds of the National League, four games to one, capturing their second championship in franchise history, since their previous in . Going into the season, the defending World Series champions were the New York Mets from the season.
The 41st Major League Baseball All-Star Game, was held on July 14 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio, home of the Cincinnati Reds. The National League won in twelve innings, 5âÂÂ4, concluding their eight-season win streak.
During spring training, the Seattle Pilots moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin as the Milwaukee Brewers, being the ninth team since 1953 to relocate, and the fifth of American League teams since them. Due to stadium issues and the team declaring bankruptcy, the team was sold to a Milwaukee-based group and promptly relocated. After having a team for only a single season, Seattle would be without a major league team for seven seasons until the expansion in , with the enfranchisement of the Seattle Mariners. The team was tied with the coincidentally named 1901 Milwaukee Brewers (modern-day Baltimore Orioles) as the shortest-tenured team of the American League.
National League umpires began wearing numbers on the sleeves of their blazers and the new short-sleeved light blue shirts they began wearing (to replace the long sleeved shirts of previous years). The numbers were in alphabetical order (Al Barlick wore #1, Ken Burkhart #2, etc.) and this remained the annual numbering system until the 1979 season when the numbers became permanent regardless of retirements/resignations/firings/etc.
The 1970 schedule consisted of 162 games for all teams in the American League and National League, each of which had twelve teams. Each league was split into two six-team divisions. Each team was scheduled to play 18 games against their five division rivals, totaling 90 games, and 12 games against six interdivision opponents, totaling 72 games. This continued the format put in place since the previous season and would be used until in the American League and in the National League.
Opening Day took place on April 6, featuring four teams. The final day of the regular season was on October 1, featuring 22 teams. Each League Championship Series took place between October 3 and October 5. The World Series took place between October 10 and October 15.
The 1970 season saw the following rule change:
An asterisk (*) denotes the ballpark a team played the minority of their home games at
The postseason began on October 3 and ended on October 15 with the Baltimore Orioles defeating the Cincinnati Reds in the 1970 World Series in five games.
The 1970 season saw three teams move to three new venues.
The Philadelphia Phillies would play their final game at Connie Mack Stadium on October 1 against the Montreal Expos, moving into Veterans Stadium for the start of the season.
NBC was the exclusive national TV broadcaster of MLB, airing the weekend Game of the Week, the All-Star Game, both League Championship Series, and the World Series.