| Introduction | First Quarter-Century | Seasons Summary | League Championship Summary |
Introduction
The National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs (NL), often known simply as the National League, was the first major sports league in Baseball and in all of sport. (The sport was spelled with two words in the 19th century.)
By 1875, the National of Professional Base Ball Players (NA), often referred to as the “National Association”), founded four years earlier, was suffering from a lack of strong authority over clubs, unsupervised scheduling, unstable membership of cities, dominance by one team (the Boston Red Stockings), and an extremely low entry fee ($10) that gave clubs no incentive to abide by league rules when it was inconvenient to them.
William A. Hulbert (1832–1882), a Chicago businessman and an officer of the Chicago White Stockings of 1870–1889, approached several NA clubs with the plans for a professional league for the sport of base ball with a stronger central authority and exclusive territories in larger cities only. Additionally, Hulbert had a problem: five of his star players were threatened with expulsion from the NA because Hulbert had signed them to his club using what were considered questionable means. Hulbert had a great vested interest in creating his own league, and after recruiting St. Louis privately, four western clubs met in Louisville, Kentucky, in January 1876. With Hulbert speaking for the four later in New York City on February 2, 1876, the National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs was established
The teams from the NA that formed the NL were the Boston Red Stockings, the dominant team in the NA (later the Boston Braves, then the Milwaukee Braves, now the Atlanta Braves, not to be confused with the present-day Boston Red Sox of the later American League), Chicago White Stockings (now the Chicago Cubs, not to be confused with the current Chicago White Sox of the American League), Hartford Dark Blues, New York Mutual, Philadelphia Athletics, and St. Louis Brown Stockings.
FanSeeStats classifies the National League as a Major League as it attracts the best players worldwide, are home to that Big Sports richest teams, are exclusive in who can join the league, and are ambitious in their scope and marketing.
Classification
First Quarter-Century of Play (1876-1899)
The National League was established in 1876 by the teams from the National Association. The first 24 years of play the National League was beset by challenges from three Rival Leagues (American Association, Union Association, and Players’ League) and each one of these would fall in defeat to the National League which would come to dominate professional Baseball.
During this era, the National League was dominated by teams from Boston and Chicago, with these two cities winning 14 of the 24 league championships.
In the 1890s a World Series had its first iteration from 1884 to 1890 when the National League Champion would face off against the Champion from the American Association. The National League won 4 of the 7 World Series (1884, 1887-1889).
By the end of 1899, the National League was the only Major League of all professional sport.
Seasons Summary
1870s
| Year | Champion | # of Teams |
| 1876 | Chicago White Stockings | 8 |
| 1877 | Boston Red Caps | 6 |
| 1878 | Boston Red Caps | 6 |
| 1879 | Providence Grays | 8 |
1880s
| Year | Champion | # of Teams |
| 1880 | Chicago White Stockings | 8 |
| 1881 | Chicago White Stockings | 8 |
| 1882 | Chicago White Stockings | 8 |
| 1883 | Boston Beaneaters | 8 |
| 1884 | Providence Grays | 8 |
| 1885 | Chicago White Stockings | 8 |
| 1886 | Chicago White Stockings | 8 |
| 1887 | Detroit Wolverines | 8 |
| 1888 | New York Giants | 8 |
| 1889 | New York Giants | 8 |
1890s
| Year | Champion | # of Teams |
| 1890 | Brooklyn Bridegrooms | 8 |
| 1891 | Boston Beaneaters | 8 |
| 1892 | Boston Beaneaters | 8 |
| 1893 | Boston Beaneaters | 8 |
| 1894 | Baltimore Orioles | 12 |
| 1895 | Baltimore Orioles | 12 |
| 1896 | Baltimore Orioles | 12 |
| 1897 | Boston Beaneaters | 12 |
| 1898 | Boston Beaneaters | 12 |
| 1899 | Brooklyn Superbas | 12 |
League Championship Summary
# of seasons: 24
List of teams who won championships sorted by number of championships.
| Team | # of League Championships |
| Boston Red Caps / Boston Beaneaters | 8 (1877-1878, 1883, 1891-1893, 1897-1898) |
| Chicago White Stockings | 6 (1876, 1880-1882, 1885-1886) |
| Baltimore Orioles | 3 (1894-1896) |
| New York Giants | 2 (1888-1889) |
| Providence Grays | 2 (1879, 1884) |
| Brooklyn Bridegrooms / Brooklyn Superbas | 2 (1890, 1899) |
| Detroit Wolverines | 1 (1887) |
Future Features
