2015 Major League Baseball season
The 2015 Major League Baseball season began on April 5 with a Sunday night game between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field, and ended on November 1 with the Kansas City Royals winning the World Series.
Since "natural rivalry" matchups will be part of the three-year divisional rotation (for the first time), the schedule format for interleague games was different from previous years.
[1][2][3] MLB hoped that this would add excitement and drama during the final day, and also limit teams' ability to rest starters at the last minute based on early game results.
[123] The Pittsburgh Pirates introduced a new camouflage alternate jersey in honor of the U.S. Military which will be worn during all Thursday home games.
An alternate light blue hat with a gold "Seattle" logo will accompany the uniform as well.
The Red Sox wore their 1975 home uniforms on May 5 to mark the 40th anniversary of the club's 1975 AL Championship and trip to the 1975 World Series.
The Cubs and Royals wore 1915 Federal League throwbacks on May 31 (originally, they were supposed to have worn them on May 30, but the game was postponed due to rain).
The Rays, meanwhile, wore their "fauxback" jerseys, which have a retro feel yet never actually were worn regularly because the franchise did not exist back then.
The Rangers and Astros wore 1980s throwbacks on July 18 as part of a 1980s night promotion at Minute Maid Park.
The Cardinals and Royals wore 1985 uniforms on July 23 to mark the 30th anniversary of the 1985 World Series.
The Cubs and White Sox wore 1959 uniforms on August 14 in honor of Minnie Miñoso at US Cellular Field.
The Cubs and Tigers wore 1945 uniforms on August 19 to mark the 70th anniversary of the 1945 World Series.
Players, coaches, and umpires at all games wore #42 on April 15, the 68th anniversary of Jackie Robinson's debut in the majors.
The uniforms were in their home whites, but had their road "Baltimore" script on the front instead of the usual "Orioles".
Although Memorial Day is not a legal holiday in Ontario, the Blue Jays wore camouflage.
The Reds wore green caps and uniforms on June 19 as part of a "Shamrock the Ballpark" promotion.
All teams wore American flag-themed caps and uniforms on July 4, Independence Day in the United States.
2015 marks the second year of MLB's eight-year deal with Fox Sports, ESPN, & TBS.
TBS will televise Sunday afternoon games for the last thirteen weeks of the regular season.
[132][133] The Chicago Cubs opted to re-negotiate their terrestrial television contracts for the 2015 season through 2019, when all the Cubs' television rights contracts will expire, including their cable deal with Comcast SportsNet Chicago.
WGN-TV will still hold rights to 45 Cubs games per season, and its overflow broadcasts will move to WPWR-TV in place of WCIU-TV.
This brings an end to the "superstation" era of cable broadcast, started in 1976 when WTCG (later to become WTBS) broadcast Atlanta Braves games, followed by WGN and other stations such as WOR-TV (New York Mets), WSBK-TV (Boston Red Sox) and KTLA (California Angels) airing simulcasts via satellite or cable.
