Jarrod Scott Saltalamacchia (born May 2, 1985 in West Palm Beach, Florida), is a catcher and first baseman for the Texas Rangers Major League Baseball team. Due in part to the length of his surname, which at 14 letters is the longest in Major League history, he is often referred to by his nickname, "Salty". His full name, at 20 letters, is tied for the longest in Major League history with former San Francisco Giants pitcher William Van Landingham.

Saltalamacchia was drafted out of Royal Palm Beach high school in the first round of the 2003 Major League Baseball Draft by the Atlanta Braves.

The Texas Rangers are an American professional baseball team based in Arlington, Texas, United States, representing the Dallas-Ft.Worth area. The Rangers are a member of the Western Division of Major League Baseball's American League. From to the present, the Rangers have played in Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. The "Rangers" name originates from the famous law enforcement agency of the same name.

An expansion franchise, the club was founded in Washington, D.C. in and was called the Washington Senators (not to be confused with the Washington Senators that left D.C. after to become the Minnesota Twins). The team then moved to Arlington in and became the Rangers. The Rangers are one of the least successful teams in MLB history, being one of four teams to have never played in a World Series, having never won a league championship. They are also the only franchise to have never won a playoff series since the franchise's inception in 1961.

Major League Baseball (MLB) is the highest level of play in North American professional baseball. It is composed of 30 teams. More specifically, Major League Baseball refers to the organization that operates the National League and the American League, by means of a joint organizational structure that has existed between them since 1903. Each season consists of 162 games, which generally begins on the first Sunday in April and ends on the first Sunday in October, with the playoffs played in October and sometimes in early November. The same rules and regulations are played between the two leagues with one exception: the American League operates under the Designated Hitter Rule, while the National League does not. Utilization of the DH Rule in Interleague play, the All-Star and World Series games are determined by the home team's league rules. In 2000, two leagues were officially disbanded as separate legal entities with all rights and functions consolidated in the commissioner's office. MLB effectively operates as a single league and as such it constitutes one of the major professional sports leagues of North America.

MLB is controlled by the Major League Baseball Constitution that has undergone several incarnations since 1876 with the most recent revisions being made in 2005. Under the direction of Commissioner of Baseball (currently Bud Selig), Major League Baseball hires and maintains the sport's umpiring crews, and negotiates marketing, labor, and television contracts. As is the case for most North American sports leagues, the "closed shop" aspect of MLB effectively prevents the yearly promotion and relegation of teams into and out of the Major League by virtue of their performance. Private enterprises is mostly funded by Major league Baseball, but also partially funded directly by public taxes. Major League Baseball maintains a unique, controlling relationship over the sport, including most aspects of minor league baseball. This is due in large part to a 1922 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Federal Baseball Club v. National League, which held that baseball is not interstate commerce and therefore not subject to federal antitrust law. This ruling has been weakened only slightly in subsequent years.

The production/multimedia wing of MLB is New York-based MLB Advanced Media, which oversees MLB.com and all 30 of the individual teams' websites. Its charter states that MLB Advanced Media holds editorial independence from the League itself, but it is indeed under the same ownership group and revenue-sharing plan. MLB Productions is a similarly-structured wing of the league, focusing on video and traditional broadcast media.