List of people banned from Major League Baseball

A ban from Major League Baseball is a form of punishment levied by the Office of the Commissioner of Major League Baseball (MLB) against a player, manager, executive, or other person connected with the league as a denunciation of some action that person committed that violated or tarnished the integrity of the game. A banned person is forbidden from employment with MLB or its affiliated minor leagues, and is forbidden from other professional involvement with MLB such as acting as a sports agent for an MLB player. Since 1991, all banned people – whether living or deceased – have been barred from induction to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Major League Baseball has maintained a list of "permanently ineligible" people since Kenesaw Mountain Landis was installed as the first Commissioner of Baseball in 1920. Although the majority of banned persons were banned after the establishment of the Commissioner's office, a few were banned prior to that time. Most persons who have been banned (including many who have been reinstated) were banned due to association with gambling or otherwise conspiring to fix the outcomes of games; others have been banned for a multitude of reasons including illegal activities off the field, violating some term of their playing contract, or making disparaging remarks that cast the game in a bad light.

History

Kenesaw Mountain Landis, federal judge and Commissioner of Baseball (1920-44).

Lipman 'Lip' Pike, notable for being baseball's first professional player (when the Philadelphia Athletics agreed to pay him $20 a week in 1866), also became baseball's first banned player:

Pike got a brief call-up in 1881 to play for the Worcester Ruby Legs, but the 36-year-old Pike could no longer play effectively, hitting .111 and not managing a single extra base hit in 18 at-bats over 5 games. His play was so poor as to arouse suspicions, and Pike found himself banned from the National League that September. He was added to the National League blacklist in 1881. He turned to haberdashery, the vocation of his father, and spent another 6 years playing only amateur baseball. He was reinstated in 1883.^[1]

Before 1920, players were banned by the decision of a committee. There were 14 banned from 1865–1920; of those, 12 were banned for association with gambling or attempting to fix games, one was banned for violating the reserve clause, and one was banned for making disparaging remarks.

In 1920, team owners established the Office of the Commissioner of Baseball, ostensibly to keep the players in line and out of corruption's way. Kenesaw Mountain Landis, a federal judge, was the owners' ideal candidate for the job and was given unlimited power over the game, including the authority to ban people from the game. He banned many players and various others, often for very small offenses, and at times almost indiscriminately. In his 24 years as commissioner, Landis banned more people than all of his successors combined.

Since Landis' death in 1944, only one person who was banned by one of his successors has not been reinstated: Pete Rose. In 1991, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum voted to bar banned players from induction. In 2005, as a result of the findings of the Mitchell Report, the Major League Baseball Players Association stipulated that multiple violations of the new Major League Baseball drug policy would result in a lifetime ban.^[2]

Punishment

A person who has been banned from Major League Baseball is barred from:

• employment with MLB or one of its franchises or affiliated minor leagues as a player, coach, or manager, or in the front office
• acting as a sports agent for an MLB player, coach, or manager
• maintaining business ties with MLB or one of its franchises, e.g., a banned person must purchase a ticket in order to attend a game
  • The exception to this is if MLB or one of its teams invites the banned person to participate in an event such as a public recognition ceremony.
• induction to the Hall of Fame, whether the person is living or deceased

Terms such as "lifetime ban" and "permanent ban" are misnomers, as a banned person may be reinstated (i.e., have the ban removed) on the decision of the Commissioner of Major League Baseball, and in the case of Hall of Fame induction the ban can extend beyond a person's lifetime. Additionally, a ban does not forbid a person from participating in baseball leagues that are not affiliated with MLB.

List of banned people

Bans currently in effect are denoted in bold.

People banned before Kenesaw Mountain Landis took office in 1920

• Thomas Devyr, Ed Duffy and William Wansley of the New York Mutuals were banned in 1865 for associating with known gamblers. (Devyr was reinstated later that year, and Duffy and Wansley were reinstated in 1870.)^[3]
• George Bechtel of the Louisville Grays was banned in 1876 for conspiring with his teammates to intentionally lose a game for $500, equal to $11,100 today.
• Jim Devlin, George Hall, Al Nichols and Bill Craver of the Louisville Grays were banned in 1877 for conspiring to throw two games in the Louisville Grays scandal. (No evidence was ever found to suggest that Craver actually had anything to do with the conspiracy, but he refused to cooperate with the investigators.)
• Oscar Walker was banned in 1877 for "contract jumping" by signing a contract to play for another team while still under contract to the team he left. (This was 98 years prior to the advent of free agency in sports; Walker was reinstated in 1879.)

Jack O'Connor

• Lip Pike's play for Worcester in 1881 was so poor as to arouse suspicions, and Pike found himself the first professional player banned from the National League that September. He was added to the National League blacklist in 1881 (reinstated in 1883).^[1]
• Umpire Richard Higham was banned in 1882 for conspiring to help throw a Detroit Wolverines game after Detroit's owner hired a private investigator to check out Higham's background and found that he was an associate of a known gambler. (To date, Higham is the only umpire banned for life.)
• Joseph Marie Creamer III, New York Giants team physician, was banned in 1908 for attempting to bribe umpire Bill Klem $2,500 (equal to $65,800 today) to conspire against the Chicago Cubs during a playoff game against the Giants.
• Jack O'Connor and Harry Howell, manager and coach of the St. Louis Browns, were banned in 1910 for attempting to fix the outcome of the 1910 American League batting title for Cleveland Indians player Nap Lajoie against Ty Cobb.
• Horace Fogel, Philadelphia Phillies owner, was banned in 1912 for publicly asserting that the umpires favored the New York Giants and were making unfair calls against his team.

People banned under and possibly before Landis

These players were unofficially banned from baseball, a ban later made official by Landis.

• Hal Chase of the New York Giants was banned in 1921 for consorting with gamblers and betting on his own teams, among other corrupt practices. (Chase had previously been accused of fixing games as early as 1910, and was reportedly passed over for managerial opportunities due to the allegations. In 1918 Christy Mathewson had suspended Chase mid-season for fixing games, and John McGraw persuaded Mathewson to trade him to the Giants. At the end of the 1919 season, National League president John Heydler found evidence that Chase had indeed taken money from gamblers in 1918. Heydler ordered his immediate release, and no other National League team would sign him. Since no American League team would sign him either, Chase was effectively blackballed from the major leagues. Landis' declaration after the Black Sox trial that no one who bet on baseball would ever be allowed to play is recognized as formalizing the ban.)
• Joe Harris of the Cleveland Indians was banned for life in 1920 after he chose to play for an independent team rather than the Indians. (Harris was reinstated by Landis in 1922 due, in part, to his service during World War I.)

Heinie Zimmerman

• Heinie Zimmerman of the New York Giants was banned in 1921 for encouraging his teammates to fix games. (He had been benched by McGraw and later sent home during the 1919 season, and had been informally banned from the majors. During the 1917 World Series, he chased the winning run across the plate and found himself having to deny having helped throw the Series. Despite some of these allegations, McGraw would not turn him in, not wanting to be the one responsible for having one of his players banned for life, and suspended him indefinitely. Later, McGraw testified in court that Zimmerman conspired to fix games. As with Chase, Landis' declaration after the Black Sox trial is seen as formalizing Zimmerman's ban as well.)

People banned under Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis

Shoeless Joe Jackson

Lefty Williams

Chick Gandil

• Eight players from the Chicago White Sox were banned in 1920 for conspiring with gamblers to throw the 1919 World Series in the Black Sox scandal:

• "Shoeless" Joe Jackson. (The precise extent of Jackson's involvement is controversial.)
• Eddie Cicotte. (One story says that Cicotte had been promised a $10,000 bonus – equal to $136,000 today – if he won 30 games; he was denied five starts towards the end of the season by team owner Charles Comiskey, who had manager Kid Gleason bench him to "save his arm for the World Series". However, the story remains unsubstantiated. Cicotte went 29-7 for the season.)
• Lefty Williams lost all three of his starts in the World Series, setting a record that has never been matched. (The only other pitcher to have lost three games in a single World Series, George Frazier in 1981, lost all three of his appearances in relief.)
• Chick Gandil was the mastermind and ringleader of the scandal.
• Fred McMullin was only a backup infielder. However, he overheard teammates discussing the fix and threatened to report them unless he was included.
• Swede Risberg was one of the ringleaders of the scandal.
• Happy Felsch hit and fielded poorly in the series.
• Buck Weaver was banned because he knew of the conspiracy, but did not report it to MLB authorities and team ownership; Weaver successfully sued owner Charles Comiskey for his 1921 salary.

• Joe Gedeon of the St. Louis Browns was banned in 1920 for allegedly conspiring with the gamblers behind the Black Sox scandal.
• Eugene Paulette of the Philadelphia Phillies was banned in 1921 for associating with known gamblers.
• Benny Kauff of the New York Giants was banned in 1920 for selling stolen cars. (Commissioner Landis considered him "no longer a fit companion for other ball players", despite Kauff being acquitted of the charges against him in court.)
• Lee Magee of the Chicago Cubs was released just before the season began. Magee sued the Cubs for his 1920 salary and lost; after court testimony proved he had been involved in throwing games and collecting on bets, Landis banned him for life.
• Heinie Groh of the Cincinnati Reds was banned for two days in 1921 while he held out for a higher salary, and Landis gave Groh an ultimatum: play for the Reds in 1921, or face lifetime banishment. (Groh chose the former option and played out the 1921 season; he retired in 1927.)
• Ray Fisher of the Cincinnati Reds was banned in 1921 after he refused to play for the Reds; he had asked for his outright release when the Reds cut his salary by $1,000 (equal to $13,300 today), but the Reds refused to release him. (Fisher was hired by the University of Michigan to coach baseball later that year, and was reinstated by Commissioner Bowie Kuhn in 1980; he died in 1982.)
• Dickie Kerr of the Chicago White Sox was suspended from organized baseball in 1922 for violating the reserve clause in his contract.^[4] Kerr was reinstated in 1925.
• Phil Douglas of the New York Giants was banned in 1922 after notifying an acquaintance on the St. Louis Cardinals that he planned to jump the Giants for the pennant stretch run to spite McGraw, with whom Douglas had had a severe falling out during the regular season.
• Jimmy O'Connell of the New York Giants and Giants coach Cozy Dolan were banned in 1924 for offering Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Heinie Sand $500 (equal to $6,900 today) to throw a game between the two teams for the financial gain of O'Connell own and his gambler backers.
• William B. Cox, Philadelphia Phillies owner, was banned in 1943 for betting on his team's games. (Cox and one of his predecessors, Horace Fogel, were both owners of the Phillies at different times and were both banned, making them thus far the only owners to be banned for life.)

People banned under Commissioner Bowie Kuhn

After Landis died in 1944, there was a long lull before the next banishment, and no players were banned under Commissioners Happy Chandler (1945–1951), Ford Frick (1951–1965) and Spike Eckert (1965–1968). During Bowie Kuhn's tenure (1969–1984), only three players (or former players) were banned for life.

• Ferguson Jenkins of the Texas Rangers was banned in 1980 after a customs search in Toronto, Ontario, found 3 grams (0.11 oz) of cocaine, 2.2 grams (0.078 oz) of hashish, and 1.75 grams (0.062 oz) of marijuana on his person. (Jenkins missed the rest of the 1980 season, but was reinstated by an independent arbiter, and retired following the 1983 season. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1991.)
• Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays, both retired and both in no way involved in baseball anymore, were banned in 1983 after they were hired by casinos in Atlantic City, New Jersey, as greeters and autograph signers.^[5] (Kuhn opined that a casino was "no place for a baseball hero and Hall of Famer"; Mantle and Mays were reinstated by Peter Ueberroth in 1985, and Mantle died in 1995.)

People banned under Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti

A. Bartlett Giamatti spent less than six months as Commissioner of Baseball before he died of a heart attack at his Martha's Vineyard home.

• Pete Rose, manager of the Cincinnati Reds, was banned; Rose was investigated in 1989 for his alleged ties to gamblers; when new information on Rose's gambling habits came to light, Giamatti banned Rose. (While president of the National League in 1988, Giamatti had suspended Rose for thirty games for shoving an umpire during a heated argument.)

However, Giamatti granted Rose one concession: Rose could apply for reinstatement once a year for as long as he lived after ten years. Rose has subsequently applied for reinstatement four times; all four reinstatement requests have been rejected. After years of denial, Rose admitted that "everything" the Dowd Report contained was the complete, unadulterated truth.^[6]

People banned under Commissioner Fay Vincent

Fay Vincent became commissioner upon the death of Giamatti.

• George Steinbrenner, New York Yankees owner, was banned in 1990 for paying a private investigator $40,000 (equivalent to $72,000 in 2015) to "dig up dirt" on Yankees player Dave Winfield in order to discredit him; much of the information Steinbrenner received was from small-time gambler and rackets-runner Howard Spira, who had once worked for Winfield's charitable foundation. (In Steinbrenner's absence, Robert Nederlander, a limited partner, took control of the Yankees, and Joe Molloy, Steinbrenner's son-in-law, took control after Nederlander resigned.^[7] Molloy relinquished the team back to Steinbrenner when Bud Selig reinstated him in 1993; Steinbrenner retired as owner in 2006, passing control to his sons permanently, and died in 2010.)
• Steve Howe of the New York Yankees was banned in 1992 after receiving seven suspensions related to drug use, particularly cocaine and alcohol. (An independent arbiter reinstated Howe shortly after; Howe retired in 1996 and died in 2006.)

People banned under Commissioner Bud Selig

Bud Selig became Commissioner after Fay Vincent's resignation; he was Acting Commissioner between 1992–1998, and was elected to the Office of Commissioner in 1998.

• Marge Schott, Cincinnati Reds owner, was banned in 1996 for bringing Major League Baseball into disrepute by repeatedly making slurs against blacks, Jews, Asians and homosexuals, and showing a sympathetic attitude to Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party.^[8] (Schott had previously been fined $250,000 – equivalent to $410,000 in 2015 – and banned from day-to-day operations of the Reds for the 1993 season for similar offending; she was the first, and to date only, woman to be banned; she was reinstated in 1998, resigned as owner in 1999 and died in 2004.)

People banned under Commissioner Rob Manfred

Rob Manfred succeeded Bud Selig as the Commissioner of Baseball after Selig's retirement on January 25, 2015.

• Jenrry Mejía, New York Mets pitcher, was banned on February 12, 2016, for testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs three times in less than a year. He may seek reinstatement in 2017, but will not be eligible to pitch again until 2018 at the earliest.^[9]

See also

• List of Major League Baseball players suspended for performance-enhancing drugs

References

1. Jewish heroes & heroines of America: 151 true stories of Jewish American heroism. Retrieved February 1, 2011.
2. "MLB, MLBPA announce new drug agreement". MLBPA Official Press Release. November 15, 2005. Retrieved July 21, 2010.
3. The New York Mutuals were a member of the National Association of Base Ball Players (which is not to be confused with the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players) at the time; the NABBP was not a major league.
4. Dickie Kerr Will Be Back With Sox
5. Spokane Spokesman-Review, October 20, 1983, "Kuhn called off-base for Mantle, Mays bans".
6. Associated Press, March 16, 2007 "Rose admits to betting on Reds 'every night'". Rose was reinstated in 2015 and is serving as a sports analyst on Fox Sports 1.
7. Barnes, Craig (February 25, 1992). "Yankees Make Molloy Chief Administrator". South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Retrieved September 5, 2012.
8. Mather, Victor (2015-12-14). "Barred From Baseball: Pete Rose Is Most Famous, but He Is Far From Alone". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2015-12-15.
9. Tim Rohan, "Mets Reliever Jenrry Mejia Permanently Barred From Major League Baseball", New York Times (February 12, 2016).

External links

• Baseball Rules Menu on Baseball Almanac
• Baseball Steroid Suspensions
• Major League Baseball's "permanently ineligible" list