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, some were formally banned prior to that time while a few others were informally "blacklisted" by the Major League clubs. 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, Pete Rose is the only person banned by one of his successors who has not been reinstated. While Jenrry Mejia was permanently banned by Rob Manfred in February 2016 for third positive test for performance-enhancing drugs, he will be eligible to apply for reinstatement in 2017. Should he be reinstated, Mejia will not be eligible to pitch until 2018 at the earliest.

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, one of its affiliated minor leagues, or any Major League or Minor League Club, whether as a player, coach, or manager, or in the front office;
• acting as a sports agent for any Major League or Minor League player, coach, or manager;
• maintaining business ties with MLB or with any Major League or Minor League Club;
  • The exception to this is that MLB or any Major League or Minor League Club may invite banned persons to participate in events where said participation will not put the banned person(s) in a position where they could influence play (for example, an appearance at a public recognition ceremony). All such participation is subject to the approval of the Commissioner, who has the authority to deal with such requests on a case-by-case basis. The exact privileges that will be afforded for each special event is determined by the Commissioner - invariably, access to the clubhouse and related facilities by banned persons will not be permitted. (This exception has evolved over the decades following the banishment of MLB's all-time hit leader Pete Rose in 1989. In the early years of Rose's ban, dispensations for special events were rarely granted. In recent years, especially current incumbent Rob Manfred's assumption of the office, special event dispensations for Rose have become considerably more frequent.)
• induction to the Hall of Fame, whether the person is living or deceased;
  • This prohibition is not the result of any MLB rule or policy (since the Hall of Fame falls outside the jurisdiction of the Commissioner's Office), but is a policy enforced by the Hall itself. Prior to the late 1980s, the Baseball Writers Association of America and Veterans Committee each had an unwritten rule excluding banned persons from consideration for election to the Hall. (The banishment of Rose necessitated a formalization of this policy prior to 1991 when Rose would otherwise have become eligible for election to the Hall. Although Commissioner Bart Giamatti had stated at the time of Rose's ban that their agreement did not directly affect his Hall eligibility, he died before he could elaborate on the issue. Nevertheless, the Hall soon voted to formally exclude banned persons from induction, a position that was endorsed by Giamatti's successor Fay Vincent. On the other hand, in his most recent statement affirming Rose's ban, current Commissioner Manfred stated "It is not a part of my authority... to make any determination concerning Mr. Rose's eligibility as a candidate for election to the (Hall of Fame)... in my view, the considerations that should drive a decision on whether an individual should be allowed to work in Baseball are not the same as those that should drive a decision on Hall of Fame eligibility... any debate over Mr. Rose's eligibility for the Hall of Fame is one that must take place in a different forum." Notwithstanding Manfred's statements, the Hall of Fame's policies remain unchanged.) ^[3]

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. Also, in the case of Hall of Fame induction, bans have typically extended beyond a person's lifetime.

Among the activities that a banned person is not precluded from participating (as of 2016) in include:

• Participating in baseball leagues that are not affiliated with MLB;
  • This was not the case for players banned by Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis. Early on in Landis' tenure (which was before the advent of the modern Minor League farm system), the new Commissioner let it be known that anyone who knowingly played with or against any banned player would himself be banned from MLB for life. This stance compelled every other professional league to honor MLB bans, in effect, giving Commissioner Landis the power to completely exclude personnel from the game. Nevertheless, some players banned by Landis are believed to have continued playing under assumed identities at the minor league or semi-professional level.
• Working for employers that themselves have business relationships with MLB and/or with a Major League or Minor League Club, provided the relationship does not result in a direct association with any Major League or Minor League Club and/or put the banned person in a position to influence baseball operations (for example, working for a national broadcaster that owns rights to MLB games).
  • During Landis' tenure, it was universally known that MLB would have immediately severed any relationship with an entity that employed personnel banned by MLB, and (at least until very recently), most such organizations have been extremely reluctant to offer employment to banned persons for fear of generating negative publicity and/or out of concern that such employment might endanger their relationship with MLB. (The current MLB policy was articulated by Commissioner Manfred when, in reference to Rose, he stated "Major League Rules... do not cover relationships with third parties who do business with Major League Baseball. Any future relationship Mr. Rose may contemplate with any such party is a matter between him and the party, unless it involves any association with a Major League Club...")^[4]
• Entering any Major League or Minor League ballpark in the capacity of (and with only the privileges of) an ordinary spectator. However, MLB rules define the granting free entry to a game or any other event with paid admission as a "business relationship" that, subject to Commissioner-granted dispensations for special events as described above, would not be permitted. This means, among other things, that a banned person must normally purchase a ticket in order to attend a game.

List of banned people

Bans that currently in effect and/or that were in still in effect at the time of the banned person's death are denoted in bold. No banned person has ever been posthumously re-instated by Major League Baseball.

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.)^[5]
• 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 $66,000 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 prior to the creation of the office of Commissioner of Baseball and later had their bans made official by baseball's first Commissioner, Kenesaw Mountain 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 to, in part, 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:

• Eddie Cicotte. (One story says that Cicotte had been promised a $10,000 bonus – equal to $137,000 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.
• "Shoeless" Joe Jackson. (The precise extent of Jackson's involvement is controversial.)
• Buck Weaver, like Jackson, was controversially banned. Weaver refused to accept any money and played to the best of his ability in the Series, but was banned nevertheless because he knew of the conspiracy but did not report it to MLB authorities and team ownership. (Weaver successfully sued White Sox 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.^[6] 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. During the tenures of Commissioners Happy Chandler (1945–1951), Ford Frick (1951–1965), Spike Eckert (1965–1968), Bowie Kuhn (1969–1984) and Peter Ueberroth (1984-1989), only three players (or former players) were banned for life.

All three were banned by Kuhn, and all three were later reinstated. By the time of Kuhn's tenure, players had organized the Major League Baseball Players Association and negotiated the first Basic Agreement with the owners. Among other things the Agreement provided, for the first time, an independent process through which active players could appeal disciplinary decisions (up to and including lifetime bans) by League presidents or the Commissioner. As of 2016, no such process exists for personnel who are not members of the MLBPA.

• Ferguson Jenkins of the Texas Rangers, the first Black Canadian to be banned, 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.)
• Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle, both retired and both in no way involved in baseball anymore, were banned in 1980 and 1983 respectively after they were hired by casinos in Atlantic City, New Jersey, as greeters and autograph signers.^[7] (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 served only five 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 investigated in 1989 for his alleged ties to gamblers; when new information on Rose's gambling habits came to light, Giamatti and Rose reached a legal settlement that resulted in Rose's placement on the ineligible list. (While president of the National League in 1988, Giamatti had suspended Rose for thirty games for shoving an umpire during a heated argument. Whereas all other banned MLB personnel were involuntarily rendered ineligible pursuant to a unilateral decision by the Commissioner, Rose is the only person to be placed on the MLB ineligible list as a result of a mutual agreement. As part of their agreement, Rose accepted that there was a factual reason for his banishment. In return, Giamatti agreed that MLB would not make a formal finding of guilt or innocence with respect to the allegations against Rose. In addition, Rose is permitted to apply for reinstatement once a year indefinitely. Rose has subsequently applied for reinstatement four times, all of which have been denied. After years of denial, Rose admitted that "everything" the Dowd Report contained was the complete, unadulterated truth.^[8])

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 $73,000 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.^[9] 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.

• Cincinnati Reds owner Marge Schott was banned in 1996 for bringing Major League Baseball into disrepute by repeatedly making slurs against African-Americans, Jews, Asians and homosexuals, and showing a sympathetic attitude to Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party.^[10] (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, sold a majority stake in her franchise 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.^[11]

See also

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

References

External links

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

Black Sox Scandal
Banned players	Eddie Cicotte Happy Felsch Chick Gandil Shoeless Joe Jackson Fred McMullin Swede Risberg Buck Weaver Lefty Williams
Other figures	Abe Attell Sleepy Bill Burns Charles Comiskey Judge Hugo Friend Hugh Fullerton Joe Gedeon Kid Gleason Ban Johnson Kenesaw Mountain Landis Billy Maharg Arnold Rothstein Sport Sullivan
Films	Eight Men Out Field of Dreams
Miscellaneous	1919 Chicago White Sox season 1919 Cincinnati Reds season 1919 World Series Curse of the Black Sox Shoeless Joe (novel)
Book:Black Sox Scandal