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Since baseball's evolution from exhibition to professional sport, a number of players, executives (up to and including team owners), and others have been banned from the sport for the remainder of their lifetimes, and in some cases banned forever. Major League Baseball has maintained a list of "permanently ineligible" people since the first Commissioner of Baseball, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, was installed 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.

In the sense that Major League Baseball uses the term, "banishment" from the game entails becoming ineligible to play, coach or manage, or be otherwise professionally involved with the game, including acting as a representative for a player, coach or manager, or being involved with the executive management of a team, such as in the capacity of an accountant or other peripherally-related occupations that may involve Major League Baseball. It also severs all connections from the person banned and any MLB team, which means that if a banned person wishes to attend a game, he has to buy a ticket like everyone else. The one exception to this rule is if the banned person is invited by MLB or one of its franchises to take part in public ceremonies and the like. Pete Rose is the banned player who has taken advantage of this exception the most often and the most visibly.

The primary cause for lifetime banishment, according to the Commissioner's office, is that the banned person violated or otherwise tarnished the integrity of the game.

In 1995, the Baseball Hall of Fame voted to bar players on the ineligible list from induction. This was changed in 2001; players on the list can be considered by the Veterans Committee, but not by the Baseball Writers Association of America.

What follows is a chronologically-ordered list of these people, the date and/or year of the banishment (if available), and a brief summary of the cause for their banishment. Some of them have been reinstated, and will be noted as such.

Contents 1 People banned before 1920 2 People banned under Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis 3 People banned under Commissioner Bowie Kuhn 4 People banned under Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti 5 People banned under Commissioner Fay Vincent 6 See also 7 External links

Banishment was decided by committee until 1920, at which time the office of the Commissioner of Baseball was established.

• Thomas Devyr, Ed Duffy, and William Wansley, New York Mutuals, banned in 1865 for associating with known gamblers. Devyr was reinstated the same year, the others in 1870.
• George Bechtel, Louisville Grays, banned in 1876 for conspiring with his teammates to throw (intentionally lose) a game for $500.
• Jim Devlin, George Hall, Al Nichols, and Bill Craver, Louisville Grays, banned in 1877 for conspiring to throw two games. Craver actually had nothing to do with the conspiracy, but refused to cooperate with investigators and was banned as a result.
• Oscar Walker, team uncertain, 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 approximately 100 years prior to the advent of free agency in sports.)
• Richard Higham, an umpire, 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. The investigator found that he was a cohort of a known gambler. To date, Higham is the only umpire banned for life.
• Joseph Creamer, New York Giants team physician, banned in 1908 for offering $2,500 to an umpire to conspire against the Chicago Cubs during a playoff game against the Giants.
• Jack O'Connor and Harry Howell, respectively manager and coach of the St. Louis Browns, banned in 1910 for attempting to fix the outcome of the 1910 American League batting title for Cleveland Indians player Nap Lajoie.
• Horace Fogel, Philadelphia Phillies owner, banned in 1912 for publicly asserting that the umpires favored the New York Giants and were making unfair calls against his team.

In 1920, Kenesaw Mountain Landis was voted by the team owners to become the first Commissioner of Baseball, ostensibly to keep the players in line and out of corruption's way. Landis, a former federal judge, was the owners' ideal candidate for the job, and was given unlimited power over the game. He banned quite a lot of players and various others, often for very small offenses, and at times almost indiscriminately. Compared to his eventual successors, he ruled Major League Baseball with an iron fist for 24 years, until his death at age 77 in 1944.

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

• "Shoeless" Joe Jackson. The precise extent of Jackson's involvement is a controversial question.
• Eddie Cicotte. The story that Cicotte (pronounced See-Cot) had been promised a $10,000 bonus if he won 30 games and then was denied two starts at the end of the season is unsubstantiated.
• Lefty Williams
• Buck Weaver did not participate in the conspiracy; he was banned because he knew about it, but did not report it to MLB authorities and team ownership. It should be noted that White Sox management was aware of the fix, as Joe Jackson had asked to be benched so that no one would think he was involved. Weaver successfully sued owner Charles Comiskey for his 1921 salary.
• Chick Gandil
• Fred McMullen
• Swede Risberg
• Happy Felsch

• Joe Gedeon, St. Louis Browns, banned in 1920, allegedly for conspiring with the gamblers behind the Black Sox scandal.
• Eugene Paulette, Philadelphia Phillies, banned in 1921 for associating with known gamblers.
• Benny Kauff, New York Giants, banned in 1920 for stealing a car in 1919. Commissioner Landis considered him "no longer a fit companion for other ball players."
• Lee Magee, Chicago Cubs, was signed by the Cubs for the 1920 season, but the team released him just before the season began. Magee sued the Cubs for his 1920 salary and lost. During the trial, court testimony proved he had been involved in throwing games and collecting on bets, and was therefore banned for life.
• Hal Chase, New York Giants, banned in 1921 for consorting with gamblers, betting on his own teams and other corrupt practices. He 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, he was a member of the Cincinnati Reds when his manager, the scrupulously honest Christy Mathewson, suspended Chase mid-season for fixing games. John McGraw persuaded Mathewson to trade him to the Giants. However, at the end of the 1919 season, National League president John Heydler, found evidence that Chase had indeed taken money from gamblers in 1918; he'd acquitted Chase on charges of fixing games that season. As a result, Chase was informally banned from the major leagues; Landis' action made it permanent.
• Heinie Zimmerman, New York Giants, banned in 1921 for encouraging 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; Landis' action made it permanent.
• Heinie Groh, Cincinnati Reds, was banned for two days in 1921 while he held out for a higher salary. Landis gave Groh an option: play for the Reds in 1921 or face lifetime banishment. Groh chose the former option and played out the 1921 season.
• Ray Fisher, Cincinnati Reds, asked for his outright release after the Reds cut his salary by $1,000. The Reds, however, would not release him, and he refused to play for them. He was hired by the University of Michigan to coach baseball the same year. In 1921, Landis banned Fisher for life, although Commissioner Bowie Kuhn reinstated him in 1980.
• Dickie Kerr, Chicago White Sox, was banned for life in 1921 under circumstances virtually identical to Fisher's banishment, but was reinstated by Landis in 1925. Kerr had been a member of the 1919 Black Sox team, but he won both his starts in the contested 1919 World Series and was thus not considered to be a part of the conspiracy.
• Phil Douglas, New York Giants, banned in 1922 after attempting to get the Giants' opponents in the playoffs, the St. Louis Cardinals, to beat his own team for the pennant, just to spite McGraw, with whom Douglas had had a severe falling out during the regular season. A Cardinals player reported Douglas' behavior to Landis, who then banned Douglas for life.
• Jimmy O'Connell, New York Giants, banned in 1924 for offering Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Heinie Sand $500 to throw a game between the two teams for his own and his gambler backers' financial gain.
• William Cox, Philadelphia Phillies owner, banned in 1943 for betting on his own team's games.

After Landis died in 1944, there was a long lull before the next banishment. Bowie Kuhn took office in 1969 and served until 1984. During his tenure, only three players or former players were banned for life.

• Ferguson Jenkins, Texas Rangers, was the first player to be banned for life due to a drug offense. In late 1980, during a customs search of his person in Toronto, Ontario, a small amount of cocaine was found. Kuhn promptly banned him for life. Jenkins missed the rest of the 1980 season (approximately three weeks), but in an unprecedented action, an independent arbiter reinstated him, and he returned to the game, playing until his retirement following the 1983 season. In 1991, he was elected into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame.
• Mickey Mantle, retired since 1968 and in no way involved in baseball anymore, was banned for life by Kuhn after Mantle was hired by a casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, as a greeter and autograph signer. Kuhn opined that a casino was no place for a baseball hero and Hall of Famer. He was reinstated by Kuhn's successor, Peter Ueberroth, in 1985. (See photo at right.)
• Willie Mays, retired since 1973 and also completely out of baseball, was banned for the same incident as Mantle. Both were working at the casino as greeters and autograph signers. He was also reinstated in 1985 by Ueberroth. (See photo at right.)

A. Bartlett Giamatti spent less than six months as Commissioner of Baseball before he died unexpectedly of a heart attack. His legacy as Commissioner is the banishment of Pete Rose from baseball.

• Pete Rose, Cincinnati Reds, had been suspended in 1988 by Giamatti, then the president of the National League, for his alleged ties to gamblers. When new information (the Dowd Report) on Rose's gambling habits came to light, it was revealed that he often bet against his own team, especially when certain pitchers were scheduled to pitch. Junior Noboa was one such pitcher to be revealed as a "bet against". With this information in hand, Giamatti banned Rose from baseball for life in 1989, and then died of a heart attack approximately two weeks later. Unlike past banishments, Rose was granted a concession in which he could apply for reinstatement once a year for as long as he liked. As of 2006, he has applied for reinstatement twice. Commissioners Fay Vincent and Bud Selig have both refused to act on the respective reinstatement requests, and Rose remains permanently ineligible. Rose has recently admitted that "everything" the Dowd Report contained the complete unadulterated truth. ^[1] This allegation may take years to hammer out; one of the big issues, on the side of Major League Baseball, was that an apology and an admission of wrong-doing would be the first step towards reinstatement.

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 to "dig up dirt" on Yankees player Dave Winfield in order to discredit him. The "dirt" most likely means anything anyone might have known about Winfield. To this day, the issue has not been resolved. In Steinbrenner's absence, his son took control of the Yankees, and then relinquished the team back to his father when Bud Selig (Vincent's successor) reinstated Steinbrenner in 1993.
• Steve Howe, New York Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers, among other teams, was banned in 1992 after a large number of suspensions related to drug use, particularly cocaine and alcohol. Shortly after his banishment, an independent arbiter reinstated Howe, who went on to pitch three more suspension-ridden seasons before finally calling it quits in 1996. Howe was killed in a car crash in 2006.

• Baseball Commissioner
• Major League Baseball
• Major League Baseball Hall of Fame
• Major League Baseball Players Association

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