:Bans that are in effect and/or that were still in effect at the time of the banned person's death are denoted in
bold. Living persons are denoted in
italics. :A banned person who has been posthumously reinstated by Major League Baseball is denoted with a cross at the end of their name.
Pre-1920 These players were banned from baseball prior to the creation of the office of
Commissioner of Baseball. •
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. •
John Radcliff of the
Chicago White Stockings was banned in 1874 after attempting to bribe umpire
Billy McLean with $175 (about $ in ) to help the White Stockings win. He was blacklisted but ultimately was reinstated and played the next year. •
George Bechtel of the
Louisville Grays was banned in 1876 for conspiring with his teammates to
intentionally lose a game for $500, equal to $ in . Bechtel was never reinstated; he died in 1921. • Four players of the Louisville Grays were banned in 1877 for conspiring to throw two games in the
Louisville Grays scandal. •
Jim Devlin received up to $100 (about $ in )
per game that he intentionally lost. Devlin died in 1883. •
George Hall only admitted to throwing non-league games, despite his telegrams proving otherwise. Hall died in 1923. •
Al Nichols was very remorseful about his role in the scandal, making many unsuccessful attempts to earn reinstatement. Nichols died in 1936. •
Bill Craver. 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 and had a history of gambling and insubordination in his past. Craver died in 1901. •
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. •
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, and reinstated in 1883. •
Umpire and former
outfielder Dick 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. Higham was never reinstated; he died in 1905. 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 $ in ) to conspire against the
Chicago Cubs during
a playoff game against the Giants. Creamer died in 1918 and remains the only team physician (now athletic trainer) to be banned for life. • '''
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. Both were never reinstated. •
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. Fogel was never reinstated; he died in 1928.
Unofficial-turned-official bans These players were unofficially banned from baseball before the creation of the office of
Commissioner of Baseball. They later had their bans made official by baseball's first Commissioner,
Kenesaw Mountain Landis. •
Joe Harris of the
Cleveland Indians was banned 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. Harris died in 1959. •
Hal Chase was effectively blacklisted from Major League Baseball in 1920, though Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis never formally banned him and he was never convicted of any crime. Chase had been accused of fixing games as early as 1910, though no charges were filed. In 1914, he successfully challenged baseball's
reserve clause in
American League Baseball Club of Chicago v. Chase, with the court ruling that organized baseball operated as an illegal monopoly. Following this legal victory against White Sox owner
Charles Comiskey,
American League president
Ban Johnson effectively blacklisted Chase from the American League. In 1918,
Cincinnati Reds manager
Christy Mathewson suspended Chase for alleged game-fixing and bribery.
National League president
John Heydler investigated the charges and in February 1919 found Chase not guilty, determining that the evidence was "general and unsubstantiated." Despite this exoneration, the Reds traded Chase to the
New York Giants. In 1920, following former player
Lee Magee's confession about gambling, the Giants released Chase. He was indicted in the
Black Sox Scandal in 1920 but acquitted in 1921. While Landis declared after the Black Sox trial that anyone involved in throwing games would be banned, he never formally ruled on Chase's case. Since no team would sign him, Chase was effectively excluded from organized baseball. He died in 1947. •
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 indefinitely. Later, McGraw testified in court that Zimmerman conspired to fix games. As with Chase, Landis' declaration after the Black Sox trial is also seen as formalizing Zimmerman's ban. Zimmerman died in 1969.
Banned under Commissioner Landis Landis banned a total of nineteen people during his tenure, five more than all of his successors combined. Of the nineteen, two were re-instated by Landis, one was re-instated by a successor, and the other sixteen remained banned until well after their deaths. As a condition of accepting the Commissioner's post, Landis demanded and got nearly unlimited power to sanction every person employed in the major leagues, from owners to batboys. In practice, Landis only meted out punishment for serious off-field transgressions he believed were a threat to the image and/or integrity of the game. Disciplinary action for the on-field behavior of players, coaches and managers remained the responsibility of the respective league presidents, as it had been prior to the creation of the Commissioner's office. • Eight players from the
Chicago White Sox were banned in 1921 for conspiring with gamblers to throw the
1919 World Series in the
Black Sox scandal. They were all posthumously reinstated by Commissioner
Rob Manfred in 2025. •
Eddie Cicotte lost his first two starts in the Series, although he did win Game 7 to extend the then best-of-nine contest. One story says that Cicotte had been promised a $10,000 bonus–equal to $ in –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. Cicotte died in 1969. •
Lefty Williams lost all three of his starts in the World Series, enough (combined with Cicotte's two losses) to ensure the White Sox' defeat and setting a record that is highly unlikely to ever be matched. The only other pitcher to have lost three games in a single World Series,
George Frazier in , lost all three of his appearances in
relief. Williams died in 1959. •
Chick Gandil was the mastermind and ringleader of the scandal. In a 1956 article in
Sports Illustrated, he admitted his role in the fix and expressed remorse for having done so, saying that he and his co-conspirators deserved to be thrown out of baseball just for talking to the gamblers. Gandil died in 1970. •
Fred McMullin was only a backup
infielder. However, he overheard teammates discussing the fix and threatened to report them unless he was included. McMullin died in 1952. •
Swede Risberg was one of the ringleaders of the scandal. He died in 1975, being the last living Black Sox player. •
Happy Felsch hit and fielded poorly in the series. Felsch died in 1964. •
"Shoeless" Joe Jackson. (The precise extent of
Jackson's involvement is controversial.) Jackson died in 1951. •
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. Weaver died in 1956. •
Joe Gedeon of the
St. Louis Browns was banned in 1921 for allegedly conspiring with the gamblers behind the Black Sox scandal. Gedeon died in 1941. He was posthumously reinstated by Commissioner
Rob Manfred in 2025. •
Eugene Paulette of the
Philadelphia Phillies was banned in 1921 for associating with known gamblers. Paulette died in 1966. He was posthumously reinstated by Commissioner
Rob Manfred in 2025. •
Benny Kauff of the New York Giants was banned in 1921 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. Kauff died in 1961. He was posthumously reinstated by Commissioner
Rob Manfred in 2025. •
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 in 1921. He was posthumously reinstated by Commissioner
Rob Manfred in 2025. •
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 and died in 1968. •
Ray Fisher of the Cincinnati Reds was banned in 1921 after he left his contract with the Reds to accept a coaching position at the
University of Michigan before the start of the MLB season. Fisher believed his status would be voluntarily retired, but he later learned he had been declared ineligible. When Fisher appealed to Commissioner Landis, Landis banned him for violation of his contract. Fisher was reinstated by Commissioner
Bowie Kuhn in 1980, the only banned player/executive under Landis' tenure to be reinstated after Landis' death in 1944; he died in 1982. •
Dickie Kerr of the Chicago White Sox was banned from organized baseball in 1922 for violating the reserve clause in his contract. During the aforementioned 1919 Series Kerr, as one of the "Clean Sox" with no knowledge of the fix, had won both of his starts. Kerr was reinstated in 1925, retired that same year and died in 1963. •
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. He was posthumously reinstated by Commissioner
Rob Manfred in 2025. • '''
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 $ in ) to throw a game between the two teams for the financial gain of O'Connell himself and his gambler backers. O'Connell and Dolan were posthumously reinstated by Commissioner
Rob Manfred in 2025. •
William D. Cox, Philadelphia Phillies owner, was banned in 1943 for betting on his team's games. Cox died in 1989, being the last living person banned by Landis. Cox and one of the predecessor Phillies owners, Horace Fogel, are the only owners to be banned for life. He was posthumously reinstated by Commissioner
Rob Manfred in 2025.
Banned under Commissioner 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 , no such process exists for personnel who are not members of the MLBPA. •
Ferguson Jenkins of the
Texas Rangers was banned in 1980 after a
customs search in
Toronto,
Ontario, found of
cocaine, of hashish, and 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. The bans were very controversial, especially since the casinos involved did not offer
sports betting, which at the time was illegal in
New Jersey. Nevertheless, Kuhn opined that a casino was "no place for a baseball hero and Hall of Famer." The bans took place prior to the Hall formalizing its policy against inducting banned persons, and the Hall took no action as a result of Kuhn's decision. Mantle and Mays were reinstated by
Peter Ueberroth in 1985, who said that they were "more a part of baseball than perhaps anyone else." Mantle died in 1995 and Mays died in 2024.
Banned under Commissioner Giamatti A. Bartlett Giamatti served only five months as Commissioner of Baseball before he died of a
heart attack on September 1, 1989. •
Pete Rose, manager of the Cincinnati Reds and MLB's all-time leader in base hits, was investigated by lawyer
John M. Dowd in 1989 for his alleged ties to gamblers and illegal bookmakers; when
new information on Rose's gambling habits (including, among other things, betting on but not against the Reds) came to light, Giamatti and Rose reached a legal settlement that resulted in Rose's placement on the ineligible list on August 24, 1989. • 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. Notwithstanding their agreement, the Commissioner stated in his press conference that "I have concluded that (Rose) bet on baseball" and described his sanction as "banishment for life" and "lifetime ineligibility," although he also made clear he was open to the possibility of reinstatement provided Rose could provide evidence of a "redirected, reconfigured, rehabilitated life." Giamatti died eight days later–his sudden demise immediately following Rose's banishment has been seen by some, including Rose himself, as an impediment to reinstatement. After years of denial, Rose admitted to betting on baseball (and on the Reds) in early 2004. He later acknowledged that "everything" the
Dowd Report contained was the complete, unadulterated truth. After admitting to his gambling infractions, Rose maintained that he never bet against the Reds, never avoided betting on a particular
starting pitcher and never bet on baseball until after he retired as a player–assertions that Dowd has disputed. No credible evidence has emerged to suggest Rose bet against his own team or systematically avoided betting on any pitchers in his starting rotations; however, some evidence has come to light suggesting Rose started betting on baseball while still a
player-manager in Cincinnati. Rose applied for reinstatement four times, all of which were either ignored or denied, in large part due to Rose's acknowledgement that he continued to (legally) bet on baseball. Current commissioner
Rob Manfred rejected his final request, specifically citing his continued betting, saying that it was evidence that allowing his return would be "an unacceptable risk" to baseball. Rose died on September 30, 2024, and was posthumously reinstated by Commissioner Manfred less than a year later on May 13, 2025.
Banned under Commissioner Vincent Fay Vincent became commissioner upon the death of Giamatti. •
George Steinbrenner,
New York Yankees owner, was banned in 1990 for hiring a
private investigator 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. 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.
Banned under Commissioner Selig Bud Selig became Commissioner after Fay Vincent's resignation; he was Acting Commissioner between 1992 and 1998, and was elected to the Office of Commissioner in 1998. In 1999, Selig oversaw the disbandment of the American and National League offices and took over all but a few ceremonial duties formerly performed by the League Presidents, including the discipline of personnel for on-field behavior. •
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, as well as promoting positive remarks on
Adolf Hitler for what he did with
Nazi Germany. Schott had previously been fined $25,000, , 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.
Banned under Commissioner Manfred Rob Manfred succeeded Bud Selig as the Commissioner of Baseball after Selig's retirement on January 25, 2015. To date, he has banned more people than his previous four predecessors combined and is second only to Landis for most people placed on the permanent ineligibility list. The majority of these offenders were for player contract limits,
espionage,
domestic violence, or
sexual harassment cases. Manfred would also be responsible for the ruling on the MLB's punishment on those banned permanently from the league ultimately ending upon the death of the subject, since they could no longer represent a threat to the game upon their deaths. •
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 sought and was granted reinstatement in July 2018, and was allowed to join the
Dominican Summer League Mets in August. Subject to conditions set by Manfred, all restrictions were lifted at the beginning of spring training in 2019, by which point Mejía had been released by the Mets and signed to a minor league contract with the
Boston Red Sox. Despite this, Mejía has not returned to MLB. •
Chris Correa, former
St. Louis Cardinals scouting director, was permanently banned on January 30, 2017, for
industrial espionage. He was responsible for hacking the
Houston Astros' scouting database to provide the Cardinals with a competitive edge in scouting. The Cardinals were also ordered to pay the Astros $2 million in restitution, and forfeited their top two picks in the
2017 draft to the Astros. Correa was later sentenced to 46 months in prison for unauthorized access of a protected computer, thus becoming the first person to be incarcerated for activities that resulted in a ban from the game. •
John Coppolella, former
Atlanta Braves general manager, was banned on November 21, 2017, for his role in the Braves' circumvention of MLB rules regarding the signing of international free agents. The Braves were also required to release 12 prospects signed as international free agents, most notably
Kevin Maitán, and MLB voided the contract of
Ji-hwan Bae. Coppolella was reinstated in January 2023. •
Brandon Taubman, former Houston Astros assistant general manager, was added to the list on November 15, 2019, for his inappropriate comments toward female reporters in the Astros clubhouse in October 2019, pending further investigation into
sign stealing by the Astros during the 2017 and 2018 seasons. On January 13, 2020, following an investigation into sign stealing by the Astros, Manfred announced that Taubman would remain on the ineligible list through at least the end of the 2020 season. Although Taubman was interviewed for the sign stealing investigation, Manfred said that his clubhouse comments were egregious enough to merit significant discipline. Taubman was eligible to apply for reinstatement after the
2020 World Series, though there is no record of him doing so as of the start of the 2025 season. If he is reinstated, he will be permanently banned if he commits another "material violation" of baseball rules. •
Roberto Alomar, who was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2011 as a player, was banned on April 30, 2021, following an independent investigation into claims he had harassed a female
Toronto Blue Jays staffer in 2014. The Blue Jays subsequently announced they would remove a banner honoring Alomar from
Rogers Centre (thus un-retiring his number) and sever all ties with him. However, he will remain enshrined in the Hall of Fame. As of 2024, Alomar is the only currently-ineligible player to be enshrined into the Baseball Hall of Fame, in an
ex post facto situation. •
Mickey Callaway, former pitching coach of the
Los Angeles Angels, was banned on May 26, 2021, following an investigation of allegations of sexual harassment spanning much of his career as manager of the
New York Mets, pitching coach of the
Cleveland Indians, and Angels pitching coach. The investigation started when
The Athletic released an article that detailed the allegations. Callaway was eligible to apply for reinstatement after the 2022 season, though there is no record of him doing so as of the start of the 2025 season. •
Tucupita Marcano,
San Diego Padres shortstop, was permanently banned on June 4, 2024, following an investigation of allegations that he had bet on games, including those involving his former team, the
Pittsburgh Pirates. == See also ==