List of People Banned From Major League Baseball - History

History

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.