Baseball has buried game’s best in bans
Tolena Mahlum

It seems like gambling has been causing a lot of problems in the baseball world these days, especially now that Pete Rose may be reinstated. Curious to find others who have been banned from the game (and why), I did a little research.

Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle were both banned from baseball in 1983, but it wasn’t because they were directly involved in gambling. Mantle and Mays were both offered jobs at resorts and casinos. The work that the two were doing consisted mostly of promotional appearances at golf tournaments and other public events. Commissioner Bowie Kuhn warned the two that if they accepted their jobs, they would be placed on the “permanently ineligible” list. Thinking the ruling ridiculous, both players accepted their jobs. Mantle accepted a job at the Claridge Resort and Casino in Atlantic City acting as a community representative - he was rarely ever around the casino. Mays was hired on with Bally’s Resorts where he worked as a public relations executive.

Bowie stuck true to his promise and banned both Mays and Mantle from the sport of baseball - even after they already had places solidified in the Hall of Fame.

On Mar. 18, 1985, Peter Ueberroth took over as the commissioner and immediately reinstated both Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays back into the sport. Why is it that one commissioner would feel that they needed to be banned for life, and another is able to realize that baseball is where those two legends belong?

In 1919, the White Sox were heavily favored to win the World Series against the Cincinnati Reds, but instead lost the series three games to five. In 1920, the grand jury let the story unveil about an $80,000 scandal that changed the way that fans view sports and gambling.

Shoeless Joe Jackson and the “Black Sox” were banned for their gambling involvement. For those unfamiliar with the Black Sox scandal, it involved eight players from the White Sox that threw the 1919 World Series to earn gambling money. According to The Morning News, the White Sox were probably the best team ever assembled, but they were also the unhappiest. They were severely underpaid.

Shoeless Joe led the team during the World Series with a .375 batting average. Although evidence shows that he chose not to go ahead with the scandal, Joe accepted the money, which made him guilty of the gambling charges.

Pete Rose. I won’t sit here and go through the whole Rose debate with you, but consider this. Mantle and Mays were banned after they were already in the Hall of Fame. When they were banned from baseball, they were not removed from the Hall. So maybe Commissioner Bud Selig should realize that we are currently punishing Rose for his actions as a manager of a team, and he should be able to be recognized for his accomplishments as a player... before the gambling thing ever happened.

Pete Rose made a horrible decision when he decided to bet on baseball, and as a result he should never be allowed to manage a team again. This punishment must stand.

Just because Rose made a mistake as a coach, however, does not mean that the all-time hits leader should not be recognized in the Hall of Fame where he belongs. Pete Rose should be reinstated into baseball as the player that he once was, not the manager that he became.

Others banned:

The spit-ball, defined as any ball with spit, snot, Vaseline or any other substance put on the ball, has been classified by many as the hardest pitch to hit - and it can also be lethal. It was officially banned from baseball in 1920 when Carl Mays threw the pitch to Ray Chapman. The ball hit Chapman in the head, killing him.

Paul Fagan, the owner of the San Fransisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League, banned the peanut in 1950. Fagan was determined to clean up the sport of baseball, and went as far as to declare that he was going to ban husked peanuts. According to writer Gaylon White, all of San Francisco went nuts over the news.

“It was just like ripping the heart out of baseball itself,” said the Los Angeles Herald Express. Only 24 hours after Fagan had announced the peanut ban, the uproar caused him to change his mind.

“I give up,” Fagan said. “It’s the first time in my life I’ve been beaten and it had to be by a peanut.”