Subscribe to Baseball History Comes Alive! for automatic updates (sign-up block found in right side-bar)

As a Free Bonus for subscribing, you’ll get instant access to my two Special Reports: Memorable World Series Moments and Gary’s Handy Dandy World Series Reference Guide!

 “Players Never Ejected Club” Photo Gallery
Click on any image below to see photos in full size and to start Photo Gallery:

Fun With Baseball Ejections!

In writing about Stan Musial the other day, someone mentioned that – not surprising – Stan had never been ejected from a game over his 22-year career. This little tidbit of information got my wheels spinning; and so I thought it would be fun to delve a little further into a topic that is almost always overlooked: baseball ejections.

I wondered how many other prominent players there are that had never been ejected from a game. With a little research, I unofficially came up with the following names, ranked by the number of games played. 

Players Never Ejected From a Game (Minimum 1700 Games)

1. Stan Musial – 3,026, 2. Willie Mays – 2,992, 3. Brooks Robinson – 2,896, 4.Robin Yount 2856, 5. Tony Perez* – 2,777, 6. Derek Jeter – 2,744, 7. Paul Waner – 2549, 8. Ernie Banks – 2528, 9. Harmon Killebrew – 2,435, 10. Willie Stargell – 2360, 11. Charlie Gehringer – 2323, 12. Jimmie Foxx – 2317, 13. Ted Williams – 2292, 14. Dale Murphy – 2180, 15. Jim Rice – 2089, 16. Gil Hodges* – 2071, 17. Lloyd Waner – 1993, 18. Jim Bottomley, 1991, 19. Bobby Doerr – 1865, 20. Joe DiMaggio – 1736, 21. Vern Stephens, 1720.
*Tony Perez was ejected once as a manager, never as a player.
* Gil Hodges was ejected 7 times as a manager.

Let’s move on to look at more aspects of baseball ejections. 

Most Manager Ejections (Top-15):

Bobby Cox – 161, John McGraw – 132, Earl Weaver – 94, Leo Durocher – 94, Tony LaRussa – 87, Paul Richards – 87, Frankie Frisch – 87, Bruce Bochy – 77, Ron Gardenhire – 73, Jim Leland – 68, Joe Torre – 66, Lou Piniella – 63, Clark Griffith – 58,  Bill Rigney – 51, Charlie Manuel – 50, Clint Hurdle – 50, John Gibbons – 50.

Manager Ejections by Percentage of Games Managed (Top-10):

Paul Richards – 4.4%, Earl Weaver – 3.7%, Bobby Cox – 3.7%, Frankie Frisch – 3.6%, Ron Gardenhire – 3.5%, Charlie Manuel – 2.8%, Leo Durocher – 2.5%, John McGraw – 2.4%, Jim Leland – 2.1%, Clark Griffith – 2.1%.

Players Ejected the Most:

Leo Durocher – 21, Milton Bradley – 17, Jackie Robinson – 16, Babe Ruth – 12, Casey Stengel -11. Feel free to add to this list.

Notable Total Ejections, Counting As Player, Manager and Coach:

John McGraw – 147 (132 as manager, 15 as player), Leo Durocher – 125 (94 as manager, 21 as player, 10 as coach), Frankie Frisch – 95 (8 as player, 87 as manager), Tony LaRussa – 88 (87 as manager, 1 as player), Casey Stengel – 54 (11 as player, 40 as manager, 3 as coach), Billy Martin – 53 (6 as player, 47 as manager), Sparky Anderson – 50 (1 as player, 49 as manager). 

Most Ejections By Umpire (Top-15):

Umpire Bill Klem

Bill Klem – 256, Cy Ringler – 192, Hank O-Day – 185, Bob Davidson – 156, Joe West – 151, Silk O’Laufghlin – 145, Ernie Quigley – 141, Bob Emslie – 127, Derryl Cousins – 118, Jocko Conlan – 116, Lord Byron – 115, Gary Darling – 111, Frank Dascoli – 106, Augie Donatelli – 103, Rich Garcia – 103.

A Few Ejections Odds and Ends:

• Lou Gehrig was ejected 9 times!
• Eddie “The Brat” Stanky, a known umpire baiter who learned the trade from Leo “The Lip” Durocher, was ejected a total of 49 times ( 27 as a player, 22 as a manager).
• Mild-mannered Honus Wagner was actually ejected from more games than the irascible Ty Cobb (16-15).
• Saintly Connie Mack was actually ejected once from a game, by umpire Hank O’Day in 1895.
• Cal Ripkin, Sr. was ejected 31 including 23 times as a coach, which may be a record for coaches. 
• Some of the reasons for ejections are hilarious. Frankie Frisch was once ejected from a game for “bringing out an umbrella to protest the weather.” Another time Frisch was ejected after a call at first base when he “faked fainting.”
• John McGraw was ejected for “abusing Pirates owner Barney Dreyfuss,” another time because “he told umpire he should wear glasses.” 
• Here’s a good one: Leo Durocher (once) and Earl Weaver (twice) were ejected from the pre-game meeting for arguing a call from the previous day!
• Earl Weaver was once ejected for “piling dirt on second base.”
• Umpire Paul Pryor, whose autobiography I helped edit two years ago, ejected only 33 players over a 21-year career.
• It’s surprising to see Charlie Gehringer on the no-ejections list. He always seemed like a sour-puss and it’s almost impossible to find a photo of him smiling.

Other notable players and managers: Hank Greenberg – 3, Dizzy Dean – 5, Lefty Grove – 0, Rogers Hornsby – 3, Hank Aaron -1, Mickey Mantle – 8, Tris Speaker – 11, Frank Chance – 23, Yogi Berra – 27, Joe McCarthy -13, Shoeless Joe Jackson – 3, Joe Medwick – 8.

These lists I compiled are all unofficial, so feel free to add to any of the lists. If you have a player who you’d like to know how many times was ejected, just indicate his name below and I’ll give you the answer, as I know where to find the info!

Shop MLB.com. The Official Online Shop of Major League Baseball.

Gary Livacari 

Photo Credits: All from Google search

Information source: Most statistical information on ejections found on Retrosheet

Check out my two books, both now available on Amazon in e-book and paperback:  “Paul Pryor in His Own Words: The Life and Times of a 20-Year Major League Umpire”and “Memorable World Series Moments.” All profits go to the Illinois Veterans Foundation

Add your name to the petition to help get Gil Hodges elected to the Hall of Fame: https://wp.me/p7a04E-5guhttps://wp.me/p7a04E-5IF

Cast Your Vote in Our New Poll Question: How Do You Feel About Judge Landis’ Verdict Against the “Eight Men Out”?https://wp.me/p7a04E-5IF