It is the ultimate penalty in baseball: the lifetime ban. Pete Rose is the most famous person to pay the penalty, but many players and owners have been barred over the years for all manner of malfeasance.
Most of the lifetime bans came in the early years of baseball. Numerous players in the 19th and early 20th century were barred for fixing games, usually in exchange for money. There was an odder motivation in 1910, when Manager Jack O’Connell and Coach Harry Howell of the St. Louis Browns allowed Nap Lajoie to go 8 for 9 in a doubleheader against them so that he would defeat Ty Cobb in the batting race.