Benny Kauff

Bennie Michael "Benny" Kauff ( ; January 5, 1890 – November 17, 1961) was an American professional baseball player, who played center field and batted and threw left-handed. Kauff was known as the "Ty Cobb of the Feds." Kauff was banned from baseball in 1921 amid charges of auto theft; despite his acquittal, baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis refused to overturn the ban. Kauff would not be reinstated until 2025, when Rob Manfred announced all bans that continued after death were eliminated.

Baseball career

Early career (1912–1915) Kauff played his first game in the majors with the New York Highlanders on April 20, 1912. He played only five games with the Highlanders, playing the rest of the year in the minors. but traded him to the Brooklyn Tip-Tops before the 1915 season.

Kauff was called "Ty Cobb of the Feds" for his dominant hitting during both years of the Federal League's existence. In 1914, he led the league in batting average (.370; still the rookie record for league-leading batting average), on-base percentage (.447), runs (120), hits (211), total bases (305), doubles (44) and stolen bases (75), while finishing 2nd in slugging percentage (.534) and 3rd in runs batted in (95) and walks (72). but never regained his Federal League hitting prowess.

But also in his first year as a Giant, he was 2nd in the NL in stolen bases (40) and triples (16), 4th in runs batted in (74), home runs (9) and walks (68), and 9th in slugging percentage (.408). in Chicago's last World Series victory until 2005. Kauff's two-homer game was the only one achieved by a National League player in the World Series until Bob Elliott of the Boston Braves did it in 1948. His best Series performance was in Game 4, with two home runs and three runs batted in during the Giants' 5–0 victory.

His 1918 campaign was shortened by service in World War I.

In 1919, he led the NL in extra-base hits (44) and was 2nd in home runs (10), 4th in runs batted in (67) and doubles (27), 5th in runs (73) and 7th in slugging percentage (.422). Kauff adamantly denied the charges, claiming he did not know the car was stolen. He claimed that Shields and Whalen had given him what turned out to be a false bill of sale, thus leading him to believe the car had been acquired legally.

Nonetheless, Landis refused to reinstate him. In a letter to Kauff, Landis said that even though he was acquitted, the trial revealed serious questions about his character and reputation that would raise questions about baseball's integrity if he were ever allowed to play again. He also told baseball writer Fred Lieb that he personally believed Kauff was guilty, and claimed his acquittal "smelled to high heaven" and was "one of the worst miscarriages of justice that ever came under my observation." In his ruling, Justice E. G. Whitaker of the New York State Supreme Court did agree that "an apparent injustice has been done the plaintiff [Kauff]," because "at his time there is no contract between him and the defendant.

Even though banned from playing, he served as a baseball scout for 22 years before becoming a clothing salesman for John R. Lyman Co.

Kauff was reinstated by Commissioner Rob Manfred on May 13, 2025, along with other deceased players who were on the ineligible list.