List of baseball players who died during their careers

This is a list of baseball players who died during their careers. While some of these deaths occurred during a game, the majority were the result of accidents off the field, illnesses, acts of violence, or suicide.

Repeated studies have shown that contemporary Major League Baseball players have a greater life expectancy than males in the general U.S. population — about five years more, on average, which is attributed to their superior fitness and healthy lifestyles. The longer the active career, the longer the player lives, on average. This correlation is attributed to the maintenance of fitness and increased wealth.

Deaths of active players

This is a list of notable deaths in baseball and untimely deaths of active professional baseball players.

Major League Baseball

The following Major League Baseball players died during their careers.

Former major-league players still active in professional baseball at the time of their death

Minor League Baseball

Minor league players are listed with their major league affiliate team, else denoted with a dagger (†) if their team was unaffiliated.

Nippon Professional Baseball

KBO League

Negro leagues

Dutch League Baseball

College baseball

See also

• Lou Gehrig - New York Yankees's first baseman who was forced into retirement after being diagnosed with ALS, he would untimely die from the disease, two years later in 1941.
• Sportspeople who died during their careers
• List of Major League Baseball players who died in wars

Notes

References

Sources

• Abrunzo, Thomas (1991), "Commotio Cordis: The Single, Most Common Cause of Traumatic Death in Youth Baseball", American Journal of Diseases of Children, 145 (11): 1279–1282, doi:10.1001/archpedi.1991.02160110071023, PMID 1951221, S2CID 31217442
• Gorman, Robert; Weeks, David (2009), Death at the Ballpark: A Comprehensive Study of Game-related Fatalities of Players, Other Personnel and Spectators in Amateur and Professional Baseball, 1862–2007, McFarland, ISBN 9780786452545
• Lawless, Molly (2012), Hit by Pitch: Ray Chapman, Carl Mays and the Fatal Fastball, McFarland, ISBN 9780786484843
• Lennox, Doug (2010), Now You Know Baseball, Dundurn, ISBN 9781770705883
• Light, Jonathan (2005), "Deaths", The Cultural Encyclopedia of Baseball, McFarland & Company, pp. 246–250, ISBN 0-7864-2087-1
• Saint Onge, Jarron; Rogers, Richard; Krueger, Patrick (July 17, 2008), "Major League Baseball Players' Life Expectancies", Social Science Quarterly, 89 (3): 817–830, doi:10.1111/j.1540-6237.2008.00562.x, PMC 2743321, PMID 19756205

Further reading

• Lee, Bill (2009), Baseball Necrology, McFarland, ISBN 978-0786442393
• Bedingfield, Gary (2009), Baseball's Dead of World War II, McFarland, ISBN 978-0786444540
• Baltov, Victor (2010), "Jaws (There is a Shark in the Water)", Baseball Is America, AuthorHouse, pp. 253–276, ISBN 9781452004884