Life Expectancy and Comparative Mortality of Major League Baseball players , 1900 - 1999

Several studies have documented increased life expectancy and improved mortality for Major League Baseball players, but none has yet provided a complete analysis of baseball player mortality patterns over time. We selected all baseball players who debuted between 1900 and 1999, modeled numbers of deaths, calculated SMRs with 95% confidence intervals, and calculated life expectancies for baseball players and the general population in each decade from 1930-1939 and 1990-1999. Mortality risk for MLB players increased with age and decreased over time except in the 1950-1969 and 1980-1999 periods. Ballplayers had greater life expectancy in all periods compared to the general population, though the differences were small in the 1950s and 1960s. SMRs revealed that baseball players experienced fewer deaths than expected based on general population rates in most decades from 1930 onward. This research shows that baseball players experienced lower rates of mortality than the general population throughout the last century.