The Longevity of Baseball Hall of Famers Compared to Other Players

Abstract

The authors compared the longevity of all baseball players alive at the time of their induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame with age-matched controls who were likewise alive at the time of the Hall of Famer's induction, and also matched them for career length, player position, and body-mass index, to assess if fame in sports is associated with increased longevity. Median post-induction survival for Hall of Famers was 5 years shorter than for noninducted players (18 vs. 23 years, respectively). In a second analysis, significantly more Hall of Famers died of cardiovascular or stroke causes than other players for whom cause of death was known. Baseball fame may have a hitherto unrecognized price.

Precocity Predicts Shorter Life for Major League Baseball Players: Confirmation of McCann's Precocity-Longevity Hypothesis

“…The correlation between debut age and longevity for Hall of Famers was very high whereas the correlations for non-inductees was similar to those for all players. A previous study of Hall of Famers (Abel & Kruger, 2005b) indicated that Hall of Famers inducted while alive died at an earlier age than those not inducted, but that study failed to include debut age as a covariate and failed to impose the same control for selection bias. The considerably higher correlations for Hall of Famers constitutes the best support for McCann's (2001McCann's ( , 2003 precocity hypothesis because induction into the baseball Hall of Fame constitutes the highest accolade in the sport (James, 1995).…”

“…Players who are eventually inducted into the Hall of Fame, which reflects the highest level of accomplishment, however, tend to be several years younger when they debut than are players not inducted. These players die at a younger age than their age-matched controls (Abel & Kruger, 2005b), implying earlier maturation of the necessary skills required for outstanding recognition within the sport. However, these players may be less emotionally able to handle the fame than older players and may be more prone to self destructive behavior as a result of the psychological stress they experience from the increased media attention and expectations regarding their performance (Abel & Kruger, 2005b;Schaller, 1997).…”

The Baseball Hall of Fame Is Not the Kiss of Death

“…In most cases, this is because the player is still alive, but in many cases no death date is listed because the death date is unknown, and there is no way to tell from the Lahman database 950 G. Smith which is the case. Thus, when Abel and Kruger (2005) write that 64% of the Hall of Famers were deceased compared to 47% of the controls, what they really mean is that 64% of the Hall of Famers have listed death dates, compared to 47% of the controls. Players born in the 1800s without listed death dates are almost certainly deceased with unknown death dates; we can only speculate about players with more recent birth dates and no listed death date.…”

“…It seems implausible that any differences in self-esteem between MLB players who are elected to the Hall of Fame and those who are not is large enough to explain a 5-year difference in life expectancy. Abel and Kruger (2005) take their data from Sean Lahman's Baseball Archive (2010), a well-respected and widely used compilation of statistics for every baseball player who has ever played in the major leagues. Abel and Kruger restricted their analysis to Hall of Fame players who were alive at the time of their election.…”

Does Education Matter? Major League Baseball Players and Longevity

“…Longevity may be affected if celebrity status and higher lifetime income increases access to high-quality health care. Abel and Kruger (2005b) studied the effects of induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame on longevity using a sample of 143 players inducted into the Hall of Fame and 3,430 age-matched players who served as controls. 3 They found that post-induction longevity for Hall of Famers was shorter than for the matched controls; the odds ratio of death was 1.37 times higher for Hall of Famers.…”