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List of baseball players who died during their careers
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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.[1]
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Deaths of active players
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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
Players in this section did not play above the Minor League Baseball level; they are listed with their final minor-league team along with its major-league affiliation, if any.
Nippon Professional Baseball
KBO League
Negro leagues
Dutch League Baseball
College baseball
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See also
- Jim Creighton - Brooklyn Excelsiors's second baseman and superstar pitcher of the amateur era who died aged 21 of a ruptured abdominal hernia caused by the force of his own pitch in 1862.
- Lou Gehrig - New York Yankees's first baseman who was forced into retirement after being diagnosed with ALS, he would ultimately 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
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Notes
- Crews played his entire six-year career with the Los Angeles Dodgers, but the end of the 1992 season he became a free agent and signed with the Cleveland Indians on January 22, 1993. He died during spring training.
- Macko last played in August of 1980, when he was injured in a game. The injury was severe enough to keep him on the disabled list for the rest of 1980. In the course of doctor's examinations over the winter in early 1981, Macko was discovered to have cancer, which he fought through 1981. He traveled with the Cubs and remained on the disabled list through the entire 1981 season.
- Technically, McJames was no longer actively involved in baseball at the time of his death. He had been released by Brooklyn in July, due the effects of tuberculosis. McJames was working as a doctor at the time of his death nine weeks later in September; the tuberculosis which ended his baseball career was a factor in his death.
- Montgomery's only major league playing experience came with the Boston Braves in 1941. He was sold to the Giants in February of 1942, and spent spring training with the Giants. Montgomery died in a car accident on the trip north, before the start of the regular season.
- O'Brien played for the Boston Reds in 1891 but was under contract with the St. Louis Browns at the time of his death before the start of the 1892 season.
- Sharman was one of eight one-time Major League Baseball players known either to have been killed or died from illness while serving in the armed forces during World War I, but the only one who went directly from a major league career (concluding the 1917 season with the A's) to the military.
- Technically, Sharperson was still a minor league player at the time of his death. The Padres had summoned Sharperson to join the major league team, to be on hand if he were needed in the event of an injury. (Sharperson died on the journey.) However, he had not been activated as a major league player at the time of his death, and quite possibly might not have been activated even had he arrived safely. Sharperson had last been on a major league roster with the Atlanta Braves in 1995.
- Bond, who had been diagnosed with leukemia in 1962, had been playing with the Minnesota Twins until he was released on May 15, 1967. He was picked up by the Jacksonville Suns, the triple-A team of the New York Mets, but only played three games with Jacksonville before he had to enter a hospital for treatment. He died September 14.
- Grosart signed with the Toledo Mud Hens prior to the 1902 season and was with them during spring training; he had last played for the Dayton Old Soldiers during the 1901 season.
- Krug last played for the Indianapolis Indians in 1907 but was under contract with the minor league Johnstown Johnnies at the time of his death in January 1908.
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