SABR 35 - Longevity and Major League Baseball Players (Research Presentation)
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| By The SABR Office |
Longevity and Major League Baseball Players
Michael Kruger
King II
This study compares the longevity of major league baseball players to the general population. Previous studies have arrived at conflicting findings. A study by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company in 1975, which looked at major leaguers from 1876 – 1973, found they had a 28% lower standardized mortality rate (SMR) compared to white males in the general population. A 1988 study by Waterbor et al found a nominal 6% reduction and surprisingly, an inverse association of SMR with players’ career length. However, both of these studies have significant shortcomings. The Metropolitan Study used a player’s birth year as the basis for matching controls. Since infant mortality rates at the turn of the 20th century were quite high this overstated the longevity advantage of major leaguers who had all survived into adulthood. The Waterbor study was limited by a small sample size of 985 players, and a rather brief and specific time interval since all debuted from1911-1915.
We compared longevities of all players in the Lahman 2003 Baseball Archive whose rookie year was between 1900 and 1950 to age-adjusted life expectancies from the general public at the time of their rookie year using the Berkely Mortality Database. Since the major leagues were not integrated until 1948, our study was based on white males. Differences between actual survival (age at death) and predicted survival (age adjusted life expectancy) were compared using standard statistical methods. This comparison was made both with and without taking position category (infielders, outfielders, pitchers and catchers) into consideration. We also examined whether longevity is influenced by career length using standard correlation techniques.
Results
There were 5,310 players who were dead by 2003. The average age of death for all players was 68.8 yrs. (SD= + 14.7) and the average age-adjusted life-expectancy was 65.1 years (SD= + 2.0). This difference is highly significant (p<0.001). Baseball players lived nearly four years longer than their age-matched controls and this effect was consistent across all positions. No significant difference in longevity was observed by position. Career length did not affect a player’s longevity after retirement.
We can conclude from our findings that major league baseball players have increased life expectancies compared to the general public. This increase in longevity may be due to the increased fitness of a professional athlete. This may arise from an initial selection fitness advantage a professional athlete has, the benefit of socio-economic advantage associated with major league baseball players’ higher income and status compared to the average individual.
MICHAEL KRUGER has been a SABR member since December 2004.
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| | Created On: 2005-07-12 |
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Page Link: http://www.sabr.org/sabr.cfm?a=cms,c,1347,34,0
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