Baseball Mortality Stats
Death makes us reflect on our mortality.
With the passing of the Yankees’ 3B Clete Boyer today, I got to wondering about another fan-mortality milestone to join the Orosco Number (which is the count of active players younger than you), a statistic to indicate the number of living baseball Hall of Fame players older than you.
No, Clete never merited being close to the Hall of Fame, nor did his stats make the case he deserved to. But he played incredible defense for some amazing Yankee teams.
Here’s a list of living Baseball Hall of Famers:
| Name | Inducted | By | Category |
| Bob Feller |
1962 | Baseball Writers | Player |
| Stan Musial |
1969 | Baseball Writers | Player |
| Yogi Berra |
1972 | Baseball Writers | Player |
| Sandy Koufax |
1972 | Baseball Writers | Player |
| Monte Irvin |
1973 | Negro Leagues Committee | Negro Leaguer |
| Whitey Ford |
1974 | Baseball Writers | Player |
| Ralph Kiner |
1975 | Baseball Writers | Player |
| Robin Roberts |
1976 | Baseball Writers | Player |
| Ernie Banks |
1977 | Baseball Writers | Player |
| Willie Mays |
1979 | Baseball Writers | Player |
| Al Kaline |
1980 | Baseball Writers | Player |
| Duke Snider |
1980 | Baseball Writers | Player |
| Bob Gibson |
1981 | Baseball Writers | Player |
| Hank Aaron |
1982 | Baseball Writers | Player |
| Frank Robinson |
1982 | Baseball Writers | Player |
| George Kell |
1983 | Veterans Committee | Player |
| Juan Marichal |
1983 | Baseball Writers | Player |
| Brooks Robinson |
1983 | Baseball Writers | Player |
| Luis Aparicio |
1984 | Baseball Writers | Player |
| Harmon Killebrew |
1984 | Baseball Writers | Player |
| Lou Brock |
1985 | Baseball Writers | Player |
| Bobby Doerr |
1986 | Veterans Committee | Player |
| Willie McCovey |
1986 | Baseball Writers | Player |
| Billy Williams |
1987 | Baseball Writers | Player |
| Johnny Bench |
1989 | Baseball Writers | Player |
| Red Schoendienst |
1989 | Veterans Committee | Player |
| Carl Yastrzemski |
1989 | Baseball Writers | Player |
| Joe Morgan |
1990 | Baseball Writers | Player |
| Jim Palmer |
1990 | Baseball Writers | Player |
| Rod Carew |
1991 | Baseball Writers | Player |
| Fergie Jenkins |
1991 | Baseball Writers | Player |
| Gaylord Perry |
1991 | Baseball Writers | Player |
| Rollie Fingers |
1992 | Baseball Writers | Player |
| Tom Seaver |
1992 | Baseball Writers | Player |
| Reggie Jackson |
1993 | Baseball Writers | Player |
| Steve Carlton |
1994 | Baseball Writers | Player |
| Phil Rizzuto |
1994 | Veterans Committee | Player |
| Mike Schmidt |
1995 | Baseball Writers | Player |
| Jim Bunning |
1996 | Veterans Committee | Player |
| Earl Weaver |
1996 | Veterans Committee | Manager |
| Tommy Lasorda |
1997 | Veterans Committee | Manager |
| Phil Niekro |
1997 | Baseball Writers | Player |
| Lee MacPhail |
1998 | Veterans Committee | Pioneer/Executive |
| Don Sutton |
1998 | Baseball Writers | Player |
| George Brett |
1999 | Baseball Writers | Player |
| Orlando Cepeda |
1999 | Veterans Committee | Player |
| Nolan Ryan |
1999 | Baseball Writers | Player |
| Robin Yount |
1999 | Baseball Writers | Player |
| Sparky Anderson |
2000 | Veterans Committee | Manager |
| Carlton Fisk |
2000 | Baseball Writers | Player |
| Tony Perez |
2000 | Baseball Writers | Player |
| Bill Mazeroski |
2001 | Veterans Committee | Player |
| Dave Winfield |
2001 | Baseball Writers | Player |
| Ozzie Smith |
2002 | Baseball Writers | Player |
| Gary Carter | 2003 | Baseball Writers | Player |
| Eddie Murray | 2003 | Baseball Writers | Player |
| Dennis Eckersley | 2004 | Baseball Writers | Player |
| Paul Molitor | 2004 | Baseball Writers | Player |
| Wade Boggs |
2005 | Baseball Writers | Player |
| Ryne Sandberg |
2005 | Baseball Writers | Player |
| Bruce Sutter |
2006 | Baseball Writers | Player |
I wonder who’s the youngest. I wonder who will be the first player younger than me will be inducted.
The baseball death that still haunts me was that of Thurman Munson. I was an all-star catcher in Little League and Babe Ruth League in the mid-1970’s. Munson was my role-model, well-deserving of the largest portion of Annie Savoy’s baseball shrine.
Any baseball players make you think of your own mortality?
UPDATE: Wikipedia has a list of 2008’s eligible Baseball HOFers:
Luis Alicea, Brady Anderson, Alex Arias, Andy Benes, Mike Benjamin, Dennis Cook, Delino DeShields, Shawon Dunston, Chuck Finley, Darrin Fletcher, Travis Fryman, Rich Garcés, Chris Haney, Dave Hollins, Bobby J. Jones, David Justice, Chuck Knoblauch, Tom Lampkin, Darren Lewis, Mike Magnante, Dave Mlicki, Mike Morgan, Robb Nen, Hipólito Pichardo, Tim Raines, Armando Reynoso, Henry Rodríguez, Lee Stevens, Todd Stottlemyre, Greg Swindell, Mike Trombley, John Valentin, Randy Velarde, Ed Vosberg, and Mark Wohlers.
It’s not a rich field of prospects. Tim Raines is the closest to HOF, but he’s older than me. Chuck Finley would qualify for me, as he’s a month younger than I am, but I don’t Finley’s HOF material.
I’m probably looking at Edgar Martinez, Mark McGwire, David Cone or Fred McGriff. Martinez is a DH and McGwire is an asterisk. Maybe I can hold out for David Wells?
Nah… as much as I love Boomer (233-151) and even though his stats are better than Cone’s, he’s not going to be a sure HOFer unless he can hold on for 250 wins… and I hope he does.
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I was born in ‘58, Sandberg in ‘59. So my Sandberg Number is 60. The number of Hall of Famers older than me and still alive.
George Kell is still alive?? Has anyone checked on him?