Every Deceased Major League Player from My Lifetime

I had maintained this list over on Facebook, but with Facebook shutting down its blogging services, I might as well transition this to this forum. Over the past year or so I've been keeping track of the players in each of the four major team sports (baseball, basketball, football, hockey) that made it to the top league in their respective sport (MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL) sometime in my lifetime (I was born January 25, 1985) that has since passed away.

This is the master list of all 997 players from all four sports that played in their respective Major Leagues within my lifetime that are now deceased. In the individual lists the players were listed in reverse chronological order. However, in this one we are listing the players by chronological order by date of death. I will list the dates of their last Major League game. If multiple players died on the same day, the then I will list the player whose career ended earlier first.

Every Deceased MLB Players From My Lifetime

I had maintained this list over on Facebook, but with Facebook shutting down its blogging services, I might as well transition this to this forum. Over the past year or so I've been keeping track of the players in each of the four major team sports (baseball, basketball, football, hockey) that made it to the top league in their respective sport (MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL) sometime in my lifetime (I was born January 25, 1985) that has since passed away.

This was the first list that I had made. I was working a night shift, and this was only a few days after Tyler Skaggs's tragic death of asphyxiation following an overdose of opiates and other drugs. During some down time I was looking up deceased MLB players and made a list of the deceased players that played in the 2000s, then since I started watching baseball in 1993. At the end I just went ahead and made a list of everybody from my lifetime. I was already keeping track of deceased players through baseball cards I had. This may have been from the fact that I've been a baseball fan for so long, and know more baseball players than the other sports. Since then I've been updating the list, which now totals 252 players. The players are listed in reverse chronological order by their final MLB game. If multiple players last played on the same day, then the player who died later are listed first.

Every Deceased NFL Player From My Lifetime

I had maintained this list over on Facebook, but with Facebook shutting down its blogging services, I might as well transition this to this forum. Over the past year or so I've been keeping track of the players in each of the four major team sports (baseball, basketball, football, hockey) that made it to the top league in their respective sport (MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL) sometime in my lifetime (I was born January 25, 1985) that has since passed away. I was inspired to create the NFL list after watching Killer Inside, the documentary about the life and death of former Patriots wide receiver Aaron Hernandez. As I went on Pro Football Reference and compiled the list it struck me at just how many former NFL players have died. There are a grand total of 516 former football players that's played in the NFL during my lifetime, more than the other three sports combined. It's true NFL teams have larger rosters than the other sports, but it's not significantly larger than something like baseball where teams swap players from their minor league affiliates all the time. I looked up a lot of the deaths and it seems many of the players died prematurely from things such as murders, suicides, car accidents, and heart attacks, often before the age of 45. I don't know if it's all statistically significant or not, but it may be a sign of just how damaging football can be.

Anyways, these players are listed in reverse chronological order from their last game in the NFL. If multiple players had their last games on the same day, then the player that died later will be listed first. This is especially obvious since there are almost 40 players that last played in October 1987, almost all of them replacement players from the 1987 NFL strike detailed in this video. 

Every Deceased NHL Player From My Lifetime

I had maintained this list over on Facebook, but with Facebook shutting down its blogging services, I might as well transition this to this forum. Over the past year or so I've been keeping track of the players in each of the four major team sports (baseball, basketball, football, hockey) that made it to the top league in their respective sport (MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL) sometime in my lifetime (I was born January 25, 1985) that has since passed away. The list of NHL players that has passed away has been fairly small, which makes sense since the rosters are generally pretty small. The list now consists of 119 names, nine of which passed away in the tragic Yaroslav Lokomotiv plane accident in 2011. These players are listed in reverse chronological order from their final NHL games. If they played their last game on the same day, then the player that died later is listed earlier.

Every Deceased NBA Player From My Lifetime

I had maintained this list over on Facebook, but with Facebook shutting down its blogging services, I might as well transition this to this forum. Over the past year or so I've been keeping track of the players in each of the four major team sports (baseball, basketball, football, hockey) that made it to the top league in their respective sport (MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL) sometime in my lifetime (I was born January 25, 1985) that has since passed away. The MLB, NFL and NHL lists were easy since the Sports References site for those sports list every dead player by year. The Basketball Reference page does not. I had to click every player on every roster for every team since 1985. In the end I found this list of 110 players that have since passed away. They are listed in reverse chronological order of their final games. If two players played their last game on the same day, then the player that died later is listed earlier.