Subject: athlete longevity

[Guest guest]

I would suggest that baseballers survive longer because, absent the eternal lure

of steroids, they're unlikely to be or to become phsical freaks, unlike the

others, or to get their brains bashed in. I'd be more interested in seeing data

on oarspeople, runners, swimmers, and soccer players, but as Francesca said,

it's unlikely that there'll be any particular outliers there, just possibly less

CVD-based premature deaths.

Maco

Message: 21

Date: Tue, 12 Jul 2005 06:28:48 -0000

From: " Jon " <HerrZiegler@...>

Subject: athlete longevity

This is more a fun post then a " hard science " post, but here it is

anyway. I have been reminiscing about a story I saw in Sports

Illustrated many moons ago.

They studied the major sports in the US at that time and looked at

the longevity of the professional athletes involved in each sport.

Since it has been a long time since I have read the article I will

be giving " ballpark " (no pun intended) figures.

Here it goes, average life expectancy:

Football (pro and college players): 58 (Although 53 seems stuck in

my mind.)

Boxing: 63 (I'm not sure boxing can be considered a major sport any

loner.)

Basketball: 69

Baseball: 78 (This number, if not accurate, is very close.

Considering this study was done 15+ years ago, the 78 average for

baseball players at that time was quite a bit higher than the ALE of

the average " American " .)

I remember thinking that there was such a wide gap between baseball

and the other sports, and even such a significant gap bewteen

football and the other sports, particularly boxing.

I have discussed this with a friend of mine who is an emergency room

doc, and who's dad was a brilliant orthopedic surgeon. His dad was

also into longevity studies and fitness. His (his dad's) take on

the end numbers were that baseball players receive very little, if

any constant physical contact in their sport. Traditionally

baseball players' (until relatively recently) fitness

used body weight exercises, calesthenics, and wind sprints as their

usual form of " getting " in shape, basically moderate exercise. They

spend an inordinate amount of time out of doors (usually, unless you

play at Tropicana Field) getting " air " and some sun, and so on.

If someone can find that study it would be interesting to discuss it

and look into what makes a baseball player live somewhat

significantly longer than his other sport peers.

Actually sitting here and thinking, DiMaggio, , Musial,

Feller, etc, have all lived long and somewhat producitve lives right

to the end. Jack McKeon manages at 75 still. Reggie looks

like he could still put on a uniform and play and he's in his late

50's/early 60's. Of course Ruth and Mantle died young, as well as

Hodges and Drysdale. But, Yogi is still going strong (I hope I

didn't jinx him.).

Jon