Over the next couple of days, every newspaper (remember them), specialty website and most industries will have shared their necrology list for 2023. And if you’re like me, there are certain passings from early in the year that I will have forgotten about.

A couple of days ago mlb.com ran theirs with an accompanying 5-minute video. I commented to a couple people that I was heartened by the smaller list. The video was nice as it added a little nuance or context. The league list also included a couple guys that covered the game too.

I ended up finding a much more comprehensive list of everyone that reached the majors as either a player or manager, but nobody else. I’m attaching that here.

As I learned a few years ago, the baseball family/world is far larger than the guys on the field, the scouts, and folks covering the game. However, Baseball Reference is fact-driven. There aren’t any stories, no nuance, not much more than a headshot and career stats.

That being said, one can click on a player and dig a little deeper. Probably the most interesting item on the list, is the years played in the ML. It’s both obvious and sad to see players from the same team passing in the same year, but because they played together or against one another, it’s logical that they might die in the same year.

If one is so inspired to dig a little deeper, one can use the google machine and find an obit or mention in a local paper. Of course, I’ve saved the BR page as I’ve found myself looking back at some guys like Don Leppert, whose playing career I was completely unfamiliar with. I do remember him as a ML coach during the 70’s and 80’s.

Sometimes a list with years-played is enough for fans like me to make a connection. Bios aren’t always possible or necessary as we may have unique memories of certain players.