Deaths
- January 9 - Stan Spence, 67, four-time All-Star outfielder who played for the Boston Red Sox, Washington Senators and St. Louis Browns.
- January 26 - Chet Laabs, 70, All-Star outfielder for the St. Louis Browns who hit two home runs in 1944's final game to clinch the Browns' only American League pennant.
- February 3 - Trader Horne, 83, relief pitcher for the 1929 Chicago Cubs.
- February 9 - Jackie Hayes, 76, second baseman for the Washington Senators and Chicago White Sox.
- February 16 - Melba Alspaugh, 58, All-American Girls Professional Baseball League outfielder.
- March 3 - Jennings Poindexter, 72, pitcher for the Red Sox and Cardinals in the 1930s.
- March 12 - Bob Hall, 59, pitcher for the Boston Braves (1949–50) and Pittsburgh Pirates (1953).
- March 30 - Joe Cicero, 72, outfielder for the Boston Red Sox and Philadelphia Athletics.
- April 9 - Bill Kennedy, 62, pitcher for the Indians, Browns, White Sox, Red Sox and Redlegs from 1948 to 1957.
- April 11 - Mike Menosky, 88, outfielder for the Pittsburgh Rebels, Washington Senators and Boston Red Sox between 1914 and 1923.
- April 12 - Carl Morton, 39, pitcher with the Montréal Expos and Atlanta Braves, who was named the National League Rookie of the Year in 1970.
- April 17 - Dutch Leonard, 74, five-time All-Star pitcher who employed the knuckleball in earning 191 wins over 20 seasons.
- April 18 - Woody Rich, 77, pitcher for the Red Sox and Braves Boston teams between 1939 and 1944.
- April 25 - Carlos Paula, 55, Cuban outfielder, first black player in Washington Senators history.
- July 7 - Vic Wertz, 58, All-Star right fielder and first baseman for five AL teams who had five 100-RBI seasons, but was best remembered for the fly ball caught spectacularly by Willie Mays in the 1954 World Series.
- August 16 - Earl Averill, 81, Hall of Fame center fielder for the Cleveland Indians who batted .318 lifetime and had five 100-RBI seasons; his line drive off Dizzy Dean's foot in the 1937 All-Star game led to the end of Dean's career.
- October 18 - Willie Jones, 58, All-Star third baseman for the Phillies, who led the National League in fielding percentage five times and in putouts seven times.
- November 2 - Hal Wiltse, 80, pitcher for the Boston Red Sox (1926–28), St. Louis Browns (1928) and Philadelphia Phillies (1931).
- November 15 - Charlie Grimm, 85, first baseman and manager of the Chicago Cubs who batted .300 five times and led the Cubs to three National League pennants.
- November 18 - Hilton Smith, 76, pitcher for the Negro Leagues' Kansas City Monarchs who was known for his outstanding curveball.
- November 30 - Bill Evans, 69, relief pitcher for the Chicago White Sox and Boston Red Sox between 1949 and 1951.
Read more about this topic: 1983 In Baseball
Famous quotes containing the word deaths:
“I sang of death but had I known
The many deaths one must have died
Before he came to meet his own!”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“You lived too long, we have supped full with heroes,
they waste their deaths on us.”
—C.D. Andrews (1913–1992)
“Death is too much for men to bear, whereas women, who are practiced in bearing the deaths of men before their own and who are also practiced in bearing life, take death almost in stride. They go to meet death—that is, they attempt suicide—twice as often as men, though men are more “successful” because they use surer weapons, like guns.”
—Roger Rosenblatt (b. 1940)