| Mark Belanger | |
|---|---|
 Belanger with the Baltimore Orioles in 1972 | |
| Shortstop | |
| Born:(1944-06-08)June 8, 1944 Pittsfield, Massachusetts, U.S. | |
| Died: October 6, 1998(1998-10-06) (aged 54) New York, New York, U.S. | |
Batted: Right Threw: Right | |
| MLB debut | |
| August 7, 1965, for the Baltimore Orioles | |
| Last MLB appearance | |
| October 2, 1982, for the Los Angeles Dodgers | |
| MLB statistics | |
| Batting average | .228 |
| Home runs | 20 |
| Runs batted in | 389 |
Stats atBaseball Reference  | |
| Teams | |
| Career highlights and awards | |
| |
Mark Henry Belanger (June 8, 1944 – October 6, 1998), nicknamed "the Blade", was an American professionalbaseball player andcoach. He played 18 seasons inMajor League Baseball as ashortstop from1965 through1982, most notably as a member of theBaltimore Orioles dynasty that won sixAmerican League East division titles, fiveAmerican League pennants, and twoWorld Series championships between 1966 and 1979.
A defensive standout, Belanger won eightGold Glove Awards between 1969 and 1978, leading theAmerican League inassists andfielding percentage three times each; he retired with the highest career fielding percentage by an AL shortstop (.977). In defensiveWins Above Replacement (WAR), Belanger is tied withOzzie Smith andJoe Tinker for most times as league leader with six.[1] Belanger set franchise records for career games, assists, anddouble plays as a shortstop, all of which were later broken byCal Ripken Jr. After his playing career, he became an official with theMajor League Baseball Players Association. In 1983, Belanger was inducted into theBaltimore Orioles Hall of Fame.[2] He has been described as "the most electrifying defensive shortstop of his generation".[3]
Belanger was born on June 8, 1944, inPittsfield, Massachusetts,[4] of French-Canadian and Italian-American descent. He attendedPittsfield High School, where he played baseball and basketball.[3] On the basketball court, he became the school's first 1,000-point scorer, scoring 1,455 points in three years. He led his team to the 1962 Western Massachusetts championship game and a 59-10 record over those three years.[5]
He was recruited by the Orioles as an amateur in1962, and signed for $35,000 shortly after turning 18-years old.[3] He was then assigned to theClass-DBluefield Orioles, where he hit .298, while playing shortstop; also playing eight games that season for theSingle-AElmira Pioneers.[6] His manager at Elmira was future Hall of Fame managerEarl Weaver,[7] and included future OriolesAndy Etchebarren,Dave McNally andDarold Knowles.[8] He spent 1963 in the U.S. Air National Guard, and returned to the Orioles minor league system in 1964, playing shortstop for the Single-AAberdeen Pheasants, batting .226, with a .958 fielding percentage.[3][6] He did go to Orioles spring training in 1963, where Orioles shortstopRon Hansen gave Belanger fielding advice that would positively effect how Belanger played shortstop going forward.[3]
Belanger spent the majority of the 1965 season with nowDouble-A Elmira, again managed by Weaver, where he had a .968 fielding percentage.[9] He was called up for 11 games with the Orioles, making his debut with the club on August 7,1965 as a pinch runner.[6][3] In 1966, he played for theTriple-ARochester Red Wings, also managed by Weaver, batting .262, with six home runs and a .974 fielding percentage; playing in eight games with the Orioles at the end of the season.[10][6]
He took over as the Orioles' regular shortstop in late1967 from futureHall of FamerLuis Aparicio,[3][11] and held the position for more than a decade.[4] He hit his first Major League home run atYankee Stadium on May 14, 1967, off Yankees' aceMel Stottlemyre. This was in the same game thatMickey Mantle hit his 500th home run.[3]
Belanger was nicknamed "The Blade" because of his tall, narrow and angular frame—6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) and 170 pounds (77 kg).[12] Belanger was a flashy fielder and won eight AL Gold Gloves (1969, 1971, and 1973–78).[13] He is second all-time in defensive WAR, behind only Ozzie Smith and just above teammatethird basemanBrooks Robinson.[14] He was also named to theAll-Star team in 1976.[15]
Belanger joined a select group of shortstop-second baseman combinations who each won Gold Gloves in the same season while playing together (in1969 and1971 withDavey Johnson and again withBobby Grich each year between1973 and1976).[16] Because Brooks Robinson won the AL Gold Glove atthird base each season during the 1960–1975 stretch,[17] the left side of the Orioles' infield was seemingly impenetrable, described byDetroit Tigers managerMayo Smith as like "'trying to throw a hamburger through a brick wall'".[3] Along with eight-time gold glove center fielder Paul Blair,[18] the Orioles defense from 1969-73 is considered among the greatest ever; and Belanger and Robinson are considered among the greatest fielders ever.[19][20][21][22]
Despite his reputation as one of the best fielding shortstops in Major League history, Belanger was known as a poor hitter. In 1970, he finished last among qualifying AL players in all threeTriple Crown categories.[23] In his 18 seasons in the Major Leagues, Belanger hit only 20home runs and had a lifetimebatting average of .228, only topping the .230 mark over a full season three times.[4] At the time he retired, he had beenpinch-hit for 333 times, the most in American League history at the time.[23]
His .228 lifetime batting average is the third-lowest of any Major League player with more than 5,000 career at bats, ahead of onlyGeorge McBride (.218) andEd Brinkman (.224; another gold glove shortstop of that era[24]).[citation needed] Belanger also finished his career with the seventh-lowest batting average of any non-catcher with at least 2,500 at bats since 1920.[citation needed] Despite his famously poor hitting, Belanger had substantial success against some of the best pitchers of his era, including Hall of Fame closerGoose Gossage[25] (.421 average), Hall of FamerBert Blyleven[26] (.346 average), Hall of FamerNolan Ryan[27] (.244 average),Ron Perranoski (.353 average), andTommy John (.289 average).[28]
He hit a rarehome run in the firstAmerican League Championship Series game ever played in1969.[29] After uncharacteristically hitting .333 in the1970 ALCS,[4] his contributions led to the Orioles'1970 World Series victory, the team's second title in five years. During the series, he caught a line drive to end a 4–3 victory in Game 1 with the tying run on first base, and he had an assist to end Game 3. Belanger played in sixALCS series and set leagueplayoff records for career games,putouts, assists,total chances, and double plays by ashortstop. (All these records were broken between 1998 and 2002 byOmar Vizquel andDerek Jeter.)
In 1969, Belanger had his best offensive season, after instruction fromCharlie Lau.[3] He also won his first gold glove.[13] He hit .287 with 50RBIs and 76 runs scored. He was 29th in the voting for the 1969 American League Most Valuable Player award.[4] Reflecting his high level of fielding ability, he finished 21st in the MVP voting in 1973 while hitting only .226 with no home runs and 27 RBIs, and 26th in 1974 with a .225 batting average, five home runs and 36 RBIs. He won gold gloves in both of those years.[11][4]
On June 3, 1977, Belanger was part of what sportswriter Fred Rothenberg called "one of the strangesttriple plays in baseball history." With the bases loaded for the Royals in the ninth inning, and Kansas City down 7–5,John Wathan hit a fly ball to right field thatPat Kelly caught for the first out. All the runners tagged to advance a base, but Kelly threw to Belanger, who caughtFreddie Patek in arundown between first and second base and tagged him out. While this was going on,Dave Nelson, who had successfully advanced to third base, attempted to score. Upon tagging out Patek, Belanger ran towards the third base line and caught up with Nelson ten feet from home plate, tagging him out to complete the triple play and end the game.[30]
Belanger was grantedfree agency in1981—perhaps in response to his public criticism of managerEarl Weaver—and signed with theLos Angeles Dodgers for the1982 season; heretired at the end of the season.[31]
Following Belanger's departure from the Orioles, former teammateRich Dauer said, "Anyone would miss Mark Belanger. You're talking about the greatest shortstop in the world. He never put you in a bad position with his double-play throws...He'd put you where you should be to make the play... I never had to think out there. If there was any question in my mind, I'd look at Blade, and he'd have a finger out, pointing which way I should move."[32]
Hall of Fame manager Earl Weaver, who managed Belanger's minor league teams in Elmira and Rochester, New York, and then managed him with the Orioles, once told Belanger, "'You’re my shortstop if you hit .0001.'" In the 1960s, future Hall of Fame managerWhitey Herzog, after seeing Belanger play in the minor league for only seven days, said Belanger was the best shortstop he had ever seen, based on Belanger's play in those games.[3]
In 1983, Belanger was inducted into theBaltimore Orioles Hall of Fame.[2]
In 2019, Belanger was inducted into the Western Massachusetts Baseball Hall of Fame.[5]
Belanger served as the Orioles' union representative for several years. He was one of the four players who led negotiations during the1981 strike.[3]
After Belanger's retirement as an active player (and until his death), he was employed by theMLB Players Association as a liaison to its membership. He worked closely with its chief counselDonald Fehr for years.[3]
Belanger and his first wife, Daryl (Dee), had two homes—inTimonium, Maryland, andKey Biscayne, Florida—and had two sons, Richard and Robert.[3] Belanger and his wife Dee would host Orioles players at their homes. He married his second wife, Virginia French, who survives him, in early 1997.[3]
A long-time cigarettesmoker, Belanger was diagnosed withlung cancer in the late 1990s and died in New York City at the age of 54. He was survived by his second wife, Virginia, sons Richard and Robert, his parents, and three siblings. He is interred in St. Joseph Cemetery inPittsfield, Massachusetts.[3]
· Baseball Almanac
