Mark Belanger

Mark Henry Belanger
Born: June 8, 1944 in Pittsfield, Mass.
Died: Oct. 6, 1998 in New York, N.Y.
Debut: 1965 | Pos: SS
H: 6'1" | W: 170 | B: R | T: R

>> Visit the Mark Belanger biography on Baseball Almanac for complete statistics.

Mark Belanger, a shortstop who won eight Gold Gloves, died on at a cancer center in New York. He was 54.

He had developed pneumonia after suffering from cancer.

Belanger hit just .228 in his 18-year career in the major leagues and he had just 20 home runs. He won the Gold Glove in 1969 and 1971 and then for six consecutive seasons beginning in 1973.

His best season came in 1969 when he hit .287 with two home runs, 50 RBI and 14 stolen bases. He was named to the All-Star team in 1976.

He was signed by the Orioles out of high school and he played with Baltimore from 1965 to 1981. During that time, the team appeared in four World Series.

In September 1981, Belanger publicly criticized manager Earl Weaver saying that Weaver was "not managing basic baseball."

"I said that I thought he'd lost a lot of his managing prowess and that it was not something that had just happened," Belanger said in a later interview.

He played for the Dodgers in 1982 and retired from baseball.

Belanger had been part of the four-player team that negotiated, along with Marvin Miller's union staff, during the 1981 strike.

After retiring, he had worked as a special assistant to Donald Fehr, executive director of the union.

Source: Associated Press obituary