Belanger, Mark (8 June 1944-6 Oct. 1998), baseball player and union leader, was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, the son of Ed Belanger, a factory worker and technician, and Maria Bianchi Belanger. An excellent all-around athlete, Belanger stood out in basketball as well as baseball at Pittsfield High School, once scoring 41 points in a basketball game that gave his school the Western Massachusetts championship in 1962. After being scouted by Frank McGowan and Joe Cusick, he signed with the Baltimore Orioles as a free agent and began his professional career with Bluefield (West Virginia) in the Rookie League. Under the tutelage of manager Billy Hunter, the right handed hitter and thrower averaged .298 at the plate with 3 home runs and 23 runs batted in. In 1963 Belanger entered the Army and served one year, after which he returned to the minor leagues with Aberdeen (South Dakota) in the Northern League. He was named "Rookie of the Year" in 1964 despite only hitting .226. He advanced to Elmira (New York) in the Eastern League the following year and, despite a weak batting average of .229, was named to that league's all-star team.

Despite his lack of offensive prowess, Belanger shone with his play at shortstop, and his glove earned him his major league debut with the Orioles in August of 1965. After spending most of the following year at Rochester (New York) in the International League, he earned another call-up to the majors at the end of 1966, where he witnessed the Orioles' first World Series triumph. In 1967 Belanger joined the Orioles for good, and after splitting his time between second base and shortstop, he settled in at the latter position. The Orioles demonstrated their faith in Belanger's abilities by trading regular shortstop Luis Aparicio to the Chicago White Sox. On 25 November 1967 he married Daryl Anne "Dee" Apple; they had two sons.

Belanger's arrival coincided with the emergence of some of the greatest teams in the Orioles' history. Playing in the same infield as third baseman Brooks Robinson and second baseman Davey Johnson, Belanger--nicknamed "Blade" for his thin frame as much as for his uncanny ability to snuff out opponents' rallies--became a key component of a franchise that regularly visited postseason play, including three straight trips to the World Series (1969-1971). During his tenure with the Orioles, he won a total of eight Gold Gloves (including six in a row between 1973 and 1978) and ended his career with an overall fielding percentage of .977. Although Belanger never developed offensive skills to match his defensive prowess (hitting only .229 lifetime with 20 home runs and 389 runs batted in), he occasionally surprised opposing teams with a timely hit. Paradoxically, Belanger often enjoyed his greatest success at bat against star pitchers such as Denny McClain and Nolan Ryan.

He was a leader in the clubhouse as well as on the field. Belanger's family also contributed to the team's success; when the Orioles switched from organ music to recorded music in 1975, his wife's suggestion that John Denver's song "Thank God I'm a Country Boy" be played during home games was an immediate success among fans. Despite the apparent incongruity of using a country-flavored tune in the Northeast, the song eventually became a standard during the seventh-inning stretch.

After finishing his major league career in 1982 with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Belanger--who had long served as the Orioles' player representative with the Major League Baseball Players Association--went to work for the union full time. In his capacity of assistant to union head Donald Fehr, Belanger served through some of the most tumultuous labor problems that the major leagues had ever experienced. Having endured an early season strike in 1972 while still a player, he played a key role in events that led to the mid-season strike of 1981. Belanger took his duties as the Orioles player representative seriously, noting during negotiations that "what we are trying to do . . . is avoid a strike any way we can." He also earned high marks from teammate Brooks Robinson, who said, "Doug [DeCinces, the Orioles' third baseman and American League player representative] and Belanger enjoyed being part of that [negotiating team] more than anyone else."

Although unsuccessful in preventing a strike that wiped out much of the 1981 season, Belanger continued to work with the union through additional periods of labor unrest, including a brief two-day strike in 1985, a thirty-two day owners lockout in 1990, and a late season strike in 1994 that eventually forced the cancellation of that year's World Series.

A heavy smoker for years, Belanger was diagnosed with lung cancer and died from the disease in New York City. He was memorialized by his former boss Fehr, who said, "Players . . . owe a debt of gratitude to him. I personally miss the wisdom and insight he provided on virtually every important decision the MLBPA has made over the last three decades."

While the average baseball fan appreciated Mark Belanger for his on-field skills, his most lasting legacy will be the advancement in major league salaries that resulted from his yeoman work with the Players Association. Belanger's work on behalf of players was often performed out of the public eye but had a lasting impact on major league baseball and, by extension, all professional sports in North America.

The Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, maintains a file on Belanger's career. The best source of information on his post-playing career is James Edward Miller, The Baseball Business: Pursuing Pennants and Profits in Baltimore (1990). Also useful for understanding the context of baseball labor difficulties are Kenneth M. Jennings, Balls and Strikes: The Money Game in Professional Baseball (1990); and Andrew Zimbalist, Baseball and Billions: A Probing Look Inside the Big Business of Our National Pastime (1992). An obituary is in the Baltimore Sun, 7 Oct. 1998.