Mark Belanger Marquee

He won Gold Gloves in 1969 and every year from 1971 to 1978, eight in all, and was regarded by teammates and opponents alike as the best defensive shortstop of his generation — Earl Weaver built entire pitching strategies around throwing to contact because Belanger was behind them. He hit .228 for his career and stayed in the lineup anyway, which is the whole story of his value.

Eighteen seasons gave him 1,316 hits, 676 runs batted in, 576 walks, 167 stolen bases and 1,942 games at shortstop, almost all of it for Baltimore. He played on six division winners and the 1970 World Series champion, batting eighth or ninth every year of his career.

He became the second president of the Major League Baseball Players Association after retiring and worked alongside Marvin Miller and Donald Fehr through the sport's labor fights of the 1980s. He died of lung cancer in 1998, at fifty-four, and the players' union created the Curt Flood Award in part with him in mind; he received it posthumously in 2021. The 1988 ballot gave him 16 votes of 427.