Vintage Baseball

Gator By Marriage

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When I was a kid, the Baltimore Orioles had slick fielding shortstop, Mark Belanger, whose nickname was "The Blade." As a kid, I thought it was the coolest nickname ever. (I still think it's pretty cool.)
 

g8r.tom

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When I was a kid, the Baltimore Orioles had slick fielding shortstop, Mark Belanger, whose nickname was "The Blade." As a kid, I thought it was the coolest nickname ever. (I still think it's pretty cool.)

Mark Belanger was a bad ass on the field; not so much at the plate. Watched him many times in Memorial stadium.
 

Gator By Marriage

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Mark Belanger was a bad ass on the field; not so much at the plate. Watched him many times in Memorial stadium.
Growing up in NoVa, it was always a challenge for me and my buddy to get one of our Dads to drive to Baltimore for a game, but we were successful on occasion (usually birthdays) and I got to see Belanger a few times in person (and the other Oriole greats of that era). I knew he wasn't much at the plate, but just looked it up and saw he was a career .228 hitter. (The third-lowest of any Major League player with more than 5,000 career at bats!) I also hadn't realized how long he had been dead. He apparently was a pretty bad smoker and died of lung cancer in 1998.
 

Gator By Marriage

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Was he as good as Luis Aparicio?
Might be splitting hairs to go either way. Belanger won eight Gold Glove Awards to Aparacio's nine, but Belanger retired with the highest career fielding average by an AL shortstop (.977). Aparacio was certainly a much better overall player; better hitter and much better base stealing threat. Ironically, it was Belanger's emergence as young player that gave the Orioles the confidence to trade Aparacio to the White Sox.
 

Back Alley Gator

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Im more fond of Ozzie Smith than those two Baltimore short stops. Of course, he played for my Cards.
 
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aka

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Super. With cards of Brooks Robinson, Jerry Adair and Boog Powell you'd have the entire incredible infield!
Got two BRs and maybe a Boog, might even be his Rookie. Been a while since I looked good at them.
 

Marine1

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Wow....Boog Powell. I haven't heard that name in over 40 years. Well played!

Caught a Boog Powell HR over the right field fence at Municipal Stadium in WPB in a 1969 spring training game. Same day Hank Aaron and Rico Carty gave us a couple of broken bats. Took them home…drove some nails in them and used them in pickup sandlot games for a couple of years.

Ever notice kids don’t play sandlot games anymore? We played from sun up to sun down all summer.
 

Joegator96

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I never heard of the guy until I met him in Panama in 1989, he was doing advertising for Miller beer.
At Key West HS he was all-state OT with a full scholarship to UF. He decided to play that unmentionable sport for 17 years. He's a really good guy. His dad was like a father to me and taught me how to drive a stick shift!
 

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