1969 Topps #299 Mark Belanger
About Mark Belanger
Card #299, a plain third-series card, reports Belanger's first full season as Baltimore's regular shortstop: 145 games, a .208 average and 21 RBI in 1968. Air National Guard duty at Middle River, Maryland, cost him Opening Day, and he rejoined the club for the Athletics' first game in Oakland, where he hit his second career home run before a crowd of 50,000 with California Governor Ronald Reagan throwing out the ceremonial first pitch.
Mark Henry Belanger, born June 8, 1944, in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, signed with the Baltimore Orioles out of Pittsfield High School in 1962 for a reported $35,000 and reached the majors as a pinch-runner on August 7, 1965. He spent 18 seasons at shortstop, seventeen with Baltimore (1965-1981) and a farewell year with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1982, helping the Orioles win five pennants and the 1970 World Series. Nicknamed "The Blade" for his lean 6-foot-1, 170-pound frame, he won eight Gold Gloves (1969, 1971, 1973-1978) and made the 1976 All-Star team, retiring with a .977 fielding percentage; only he and Ozzie Smith finished above .975 while averaging more than five chances a game. His bat lagged far behind his glove: a .228 career average, third-lowest among players with 5,000 or more at-bats. He served as Baltimore's player representative and later a special assistant to the players' union. Elected to the Orioles Hall of Fame in 1983, he died of lung cancer on October 6, 1998, at age 54.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · National Baseball Hall of Fame · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 236 | 4 | 39 | 112 | 48 | 20 | 3 | 9 | 1 |
| SGC | 6 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Graded population — a scarcity guide, not a price. Data as of 2026-09-04. Half grades fold down for both graders (8.5→8); PSA qualified slabs (OC, ST, PD, MC and the like) are not counted.
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Related cards
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- #66 Orioles 1969 Rookie Stars
- #86 Pete Richert
- #113 Dave May
- #141 Bill Dillman
- #151 Clay Dalrymple
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1969 Topps #299 card?
It is card #299 of the 664-card 1969 Topps Baseball set, picturing Mark Belanger of the Baltimore Orioles.
How many cards are in the 1969 Topps Baseball set?
664 cards, tracked as 696 collectible states. Numbers run from 1 to 664 with none skipped and no printed number shared by two cards; 32 cards carry catalogued print variations that the master set counts separately, 23 of them the yellow- and white-letter name pairs of #440-511.
Sources: Trading Card Database, PSA CardFacts, Cardboard Connection, Baseball Almanac, Baseball-Reference, the SABR BioProject and the National Baseball Hall of Fame, PSA & SGC population reports. Card data compiled and maintained by T206Cards.com. Page last updated 2026-10-12.