Jackie Kay Banta (June 24, 1925 â September 17, 2006) was an American professional baseball pitcher who appeared in 69 games in Major League Baseball for the Brooklyn Dodgers between and . The native of Hutchinson, Kansas, threw right-handed and batted left-handed; he stood tall and weighed .
Banta's professional career, spent entirely in the Brooklyn organization, began in . His only full MLB season occurred in , when he worked in 48 games, with 12 starts, won ten of 16 decisions, and posted his only career shutout. Among his victories was the October 2 game that clinched the 1949 National League pennant for the Dodgers. On the regular season's closing day, against the Philadelphia Phillies at Shibe Park, Banta hurled 4<small></small> innings of two-hit, scoreless relief, preserving a 7âÂÂ7 tie and enabling Brooklyn to win the contest in the top half of the tenth inning, 9âÂÂ7, to outlast the second-place St. Louis Cardinals by a single game. He then appeared in relief in Games 3, 4 and 5 of the 1949 World Series against the New York Yankees, won by the Bombers in five games.
A shoulder injury suffered in 1950 curtailed Banta's MLB and professional career. Brooklyn demoted him to the minor leagues after a series of rough outings from May 30 to June 21, and he ended his active pitching career in . In 69 major-league games, he posted a 14âÂÂ12 wonâÂÂlost record and a 3.78 earned run average, with three complete games in 19 starts and five saves. In 204<small></small> innings pitched, he allowed 176 hits and 113 bases on balls, and struck out 116. In his lone World Series, in 1949, he posted a 0âÂÂ0 (3.18) record in three games, permitting two earned runs, five hits, and one base on balls, and recording four strikeouts, in 5<small></small> innings.