Banta's professional career, spent entirely in the Brooklyn organization, began in 1944. His only full MLB season occurred in 1949, 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 Leaguepennant for the Dodgers. On the regular season's closing day, against the Philadelphia Phillies at Shibe Park, Banta hurled 41⁄3innings of two-hit, scoreless relief, preserving a 7–7 tie and enabling Brooklyn to win the contest in the top half of the tenth inning, 9–7,[1] 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.[2] 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 1952. In 69 major-league games, he posted a 14–12 won–lost record and a 3.78 earned run average, with three complete games in 19 starts and five saves. In 2042⁄3 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 0–0 (3.18) record in three games, permitting two earned runs, five hits, and one base on balls, and recording four strikeouts, in 52⁄3 innings.
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