1926-1927

Wally Shaner was born on May 24, 1900, in Lynchburg, Virginia. Young Shaner had attended Lynchburg High and three at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, where he played fullback for the school’s team.

Wally’s professional baseball career commenced in 1920, in the Piedmont League. He played for Washington, an independent league team in eastern North Carolina and it was from there he was signed to Danville.

He hit for a .344 average with three home runs in 1922. The Danville team then sold his contract to New Orleans in the spring of 1923, from where he was turned over to Cleveland in an April sale.  He just played in one early game for the Indians in May but never got a time at bat, until he returned in September.

For most of the season, Wally played for a pair of Class A teams, Chattanooga (Southern Association) and for the Springfield Ponies in Massachusetts (Eastern League), but he got into two late September games for Cleveland.

He spent the next two years in the minor leagues, beginning the 1924 season with the Decatur Commodores of the Three-I League but in May, he joined Terre Haute, in the same league. He played very well indeed, batting .322 over the full season. In 1925, he played for Lincoln in the Western League, working 162 games with a .358 average and hitting 14 homers. 

In September, the Boston Red Sox purchased the contract. The Red Sox trained in New Orleans in 1926 but his first game did not come until June, after which he spent the rest of the season with the team. By season’s end he hit for a good .283 average.

In 1927, Wally played the full year with the Red Sox, mostly in the outfield. He appeared in 122 games, with an average of .273. In December he was traded to Mobile as part of a seven-player deal.

He split the 1928 season between Mobile and Chattanooga. In October, he was taken by the Cincinnati Reds in the Rule 5 draft. He played first base more than any other position, but only appeared in 13 games for the Reds, through June. In July, he was released back to Chattanooga once again.

In 1930, he was released to Columbus and then dealt to Peoria, then released by Peoria and signed on with Little Rock. He stuck with Little Rock for the full year 1931, batting .314.

His last year in organized ball was 1932. He was then released by Little Rock around the end of spring training and signed on with the New Haven Bulldogs, but was released in mid-May and then played for four other teams – Scranton, Elmira, and Harrisburg in the New York-Penn League, and with St. Joseph in the Western League. 

In 1933, Wally played for Spencer Coals of Chicago in the Wisconsin-Illinois League. He was on a Chicago White Sox contract in 1934, but was placed with the Omaha Packers.

In 1940, he was working as a moving picture operator at a motion picture theatre in Elizabeth, New Jersey. In the 1960s, he was working at the Stardust Hotel in Las Vegas as the company manager of the Lido Show. He finally worked as a carpenter working in construction until he retired.