Walter "Biff" Schaller (September 23, 1889 – October 9, 1939) was an American

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to catch ...

. He played professional baseball for 11 seasons from 1910 to 1920, including two seasons in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

for the

Detroit Tigers The Detroit Tigers are an American professional baseball team based in Detroit. The Tigers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. One of the AL's eight chart ...

in 1911 and the

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. The club plays its ...

in 1913 and seven seasons in the

Pacific Coast League The Pacific Coast League (PCL) is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the Western United States. Along with the International League, it is one of two leagues playing at the Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A level, which is one grade bel ...

from 1913 to 1917 and 1919 to 1920.

Early years

Schaller was born in 1889 in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

Professional baseball

He played professional baseball for 11 seasons from 1910 to 1920, including two seasons in

for the

in 1911 and the

in 1913. For Detroit, Schaller appeared in seven games in left field, nine in center field, one at first base, and 23 as a

pinch hitter In baseball, a pinch hitter (PH) is a substitute batter. Batters can be substituted at any time while the ball is dead (not in active play); the manager may use any player who has not yet entered the game as a substitute. Unlike basketball, A ...

. He had a .133 batting average in 60 at bats for the Tigers, and was released after one season. In 1913, Schaller got a second shot with the White Sox. He hit .219 in 96 at-bats, playing 32 games in the outfield. He also played two seasons in the American Association for the Kansas City Blues (1911-1912) and seven seasons in the

for the San Francisco Seals (1913–17, 1919),

Seattle Rainiers The Seattle Rainiers, originally named the Seattle Indians and also known as the Seattle Angels, were a Minor League Baseball team in Seattle, Washington, that played in the Pacific Coast League from 1903 to 1906 and 1919 to 1968. They were prev ...

(1919), and

Portland Beavers The Portland Beavers was the name of separate minor league baseball teams, which represented Portland, Oregon, in the Pacific Coast League (PCL). The team was established in 1903, the first year of the PCL. Franchise history Many baseball teams h ...

(1919-1920). Between 1914 and 1917, he appeared in 807 games for the Seals. During this period, he set a Coast League record by appearing in 642 consecutive games. Schaller was known for his misuse of the English language. He once blamed a batting slump by noting that "the high multitude of Salt Lake City bothers me." He once summarized baseball philosophy as follows: "What's the use to get excited. It's either dis or dat."

Family and later years

Schaller lived in

Emeryville, California Emeryville is a city located in northwest Alameda County, California, in the United States. It lies in a corridor between the cities of Berkeley, California, Berkeley and Oakland, California, Oakland, with a border on the shore of San Francisc ...

, for the last 15 years of his life. He operated a bar in the Oakland area. He and his wife, Lucille, had a daughter, Lorraine. In October 1939, Schaller died of a heart attack after eating dinner at his home in Emeryville. He was buried at Mountain View Cemetery in

Oakland, California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schaller, Biff Detroit Tigers players Chicago White Sox players 1889 births 1939 deaths Baseball players from Chicago Major League Baseball outfielders Springfield Senators players Kansas City Blues (baseball) players San Francisco Seals (baseball) players Seattle Rainiers players Portland Beavers players 20th-century American sportsmen