Ralph Peter Shinners (October 4, 1895 – July 23, 1962) was a centerfielder in Major League Baseball who played from 1922 through 1925 for the

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. ...

and St. Louis Cardinals. Listed at , 180 lb, Shinners batted and threw right-handed.

Brief profile

Born in

Monches, Wisconsin Merton is a town in Waukesha County, Wisconsin, United States; before Wisconsin statehood, it was called Warren. The population was 7,988 at the 2000 census. The town surrounds the villages of Chenequa and Merton. The unincorporated communities ...

, Shinners is the one of three major league players to come out of the Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (the others being Mike Jurewicz and Skip Lockwood, both of whom studied at Marquette but never played for the university). He enjoyed a solid career in the

Minor leagues Minor leagues are professional sports leagues which are not regarded as the premier leagues in those sports. Minor league teams tend to play in smaller, less elaborate venues, often competing in smaller cities/markets. This term is used in Nor ...

, hitting a .300 batting average or more in seven out of nine possible seasons. Shinners was used sparingly in the major leagues for three seasons, but he never was able to fulfill the potential that he showed in the minors.

Professional career

Shinners started his professional career in 1920 with the

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Indianapolis Indians The Indianapolis Indians are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League (IL) and the Triple-A affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates. They are located in Indianapolis, Indiana, and play their home games at Victory Field, which open ...

, playing for them two years. In 1921 he fairly blazed in the league, batting .346 and

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52 bases in 164 games with Indianapolis, more than any other player in organized baseball was credited with. He also hit 50 doubles, 26

triples TripleS (stylized as tripleS; Help:IPA/English, /ˈtɹɪpəl:ɛs/; ) is a South Korean girl group formed by MODHAUS. They aim to be the world's first decentralized K-pop idol group. The members will rotate between the group, sub-unit, and solo ac ...

and 13 home runs for a .552

slugging percentage In baseball statistics, slugging percentage (SLG) is a measure of the batting productivity of a hitter. It is calculated as total bases divided by at bats, through the following formula, where ''AB'' is the number of at bats for a given player, ...

. Late in the year, New York Giants

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

John McGraw obtained Shinners, sending to the Indians in return for him outfielders Eddie Brown and

Vern Spencer Vernon Murray Spencer (February 4, 1894 – June 3, 1971) was a Major League Baseball outfielder. Spencer played for the New York Giants in the season. In 45 career games, he had 28 hits in 140 at-bats. He batted left and threw right-hande ...

, two other players to be named later, and $25,000 in cash. Ralph Shinners newspaper

Shinners played briefly for the Giants in part of two seasons, being a member of two World Series champion teams in

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and

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, though he did not play in the Series. At the end of the 1924 season, he was sent by the Giants to Double-A Toledo Mud Hens in exchange for outfielder Lee King. In 1924 Shinners hit .300 in 148 games for Toledo, before joining the Cardinals in 1925 for his last major league season. In St. Louis, he posted a .295 average with seven home runs and 36 runs batted in in 74 games, while serving as a backup for outfielders

Ray Blades Francis Raymond Blades (August 6, 1896 – May 18, 1979) was an American left fielder, manager, coach and scout in Major League Baseball (MLB). Scouted on the sandlots by Rickey A native of McLeansboro, Illinois, Blades was first scouted as a bas ...

Chick Hafey Charles James "Chick" Hafey (February 12, 1903 – July 2, 1973) was an American player in Major League Baseball (MLB). Playing for the St. Louis Cardinals (1924–1931) and Cincinnati Reds (1932–1935, 1937), Hafey was a strong line-drive hitt ...

and Heinie Mueller. In a three-year major league career, Shinners hit .276 (110-for-399) with 14 doubles, four triples, seven homers and 11 stolen bases in 74 games, driving in 51 runs while scoring 60 times. Again in the minors, Shinners collected averages of .350 (1928), .337 (1929) and .310 (1930), retiring after the 1931 season. He connected 1294 hits in 4189 at-bats (.309) in 1152 minor league games. Shinners also managed the Kenosha Comets of the

All-American Girls Professional Baseball League The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) was a professional women's baseball league founded by Philip K. Wrigley which existed from 1943 to 1954. The AAGPBL is the forerunner of women's professional league sports in the Uni ...

during the 1947 season. He then moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he died at the age of 66.

Career timeline

SABR Encyclopedia
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Sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shinners, Ralph Major League Baseball outfielders New York Giants (NL) players St. Louis Cardinals players Buffalo Bisons (minor league) players Fort Worth Panthers players Indianapolis Indians players Newark Bears (International League) players Oakland Oaks (baseball) players Toledo Mud Hens players Toronto Maple Leafs (International League) players All-American Girls Professional Baseball League managers Marquette Golden Eagles baseball players Baseball players from Wisconsin People from Merton, Wisconsin Sportspeople from Waukesha County, Wisconsin 1895 births 1962 deaths