The native of Hutchinson, Kansas, threw right-handed and batted left-handed; he stood 6 feet 2 inches (1.88 m) tall and weighed 175 pounds (79 kg).

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.

On the regular season's closing day, against the Philadelphia Phillies at Shibe Park, Banta hurled 41⁄3 innings 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.

[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.

This biographical article relating to an American baseball pitcher born in the 1920s is a stub.