Taylor Shafer

Zachary Taylor Shafer

• Bats Left, Throws Right
• Height 5' 7", Weight 155 lb.

• Debut May 4, 1884
• Final Game September 16, 1890
• Born July 13, 1866 in Philadelphia, PA USA
• Died October 27, 1945 in Glendale, CA USA

BR page

Biographical Information

Taylor Shafer played a couple of years in the major leagues, both times in years when three leagues existed. In 1884 he played in the Union Association, for three different teams, and in 1890 he played for the American Association. He was an outfielder in 1884 but switched to second base in 1890. The three Union Association teams were the Altoona Mountain City, Kansas City Cowboys and Baltimore Monumentals. He was long credited with playing 19 games with Altoona, but this is not correct. Further research into that team indicate that there were two players with similar names there, and that he began play only on May 5, after his near namesake, Frank Shaffer, had been released. Frank Shaffer then became a lost ballplayer for over one hundred years as the two men's records were mistakenly attributed to Taylor only.

He also played for Oshkosh in the Northwestern League in 1887. See Oshkosh team photograph. He played second base for Oshkosh.

He was the brother of Orator Shaffer (whose original name was "Shafer"), born nearly 15 years later than Orator. The two brothers played together on the 1890 Philadelphia Athletics, in what was the last major league season for both of them. Orator also played in the Union Association in 1884 (where his batting average was second in the league), but his team was not one of the three teams for which Taylor played that year.

He is one of two major league players with both "Zachary" and "Taylor" as part of their full name. The other is Zachary Taylor.

Further Reading

• "Frank Shaffer/Schiffhauer", in Bill Carle, ed.: Biographical Research Committee Report, SABR, May/June 2017, pp. 2-3.