It all began, as most stories about the Cleveland Indians do, with desperation.

We start in 1912, with Cleveland sinking further down the standings as the summer went on. After all, this was the year the Titanic sank. The Indians were actually called the "Naps" back then, named after the team's best player, Napoleon Lajoie.

Only Lajoie and Shoeless Joe Jackson hit worth beans that year. You might recall Jackson's character in the baseball movie "Field of Dreams," the guy who in real life was implicated with the 1919 Black Sox Scandal and banned from baseball for life.

The Naps were floundering in late September, a full 32 games out of first place. Everyone seemed ready to get the last 11 games over with so they could head home for winter.

Lefty James was not one of those people. He was ready for his shot. Does a 22-year-old kid from rural Ohio who is waiting on the bench care what the score is? Heck no.

In fact, there's a distinct possibility James silently prayed for the team to get clobbered, so that interim manager Joe Birmingham might sigh and point down to the left-handed rookie to mop things up.

And when that time came, James would be ready. Oh yes. The boy from Glen Roy would be the first player from Jackson County history to ever play Major League Baseball. All he needed was an opportunity.

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There are many stretches of Cleveland Indians history that aren't very memorable. Those few years in the 1910s were among them.

Lajoie used to be the team's player-manager, and he was a good one. Around the turn of the century, Lajoie may have been the most popular figure in baseball. Once he reached his late 30s, though, his team had faded into the American League's second tier. Other stars like Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, and future Indians star Tris Speaker became the new faces of baseball.

The Naps would finish 75-78 in 1912, miles behind the eventual champion Boston Red Sox team.

There were some bright spots for Cleveland, at least. Shoeless Joe Jackson, the man Babe Ruth said he modeled his swing after, had a great season. By virtue of the Naps' poor record, several young players got valuable playing time that propelled them to solid careers.

One of these was Ray Chapman. He was a rookie in 1912 with a promising future as the team's regular shortstop. Tragically, at the height of his career in 1920, he was struck in the temple by a pitch. He became the first and only player ever in Major League Baseball history to die of an on-field incident. The Indians rallied around his memory and won the franchise's first championship that year.

Then there were players like Lefty James.

Most teams, regardless of record, call up various anonymous scraps to help finish out the season. Winning teams use them to rest starters for postseason play. Other teams, with nothing else to lose, give younger players a shot to see if they have any Major League potential.

Some teams merely need warm bodies. This may have been the case for the 1912 Naps. A week earlier, the team played three sets of doubleheaders in a span of six days. Manager Birmingham likely requested some fresh arms to fill out the roster.

James wasn't exactly fresh (in September, who is?). He'd just finished the season pitching 260 innings for the Class AA Toledo Mud Hens. His 17 victories was an improvement over his first year in Toledo. The Cleveland scouts took notice and brought him over.

Following the string of doubleheaders, Cleveland hosted the New York Highlanders for a two-game series. The Highlanders wouldn't officially change their name until 1913, but by this point, newspapers and local fans alike had already begun calling them the Yankees.

Regardless of their name, barely anyone outside of New York paid them any attention. This all changed eight years later, of course, when the Yankees plucked the burly pitcher-turned-slugger George Herman Ruth from Boston. Maybe you've heard of him.

Starting game one for Cleveland was George Kahler. It's possible James and Kahler got along quite well as teammates. Kahler was a fellow southeast Ohio native, born 30 or so miles away from Glen Roy in Athens.

Kahler is quite a story himself. The Ohio University graduate pitched five seasons for Cleveland, winning 32 games. He quit professional baseball in 1917, however, and began a career in medicine. Kahler died just a few years later at the young age of 27. He's buried in Athens.

Kahler had major trouble controlling his pitches. His startling total of 128 walks in 1912 led the American League. That trend continued against the Highlanders. Kahler walked four batters and hit another with a pitch.

Thankfully for him, the Naps bats came alive. Cleveland held a 9-5 lead over the visitors after six innings of play.

From the next day's New York Times sports section: "Kahler ... was driven from the mound in the seventh, and Lefty James, late of Toledo, made his major league debut."

(Lefty, it should be mentioned by now, is of course a nickname. If you were a left-handed pitcher before 1950, that name was your destiny.)

Out trotted William "Lefty" James, listed as 5 feet, 11 inches tall and 175-pounds, born July 1, 1889 in Glen Roy, Ohio. When James made his first pitch, he not only became the 3,816th player to appear in a Major League Baseball game, but also the first of those 3,816 to be from Jackson County, Ohio. Three others from his home county have since joined him.

James escaped Kahler's jam in the seventh inning mostly unscathed, but then surrendered two Highlander runs in the eighth. The Naps led 9-8 heading into the ninth inning. Birmingham kept James in to close out the game.

"The Yankees tried hard to tie in the ninth," The New York Times wrote, "But James, aided by the gathering darkness, retired the side."

James would pitch two more games that season. The following year in 1913, James pitched in 11 big league games and threw 39 average innings.

His final year in the Majors came in 1914, appearing in 17 games for Cleveland. Then it was back down to the minor leagues, this time for good.

By 1917, James had been demoted all the way to the Class B San Antonio Bronchos of the Texas League.

Here's the thing about baseball players: after their major league hopes are dashed, many stick around the game any way they can. James moved out west in 1918 and got a job as a railroad brakeman in Portland, Oregon.

While other ballplayers in Portland were picked up by various teams, Lefty James got left out. He demanded to know why.

Turns out, it was because of World War I. James was a single man in solid physical condition, leaving him vulnerable to the military draft. According to newspapers from the time, penny-pinching managers feared paying James a contract just to lose him all season to war.

Angry at his missed opportunity, James quit his job with the railroad and got a new job with the Foundation Shipbuilding Company in town, which offered him a chance to play for the Shipbuilders' Baseball League.

In November 1918, Armistice Day ended the World War, putting the 29-year-old back on the pitcher's market.

James returned with the Class AA Portland Beavers of the Pacific Coast League. One minor issue: throughout its history, the PCL has always been a hitter-friendly league. (A decade later, this league is where a very young Joe DiMaggio played his first professional baseball. His success with the San Francisco Seals catapulted him to stardom.)

Lefty James struggled in the PCL, as most other pitchers did. He recorded no wins and four losses in just five total appearances.

In 1921, James pitched for the New Orleans Pelicans and Beaumont Exporters minor league teams. His last known professional stint came at age 32 with the Atlanta Crackers in 1922. It didn't go well.

At some point in the early 1930s, James got sick with pneumonia. It's unclear whether he moved back to Glen Roy beforehand or went there to get taken care of by his parents.

Nevertheless, at the age of 43, James died on May 3, 1933 at his parents' house in Glen Roy. He is buried in Ridgewood Cemetery in Wellston.

Newspapers far and wide reported on his death, noting that his baseball career stretched far beyond the three years spent with Cleveland.

Even in death, though, Lefty couldn't get his proper due. A syndicated column published that December was spread among sporting pages throughout the country, mourning all the athletic greats who died in 1933.

While the column does mention a "William 'Lefty' James," it incorrectly refers to him as a "veteran major league pitcher for the (New York) Giants back in the '80s."

There was no pitcher by that name in any Giants roster in the 1880s. It's possible the column confused James with another player named William "Bill" George, who was also left-handed and pitched for the Giants in 1887 and 1888. George was a fellow southeast Ohio native, born in Bellaire, in Belmont County, but George died in 1916, so that still doesn't fully explain it.

What's known for sure is that guys like Bill George, George Kahler and Lefty James helped to pave the way for generations of southeast Ohio athletes after them.

Pat Duncan, of Coalton, made the Major Leagues from 1915 to 1924. Earl Smith, of Oak Hill, made it from 1916 to 1922. Most recently, Wellston native Jeff Montgomery pitched from 1987-1999.

James died on a Thursday. Next to his obituary, many newspapers ran a preview article for that weekend's anticipated American League showdown: The Cleveland Indians versus the New York Yankees.

Two teams central to the Lefty James story were back in action. The game endures.

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Tyler Buchanan is the editor of The Vinton County Courier.