CLEVELAND, Ohio – Usually ballplayers make their mark on their field and, if fortunate, are young enough to find success in another walk of life.

In the 1890s, Clayton King Fauver found himself on parallel career paths: A distinguished legal career lay ahead for the standout baseball player.

He wound up squeezing in a Major League career consisting of one game. His appearance on Sept. 7, 1899, forced local historian-author Mark Hodermarsky to tab him a “One-Win Wonder” in his well-done Society for American Baseball Research biography.

Fauver’s appearance in that game remains a mystery.

Fauver was born in North Eaton, west of Columbia Station. Published reports say Aug. 1, 1872; his tombstone says 1873. His family moved to Oberlin in 1892, and he attended Oberlin Academy and Oberlin College. His father, Alfred, served as mayor of Oberlin. Clayton – or C.K. – and his siblings were standout student-athletes of their day.

When he was in college, Clay looked to be sketching out a legal career. He served as yearbook manager, assistant editor of the student newspaper and argued on the debate team. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1897.

But his accomplishments in school didn’t mean he was a slouch on the field. His name showed up routinely in box scores for football and baseball.

He captained Oberlin’s football team in 1893 and 1894 and the baseball team in 1896. In one baseball game, Fauver and one of his brothers played for Oberlin against Buchtel College – now the University of Akron. Buchtel was coached by John Heisman, who grew up in Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood. Heisman, it turned out, also had been Oberlin’s first football coach; the 1892 team went undefeated and featured Fauver.

In one account from November 1895, when Oberlin defeated Adelbert, 12-0, The Plain Dealer wrote: “For Oberlin Clayton K. Fauver played a game that was a wonder. If Fauver does not own Oberlin today he is certainly entitled to a first mortgage on it. He carried off the honors of the day and nothing could stop him.”

Even as a stellar tackle and halfback, Fauver became Oberlin’s head football coach in 1896.

He graduated from Oberlin College in 1897 and enrolled at Western Reserve Law School.

It was during this time the mystery starts – and ends.

On Sept. 7, 1899, the Louisville Colonels were scheduled to play the Pittsburgh Pirates in a battle of two lowly National League teams. A doubleheader was scheduled with games at 2 and 4 p.m. But a three-hour train delay for the Pittsburgh players returning from Chicago pared it to one, Hodermarsky writes.

At some point, Louisville team president Harry Pulliam, who three years later would become National League president, convinced Fauver to play for Louisville on that day at Exposition Park.

And why not? When you’re in ninth place, 29 games back, and it’s September, there’s little to lose.

Pittsburgh fared a bit better at 61-59 but was still well out of first. The Pirates sent Jesse “Powder” Tannehill to the mound. Tannehill is a forgotten name to many, but he spent 15 years in the Majors and compiled a 197-117 record and a 2.80 ERA.

The Colonels won, 7-4, and Fauver earned the victory. He let up 11 hits, struck out one and walked two. None of the runs were earned. As was common, it was a complete-game win and it took less than two hours, clocking in at one hour, 55 minutes.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette published his name as “Fauber” in the box score. And also as common, no need for a correction since players crisscrossed regions and leagues, playing under assumed names in an era without media guides and sports-information directors.

And as Fauver’s 1-0 line was being recorded for future baseball encyclopedias and statistical data bases, he was a student at Western Reserve Law School in Cleveland.

“His debut,” The Plain Dealer wrote, “was a success in every way.” The paper (which also spelled his name ‘Fauber’) noted the Colonels reportedly had been after Fauver to play for them, but the college student declined, for whatever reason. He had won 16 of 18 games for Case. He earned his law degree in 1900.

Chief among Hodermarsky’s questions: How did the Colonels learn about his availability and ability?

“That’s a mystery I wish I could tell you,” he told cleveland.com.

After the game, even The Plain Dealer said an “air of mystery” surrounded the “twirler.”

Hodermarsky found out about Fauver when SABR asked him to write a biographical essay a few years ago. He knew Fauver was from the area but said “it’s just an amazing story. It needed to be written. I didn’t know much about him.”

A local player with a rich life and interesting family drew in Hodermarsky, who taught English at St. Ignatius High School for 35 years. Hodermarsky even taught baseball literature to students – a topic right up his alley considering his ninth book, “Baseball in Cleveland, 1865-1900: A Treasured Legacy,” is due this year from Cleveland Landmarks Press.

Fauver, he said, remains “one heck of a story.”

“He ends up with 0.00 ERA, which isn’t bad,” Hodermarsky joked. “Zero earned runs – oh my gosh.”

In 1900 – still in law school and apparently unafraid of losing amateur status as a result of his one-game career – Fauver went 4-6 for Cleveland in the American League, a minor league on the cusp of becoming a Major League team a year later. Hodermarsky notes it appears Fauver played only in home games for Cleveland and assumes that was to keep up with his studies. In 1901, Fauver was umpiring. Seems the would-be lawyer couldn’t get baseball out of his blood.

Two tangential points: While Fauver was in Pittsburgh for his one-game wonderment, Cleveland’s National League team, the Spiders, were struggling through their infamous abysmal season. The 1899 Spiders finished with a notorious 20-134 record, back an astounding 84 games. (Fans who remember the atrocious 2024 Chicago White Sox might recall they finished 41-121 – “only” 51.5 games back.)

Also, soon after Fauver’s one-game appearance, Louisville’s season and franchise ended. Louisville had a third-year player who would go on to have one of the greatest careers ever: Honus Wagner, who finished with a .328 average over 21 years.

Fauver practiced law in Cleveland with two firms and taught law at Western Reserve. In 1902, he coached the Western Reserve baseball team to a 5-6 record, Hodermarsky wrote.

Fauver later moved to New York City but returned to Oberlin in the early 1930s.

In March 1942, the 69-year-old Fauver, who had been ill, and his sister were on their way to Florida when they stopped in Chatsworth, Georgia. He died as a result of coronary thrombosis.

At the time of his death, Fauver was listed as president of Oberlin Savings Bank and a trustee at the college.

He is buried in Westwood Cemetery in Oberlin, surrounded by headstones of family members.