The national pastime in the early 20th century was certainly baseball, and Jackson County, Coalton in particular, could lay claim to a major league star.

Louis Baird (Pat) Duncan was a member of the 1919 Cincinnati Reds world championship team and was a key mainstay with the team for the next five years, ending his major league playing career in 1924. He joined the Reds on August 12, 1919, when his contract was purchased from the Southern League.

Duncan had enjoyed a successful minor league career, hitting over .300 for a season seven different times, and when he left the Southern League, was second in hitting with a .320 average.

Although playing in three games with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1915, Duncan's playing career took off when he appeared in 31 games with the Reds in 1919, which included 22 hits in 90 trips to the plate for a .244 average.

After a solid 1920 season when the outfielder appeared in all 154 games with the Reds and batted .295 with 170 hits, it was the next three years where he would make his mark as an offensive threat with the Reds.

From 1921 through 1923 combined, Duncan was first on the Reds in games played, at bats, total hits, doubles, runs batted in and total bases. He was second on the club over the three-year period in runs scored and total bases, third in batting average and fourth in both stolen bases and triples.

For his entire career, he played in 727 games with 2,695 at bats, 361 runs scored, 827 total hits, 137 doubles, 50 triples, 23 home runs, 374 runs batted in and 55 stolen bases.

Pat Duncan had an outstanding career batting average in the major leagues of .307, hitting a personal high of .328 in 1922 and following that up with an average of .327 in 1923. He also was the first player to ever hit a ball over the distant left field fence at Redland Field on June 2, 1921, a field later known as Crosley Field.

Duncan returned to the minor leagues in 1925, and never again got the call back to the major leagues.

He was born in Coalton on October 6, 1893 and in 1912, he signed his first professional contract with Ironton in the old Mountain State League as a left fielder for a salary of $70 a month.

In 1930, he returned to the Mountain State League as a player-manager for the Beckley, West Virginia team and then retired in 1931. For his 20-year career combining both his major league and minor league totals, he hit for an amazing .327 average.

For over 20 years after that, Duncan worked for the Ohio Department Of Transportation, but still held onto his close ties to baseball, managing many local baseball teams.

He also would play on all-star teams and at fund-raising events. In 1935, he joined a group of former World Series players in forming a touring team that was managed by 69-year-old Denton "Cy" Young of Coshocton.

On Sunday, May 19, they met the Jackson County Selects and the Wellston Gray Eagles in an exhibition game in Coalton and Young, considered one of the greatest pitchers of all time, pitched one inning.

On Sunday, July 17, 1960, the newspaper headline sadly read, "Third Strike Called For Pat Duncan" at the age of 66, thus ending of the legendary baseball careers in Jackson County history.