The Major Leaguer from Tianjin, China

One of the great time wasters, at least for me, is the Baseball Reference site created by Sean Forman. You see, I was one of those kids with his nose buried in a stack of baseball cards wondering just who was the best player back in 1982 (Robin Yount) and wondering why I had not been born blessed with the hand/eye coordination necessary to hit a curve ball. (It didn’t help that my coach was fond of yelling such useful advice as “Stick your leg out a little bit. Getting hit is as good as a hit!”)

Since I do regret my occasional procrastination (at times), I thought I would give myself the illusion of productivity by combing Baseball Reference for things Chinese and, lo and behold, there he was: Harry Lees Kingman, born in Tianjin, China in 1892. Kingman’s grandfather came to Tianjin in 1860, part of the first wave of missionaries following the signing of the Beijing Convention. Kingman’s mother was, she claimed, the first white baby ever born in North China.

Kingman is the only major leaguer ever to hail from mainland China. (In the interests of not sleeping on the couch, I’ll

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