Harry Kingman

Harry Kingman
First baseman
Born: (1892-04-03)April 3, 1892 Tianjin, Qing Empire
Died: December 27, 1982(1982-12-27) (aged 90) Oakland, California
Batted: Left Threw: Left
MLB debut
July 1, 1914, for the New York Yankees
Last MLB appearance
August 20, 1914, for the New York Yankees
MLB statistics
Games played	4
At bats	3
Hits	0
Stats at Baseball Reference
Teams
New York Yankees (1914)
Career highlights and awards
First Chinese-born player in Major League Baseball

Henry Lees "Harry" Kingman (April 3, 1892 – December 27, 1982) was a first baseman in Major League Baseball. He played briefly for the New York Yankees in 1914. In later life, he worked against racial discrimination while working within institutions associated with the University of California, Berkeley and in retirement.^[1]

Harry Kingman was born in Tianjin to two western missionaries.^[1] In 1899, his father became a chaplain at Pomona College, and Harry eventually attended school there, becoming a star in five sports: baseball, basketball, tennis, track, and swimming. He signed his first major league contract, with the Washington Senators, in June 1914.^[1]

Before making his major league debut, Kingman was traded to the New York Yankees. He was originally a first baseman, but manager Frank Chance attempted to convert him into a pitcher.^[1] That did not work out and Kingman eventually appeared in only one game in the field and three as a pinch hitter during July and August 1914. He went 0-for-3 at the plate with two strikeouts and one walk.^[2]

Kingman was the first major league player to have been born in China. Until 2016, he was the only MLB player to have been born in China. Austin Brice, who debuted in 2016, was born in British Hong Kong in 1992.^[3][4][5][6] Kingman was the only Asian-born player from any country to appear in MLB until Japanese pitcher Masanori Murakami pitched for the San Francisco Giants in 1964.^[7]

Kingman stood at 6'1" and weighed 165 lbs.^[2]

Kingman left baseball after the season was over and got a job in Stiles Hall (originally the Berkeley YMCA) at the University of California, Berkeley. From 1921 to 1927, he traveled to China and Japan and worked as a missionary, while also playing and coaching baseball.^[1] Kingman married his wife Ruth in Shanghai in 1922 and they had one daughter.^[1] He returned to Berkeley in 1927. He helped found the Berkeley Student Cooperative in 1933, whose founding antidiscrimination goals included to offer: "low-rent housing to all university students, regardless of race, creed, color or national origin, and thus influence the community to eliminate prejudice and discrimination in housing." For the next 24 years, he worked at Stiles Hall. While its general secretary during World War II, he and his wife "helped dozens of Japanese American students escape internment by relocating them to schools in other parts of the country".^[8]

Kingman also coached the university's junior varsity baseball team until his retirement, and maintained an active interest in baseball.

After retiring in 1957, Kingman and his wife Ruth moved to Washington D.C. to work as civil rights lobbyists, until they fully retired in 1968.^[1] He died in 1982, at the age of 90, in Oakland, California.^[2]

• Career statistics from Baseball Reference
• Guide to the Harry Lees Kingman Papers, 1921-1975 at The Bancroft Library