Mike Lum

Michael Ken-Wai Lum (born October 27, 1945) is a former Major League Baseball player and coach who became the first American of Japanese ancestry to play in the major leagues when he debuted with the Atlanta Braves in 1967.

Lum was born in Honolulu, Hawaii to a Japanese woman and American soldier and was adopted as a baby by a Chinese couple, Mun Luke and Winnifred Lum. He became a star left-handed quarterback at President Theodore Roosevelt High School, winning the Interscholastic League of Honolulu's Back of the Year award in 1962. He attracted interest from Michigan State University, and attended Brigham Young University on a football scholarship for one semester in the fall of 1963 after having signed with the Milwaukee Braves as an amateur free agent back in June.

Playing time was hard to come by for the "spare parts" of the "Big Red Machine." Lum saw far less playing time in Cincinnati than he was used to, as he averaged just 156 plate appearances per season in his three years with the Reds. In 1976, he reached the post-season for the second time in his career. He logged just one at-bat in the 1976 National League Championship Series with the Philadelphia Phillies, flying out in game three to end the seventh inning. He never came to bat in the World Series against the New York Yankees.