Photo by Brian Hoffman
By Brian Hoffman, Sports Editor
I was sad to learn of the passing of Roanoke native Al Holland, who passed away on the 4th of July in South Carolina. Holland would have been 74 on August 16.
Holland’s athletic feats are legendary in Roanoke. Raised by a single mother along with three brothers, he attended a segregated Lucy Addison High School and played multiple sports. Al was not only a terrific baseball player but also excelled in football, playing both sports for North Carolina A&T on a college football scholarship.
Holland was a quarterback in high school but was moved to running back in college, playing four years for the Aggies. His younger brothers would follow him to North Carolina A&T in Greensboro.
While he was good in football, baseball became Holland’s best sport in college. He was an All-American twice and the most celebrated player in program history. He’s one of three Aggie student-athletes to have his jersey retired along with Naismith Hall of Famer Al Attles in basketball and Pro Football Hall of Famer Elvin Bethea.
Holland was drafted by the Texas Rangers in the 30th round of the Major League Baseball amateur draft in 1974 but did not sign. The Padres drafted him in the fourth round of the secondary draft in January of 1975, and again he did not sign. In June of 1975 he signed with the Pirates as an amateur free agent, and that summer he started 11 games between Pittsburgh’s Rookie and Low-A teams and had an ERA of 1.92 with 89 strikeouts in 89 innings.
In 1976 he came “home” to play for the Salem Pirates, and that was a turning point in his career. He was moved to the bullpen, where he would spend the rest of his baseball career. Holland had a 2.96 ERA with 13 saves, pitching 35 games in relief.
“Sad to hear about Al,” said Murray Cook, who was a clubhouse boy for the Salem Pirates at the time. “I remember him playing in Salem on the 1976 team. What a competitor and a good guy!”
Cook eventually became the groundskeeper for Salem’s Carolina League team and has gone on to become the most respected builder of baseball fields and turf projects in the world. Recently Cook’s crew built Sofi Stadium’s World Cup (soccer) field, where the Rams and Chargers play.
“FIFA calls it Los Angeles Stadium,” said Cook. “I’m sure it has something to do with sponsorship stuff. We’ll also flip it back to an NFL football field. Heading to Barcelona this week for field check, then we get ready for the Phillies and Twins in Dyersville for the next ‘Field of Dreams’ game.”
Holland also had a bright future. He moved up to pitch in the Pirates organization at AA Shreveport and AAA Columbus in 1977 before finishing the season in Pittsburgh. In 1979 Al was traded to the Giants along with two other pitchers who played in Salem, Ed Whitson and Fred Breining. The Buccos received Bill Madlock, Lenny Randle and Dave Roberts in a trade that was beneficial for both teams. Madlock was a key member of the Pirates ’79 “We are Family” championship team and Holland and Whitson both had solid big league careers. Holland and Whitson are both members of our local Salem-Roanoke Baseball Hall of Fame.
Holland, in fact, was a charter member of the Hall, inducted in the inaugural class of 1992 with Dave Parker, Billy Sample, Steve Brodie and Kidd Carr. Holland likely would have qualified with his resume at Lucy Addison and NC A&T alone, but he went on to pitch 10 years in the big leagues with Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Philadelphia, the Angels and the Yankees. He finished his career with 78 Major League saves, coming out of the bullpen for 373 of his 384 big league games. He finished with a 2.98 ERA and 513 strikeouts.
I got to know Al when he returned to the Roanoke Valley and coached the baseball team at William Fleming and helped Jimmy Mitchell, another Salem-Roanoke Baseball Hall of Famer, with his American Legion team. I have a few funny stories from those days.
When Al was pitching for the Phillies in 1983 I attended a Phillies-Pirates series in Philadelphia with a photo pass. I had a position in the photo booth at the end of the Pirates dugout along the third base line.
Early in the game I saw Al in the Phillies dugout, and he was playfully jawing back and forth with some Pirates who were his former teammates. I focused on Al, took a couple shots, and then he “flipped the bird” to the Pirates. I got a classic shot of him with a big smile and middle finger extended.
Years later I’m sitting in the dugout at what is now Billy Sample Field in Salem with Mitchell and Holland prior to a Legion game. I hadn’t known Al all that well at the time so I was somewhat leery of relaying that story to him. But I thought, what the heck, and told Holland about the photo I had of him flipping off his old teammates.
To my relief, he loved the story and wanted to know if he could get a copy of the photo. I found the negative and made him a copy and when I gave it to him at a future Legion game he was all smiles, showing it off to all the kids.
And speaking of Legion ball, I remember when William Byrd ace Chris Manning pitched for Mitchell’s team. Chris was the main starter on Byrd’s 1997 state championship team. He was a lefty, like Holland, and again I was down by the dugout prior to a game and witnessed an argument between Holland and Manning. Al was trying to change some things in Manning’s delivery and Chris wasn’t having it despite Holland’s credentials, 10 years in the big leagues and the 1983 National League Rolaids Relief Man of the Year.
Finally, after a couple minutes of back and forth, Holland threw up his arms and said, “Okay, just do it your way then.” And Manning went out and pitched a no-hitter. Al just shook his head.
Al had some decent baseball teams during his time coaching Fleming, and that’s saying something. The Colonels are traditionally the worst team in the Roanoke Valley, but when Al was coach they were competitive with his son, Al, Jr., on the team.
Holland mentored young athletes in the Roanoke Valley for more than two decades and was a terrific role model for area athletes. He was in poor health in recent years and left us on Independence Day. A celebration of his life was held at Central Baptist Church in Roanoke last Saturday, and needless to say it was a life well lived.
