Jack Moore. Rowan Legion days.
By Mike London
Salisbury Post
SALISBURY – Former MLB pitcher Al Holland’s death at 73 on Independence Day was sad news for many, including North Carolina A&T supporters, Philadelphia Phillie fans – and at least one local family.
“I grew up hearing about Al Holland just about every week,” said former North Rowan High and Catawba College pitcher Sandy Moore. “Pitching for the Catawba Indians in a game against Al Holland was always my dad’s biggest claim to fame.”
Sandy’s father is Jack Moore, a left-handed pitcher from North Rowan who was a key part of the Rowan County American Legion pitching staffs of 1970 and 1971. Coach Joe Ferebee’s 1970 Legion team went 33-15 and was state runner-up, while the 1971 team was 41-5 and won the state championship. Both of those teams played in Southeast Regionals, the 1970 squad as the host team.
Jack won 14 Legion games, almost all of them complete games, and while he didn’t look lethal, the rail-thin southpaw posted 199 Legion strikeouts. Jack met his wife Jeanie, at Newman Park. Their sons, right-hander Sandy (18) and lefty Daniel (19), would register even more Legion victories. Both were Mark Norris Memorial Award winners as Rowan County high school players of the year.
Wins were far more difficult to come by for Jack at Catawba College. The Indians weren’t winning nearly as frequently at Newman Park as they do now and there weren’t a lot of games on the schedule. Jack and one of his former Legion teammates, East Rowan grad CM Yates, were part of the 1972 Catawba baseball squad that went 7-13.
A highlight of that mostly forgettable season came when Catawba took on North Carolina A&T at War Memorial Stadium in Greensboro. Moore was the starting pitcher for the Indians that day. Al Holland was on the mound for the Aggies, coached by Mel Groomes. Jack and CM didn’t know a lot about Holland, who was a freshman then, but they figured out he was different while they watched him get loosened up.
“He was a stocky (5-11, 207) left-hander and CM and I watched him start out throwing from about 40 feet,” Jack remembers. “He was throwing the crap out of the ball. He looked fast, but CM wasn’t that impressed because, well, it was just 40 feet. But then Holland backs up and starts throwing from 100 feet and he starts throwing even harder. CM was a left-handed hitter, and I told him, ‘Well, CM, I don’t think you’re going to have a real good day.'”
Jack only pitched for Catawba one year, so that game in Greensboro may have been the best he ever pitched in college. Catawba won the game. Holland wasn’t charged with the loss, but Catawba did force A&T to make a call to the bullpen – the Aggies usually didn’t have to do that when Holland took the mound – and Jack was the winning pitcher.
The DH wasn’t in play yet, so Jack had to step into the batter’s box against Holland. He remembers getting the bunt sign, but he couldn’t come close to making contact.
“His fastball made a hissing sound, and it was hopping,” Moore said. “I’d never seen a fastball move like that.”
Despite Moore’s gloomy prediction, Yates fared better. He got two hits, including the game-deciding double off the wall.
As the years rolled by, CM and I talked about that game a lot,” Jack said. “Then, years later, I ran across a couple of Al Holland baseball cards and I bought them. I kept one. I gave the other one to CM.”
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Alfred Willis Holland didn’t lose often while he was pitching for North Carolina A&T. It was a different time. He stayed four years,
Raised along with three brothers by a single mom in Roanoke, Va., Holland went to Lucy Addison High School, a segregated school in the Roanoke area.
Then he headed to A&T on a football scholarship. He was a quarterback and punter in high school, but the Aggies switched him to running back. He played football for the Aggies for four years, and his younger brothers would follow him to 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 the program’s history. He is one of three A&T student-athletes to have his jersey retired. The others are Naismith Hall of Famer Al Attles and Pro Football Hall of Famer Elvin Bethea.
In each of his four college seasons from 1972-75, Holland fired a no-hitter. That’s right. One every season.
As a freshman in 1972, the year Moore and Yates encountered him, Holland struck out 143 batters (in just 83 innings) to lead the nation. He had a 0.54 ERA. His season included a 25-strikeout game against rival North Carolina Central. He had 105 strikeouts as a junior and 118 as a senior, and those were short seasons compared to today.
Holland had an interesting time with the MLB draft. The Texas Rangers took him late in the 1974 draft and he declined to sign for their modest offer of $2,000.
He was a draft pick by the San Diego Padres in what was known then as a secondary phase of the draft in January 1975. Holland still didn’t sign. He wanted to play his senior year for the Aggies and he wanted to finish school.
Despite saying no to MLB teams twice, Holland’s fastball still got him to the big leagues. A Pittsburgh Pirates scout (Branch Rickey III, the grandson of the fellow who signed Jackie Robinson) saw him at a tryout camp in Charlotte in June 1975 and signed him.
After he dominated in the low minors, a Pirates minor league pitching coach named Larry Sherry (the hero of the 1959 World Series) converted Holland to relief pitching in 1976. Holland continued to overmatch hitters in Double A and Triple A. He got his first call to the big leagues late in the 1977 season.
Holland’s success continued in the minors and in Spring Training, but he never got another chance to pitch for Pittsburgh. The big break for him came when he was traded to the San Francisco Giants in 1979, in a deal that sent frequent batting champ Bill Madlock to join “The Family” in Pittsburgh.
With a strong Spring Training in 1980, Holland made the Giants opening day roster and was on his way to becoming an established big leaguer. He got his first MLB win on May 16. He had five wins, seven saves and a 1.75 ERA, while pitching in 54 games that season. He never looked back.
Hitters were starting to adjust to Holland’s steady stream of fastballs by 1981, but then he learned to throw a slider. He had a surplus of guts and he wanted the ball as often as Giants manager Frank Robinson would give it to him. In one 17-day stretch in 1982, Holland pitched 17.2 innings without allowing a single hit.
After the 1982 season, he was traded to the Phillies. It didn’t seem possible, but he got even better.
In 1983, Holland made life tough for the LA Dodgers in the NLCS, keying two victories as the Phillies won the pennant. Then he saved the first game of the 1983 World Series against the Baltimore Orioles. With eight wins and 25 saves, he was honored with the NL’s Rolaids Relief Award. He finished sixth in the Cy Young Award voting and ninth in the MVP race.
In 1984, he made the NL All-Star team and racked up 25 more saves.
The first half of 1984 was the peak for Holland, but, in all, he lasted 10 years in the majors. He totaled 34 wins and 78 saves.
Holland’s No. 17 jersey is inscribed on the left-field wall at World War Memorial Stadium, still the home ballpark of the A&T baseball program. Holland is a member of the College Baseball Hall of Fame, as well as the North Carolina A&T, Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference and Salem-Roanoke halls of fame.
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Sandy Moore graduated from Catawba in 1999. He’s been a banker for years, but coming out of high college, he had coaching aspirations. He headed to Virginia Tech to work on a masters degree and to serve as a graduate assistant coach for Chuck Hartman, one of the legends of college baseball coaching.
Hartman coached 47 seasons at High Point and Virginia Tech and won 1,444 games. Hartman, who died in 2020, had 961 of those wins at Virginia Tech.
Hartman was inducted into eight halls of fame. Moore was on the coaching staff in Blacksburg for a Hartman induction and the whole staff was invited. Moore was looking over the program when he noticed that Al Holland would be one of the dignitaries present for the ceremony.
After the inductions, Sandy couldn’t wait to meet a legend.
“I walked up to Al as casually as I could and introduced myself, ” Moore said. “I told him I’d been hearing Al Holland stories since I was 5 years old, so it was a great honor to meet him. I told him he pitched against my dad in college.”
Holland wanted to know what school his dad pitched for and Sandy proudly informed him it was the Catawba Indians in a game at War Memorial Stadium.
Then Holland took a step back and thought for a moment. “Skinny left-hander?” Holland asked. “Oh, yeah, I remember him.”
That comment made a beaming Sandy Moore’s night and it made Jack Moore’s year once Sandy related the story.
Not only would Jack carried the memory of Al Holland forever. A big league all-star also remembered his encounter with Jack.
When Holland died at 73 in Fort Mill, S.C., Jack made several Facebook posts to honor his distinguished adversary.
Holland is survived by his wife, Mary, and their three children.
