Almost Perfect by Joe Cox

Author:Joe Cox
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781493019519
Publisher: Lyons Press
Published: 2016-10-31T04:00:00+00:00

The inactivity of the lost 1990 spring training was hardest on young players like Brian Holman, who had just turned 25 and had spent a year and a half in the major leagues. He was a significant prospect in his high school days in Wichita, Kansas. A Montreal scout and former MLB pitcher, Dick LeMay, saw the potential in Holman, and apparently liked the rest of the family, because not only did LeMay convince the Expos to draft Holman with the first-round pick (16th overall) in the 1983 MLB Draft, but he subsequently married Holman’s mother. Holman turned down a scholarship from the University of Nebraska to enter professional baseball. For a couple of seasons, he struggled to learn control in the minor leagues—for instance, walking 119 batters in 98⅔ innings of work at the A level in 1984. But by 1987, he was an All-Star in AA, and in 1988, a similar start in AAA propelled him to the parent club.

Holman went 4-8 for the Expos in 1988, but posted a solid 3.23 ERA. He began the 1989 season at 1-2, but on May 25th, he was included in a package of young pitchers who were shipped to Seattle for Mariners left-hander Mark Langston. Langston was 12-9 for Montreal before signing a hefty free agent contract with the California Angels after the 1989 season. In exchange, the Mariners had netted Gene Harris, who went 2-6 for the club before being traded; Holman; and another young pitcher named Randy Johnson, who went on to earn a Cy Young Award, win 130 games, and strike out 2,162 batters as a Mariner.

Holman recalled, “When Dave Dombrowski called me in . . . to tell me about the trade, he said, ‘There’s been a trade, you’re involved. I traded you to Seattle for Mark Langston.’ I was kind of like, ‘I’m sure you didn’t trade me straight-up for Mark Langston.’ And he said, ‘No, we traded Gene Harris,’ and then in a lower voice, ‘and Randy Johnson.’ ”

Holman further explained, “What was great about [the trade] was that we went from rookies that were just prospects to [pitchers]. . . . Jim Lefebvre came up to us and put a ball in our hands and said, ‘You’re going to pitch every five days whether you get your brains beat in or not.’ ”

Holman’s 1989 season had gone better than Johnson’s. He was 8-10 with Seattle, but posted a 3.44 ERA, with a couple of shutouts, and showed great promise. The Mariners, having been added to the major leagues via expansion in 1977, looked to field a talented if inexperienced squad behind Holman in 1990. The franchise had never enjoyed a .500 season and ended 1989 with a 73-89 mark, but better times were on the way. In addition to Holman and Johnson, pitcher Erik Hanson was a solid young starter. Slick-fielding shortstop Omar Vizquel was just breaking into the major leagues, as were talented first base prospect Tino Martinez and right fielder Jay Buhner, whom the team had acquired from the Yankees for aging slugger Ken Phelps.

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