Randy Johnson, who enters the Hall of Fame today with Craig Biggio, Pedro Martinez and John Smoltz, made 603 career starts without a shoulder operation. One of his best friends was not so lucky.
"People say, 'Do you miss it?'" Johnson said in Phoenix last week. "Well, yeah, I miss the game, but I played 22 years. I would have been more frustrated had, say, I hurt my shoulder earlier in my career and I couldn't recover from it and my career was cut short, like Brian Holman. I don't know what he could have been, but based on what I saw when he was in the major leagues before he hurt his arm, he was just scratching the surface of how good he was."
Holman will be in Cooperstown for the induction ceremonies this weekend, at Johnson's request. The two came up together in the Montreal Expos' farm system and went to the Seattle Mariners in a 1989 trade. They bonded over rock music and their shared struggle to harness their talents.
"Neither one of us could throw strikes," Holman said in a telephone interview last week. "We threw hard, but we didn't know where it was going. We learned what it was like to compete, and to fail, together."
Holman, a first-round draft pick, made 99 career starts, going 37-45 with a 3.71 ERA. With Seattle in April 1990, he lost a perfect game with two outs in the ninth inning when Oakland's Ken Phelps hit a home run.
Johnson threw a no-hitter six weeks later and authored his own perfect game in 2004. By then, Holman's career was long over, cut short by injuries to his rotator cuff, labrum and capsule that required a total reconstruction. He pitched his last game in the majors at age 26, in 1991.
The years since then have not been easy for Holman. He had open heart surgery in 2003, and his son David, now a pitcher in Seattle's farm system, overcame a brain tumor as a child. Holman's daughter Cassidy died of leukemia in 2006, at age 11. Johnson and his family donated to her memorial fund, arranging for a section of the library at her elementary school to be renovated and named in her honor.
Holman now works as a motivational speaker and pitching coordinator for a baseball academy in Kansas. He does not lament his misfortune and said he cherishes his friendship with Johnson.
"Unfortunately, I got hurt, but you always knew Randy was going to be something really special, and he was going to figure it out," Holman said. "I'm so beyond proud of him, for the player he turned out to be and for the person he is. Very grateful I got to be a part of it."
See ya later, gator
There are some crazy mascots roaming the stadiums at baseball's minor league ballpark, but the 10-foot alligator that was found in the Port Charlotte, Fla., dugout on Friday afternoon was an unwelcome guest.
Groundskeepers Scott Bertini and Shane Cabral were sitting in the visitor's dugout after helping roll the tarp onto the Charlotte Sports Park field when they discovered the gator under the benches.
It's not known how the gator found its way into the stadium or more specifically how it navigated its way into the dugout. But there it was, presumably in the mood for a hot dog and a good view of Port Charlotte's game with the Daytona Tortugas.
The gator, however, was not allowed to remain (It did not have a valid ticket). Charlotte County animal control was called and, with help from the grounds crew, managed to drive it to a pond behind the stadium's parking lot.
Sports quiz
Brian Holman and Randy Johnson were traded to the Seattle Mariners in 1989 for this left-handed pitcher.
Answer
Mark Langston
Sports on 07/26/2015