Yankees Birthday of the Day: Bill Holland

Throughout our “Yankees Birthday of the Day” series, we’ve taken the opportunity to celebrate and remember scores of Yankees from throughout the generations, from Hall of Famers to journeymen, from those born in the 1800s through to members of the team’s last championship squad. Today, we’ll be taking a slight detour to shed some light on a New York baseball icon who never got the chance to don the pinstripes due to the color of his skin.

Elvis William “Bill” Holland
Born: February 28, 1901 (Alexandria, IN)
Died: December 3, 1973 (New York, NY)
New York Black Yankees Tenure: 1932-1941

Bill Holland began his pro career in 1918 at the age of 17, pitching for the Richmond Giants in Indiana. Little is known about the right-hander’s performance in these early days before the founding of the first Black Major League, but he was already gaining a reputation as a durable fireballer, reportedly once pitching 20 innings in less than 24 hours. When the Negro National League formed in 1920, Holland took his talents from Warner Jewell’s ABCs of Indianapolis to Detroit and immediately established himself as one of the league’s top pitchers on the Stars.

Although Negro League statistics are famously difficult to track in a standardized way due to the number of exhibitions and games against not-quite-pro-caliber operations, Holland posted a 3.08 ERA between 1920-22 in confirmed Negro National League games (a stretch that also included a brief stint with Negro League founder Rube Foster’s Chicago American Giants). The man nicknamed “Devil” punched out 351 in 578.1 innings — a mark that put him among the top of the league. His 1.077 WHIP in 1922 led the majors.

It was after a successful 1922 season that the 22-year-old made his way out east to New York, where he’d make his baseball home for the next two decades. On July 5, 1930, Yankees owner Jacob Ruppert loaned Yankee Stadium for the day to the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and its president, A. Philip Randolph, a union leader and civil rights activist who organized a doubleheader between the New York Lincoln Giants and the Baltimore Black Sox as a fundraiser for the Brotherhood. In Game 1, New York’s manager — future Hall of Famer John Henry “Pop” Lloyd — gave the ball to a 29-year-old Bill Holland, reportedly making him the first Black pitcher to ever take the mound at the House that Ruth Built. Holland threw a complete game in a 13-4 victory.

The following year, the veteran signed on with the Harlem Stars, who played some of their home games at the Stadium. They rebranded for the 1932 season as the New York Black Yankees, tying themselves in name to what had quickly become the American League’s premier franchise. The club continued to play in the Bronx and also later across the river at Hinchliffe Stadium in Paterson, NJ (recently restored).

Holland would remain with the Black Yankees for the rest of his career, continuing to pitch until the age of 40 in 1941 and being named a starter of the second 1939 East-West All-Star Game, which was held at Yankee Stadium. The official record has him as second in club history in most major pitching counting stats, including starts, wins, innings pitched, and strikeouts. When my colleague Matt looked back at the best players in Black Yankees history in 2021, he had Holland ranked second, behind only teammate and two-way threat Barney Brown.

But these statistics cannot tell Bill Holland’s story. The legendary Cool Papa Bell ranked him alongside Hall of famers Satchel Paige, Smokey Joe Williams, and Bullet Joe Rogan as among the four best pitchers to play in the Negro Leagues. A 1952 poll organized by the Pittsburgh Courier, an African-American newspaper, named Holland to its All-Time Third Team of Black ballplayers, also among the ranks of Hall of Famers.

Perhaps due to a lack of a narrative around his success, or perhaps due to the fact that the Black Yankees were mostly among the worst teams in the league during his time there, Holland has not received the same momentum towards enshrinement as some of his peers. He reportedly died on December 3, 1973, though there is no obituary on file with major New York periodicals for this man who had been an icon among Black New Yorkers for nearly 20 years.

Here at Pinstripe Alley, on what would be Bill Holland’s 125th birthday, we remember a man who left a quiet, proud legacy as a pioneer of Black baseball in New York.

See more of the “Yankees Birthday of the Day” series here.