John Holland

Note: This page is for Chicago Cubs General Manager John Holland; for others with a smilar name, click here.

John Davison Holland
Middle name also listed as David

• Throws Right
• Height 5' 10", Weight 190 lb.
• Born February 18, 1910 in Wichita, KS USA
• Died July 15, 1979 in Chicago, IL USA

BR Minors page

Biographical Information

John Holland inherited the Oklahoma City Indians of the Texas League from his father, Jack Holland, in 1936. He was the team president/owner until 1942 when he sold the club and went into the U.S. Armed Forces during World War II (1942-1945) (BL). He had previously played one season as a catcher for Oklahoma City in 1930.

Upon his discharge from the army, he worked in various minor league front offices for the Chicago Cubs until he became General Manager of the Los Angeles Angels (PCL) in the Pacific Coast League, from which he became general manager of the Cubs on October 11, 1956, replacing Wid Matthews. He was the Cubs general manager from 1957 to 1974. Holland was promoted to Team Vice President in 1960, but reassigned to Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations on September 30, 1975 where he remained until 1976. He continued on the Cubs Board of Directors until his death at the age of 69.

On July 25, 1972 Holland announced that Leo Durocher has stepped down as manager in favor of Whitey Lockman. Durocher contended he was not fired, but had "stepped aside." The Houston Astros then hired Durocher in late August to replace Harry Walker.

Preceded by Wid Matthews

Chicago Cubs General Manager 1957-1975

Succeeded by Salty Saltwell

Quotes

"I know we have reached a saturation point...If our payroll goes any higher, we just can't make it." -- General manager John Holland of the Cubs, who had the biggest payroll in the majors in 1972, warning that salaries had reached their limits. In view of what happened to the big league pay scale in later years, Holland's lament proved to be ill founded.

Sources

Principal sources for John Holland include newspaper obituaries (OB), government Veteran records (VA,CM,CW), Stars & Stripes (S&S), Sporting Life (SL), The Sporting News (TSN), The Sports Encyclopedia:Baseball 2006 by David Neft & Richard Cohen (N&C), old Who's Who in Baseballs none (WW), old Baseball Registers none (BR) , old Daguerreotypes by TSN none (DAG), Stars&Stripes (S&S), The Baseball Necrology by Bill Lee (BN), Pat Doyle's Professional Ballplayer DataBase (PD), The Baseball Library (BL), Baseball in World War II Europe by Gary Bedingfield (GB) and independent research by Walter Kephart (WK) and Frank Russo (FR) and others.

Related Sites

• John Holland at the SABR Bio Project
• For more information on Holland's tenure as the Cub's GM, see The Road Through Holland
• See also MiLB Top 100 Teams - 1907 Wichita Jobbers