John Holland (baseball executive)

John David Holland (February 18, 1910 — July 15, 1979) was an American baseball executive who served as general manager of the Chicago Cubs of Major League Baseball from 1956 to 1975. The Wichita, Kansas, native was promoted from his previous assignment as GM of the Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League — then the Cubs' top farm team — to succeed Wid Matthews as general manager of the Cubs after the end of the 1956 season.

Holland brought with him Bob Scheffing as the Cubs' new manager. Scheffing, a former Cub catcher and coach, had won the PCL pennant with the Angels in 1956. But the Cubs were in the midst of a two-decade-long tenancy in the second division of the National League. After Scheffing and his successors, Charlie Grimm and Lou Boudreau, could not rouse the club from its doldrums, owner Philip K. Wrigley decided on a radical departure after the 1960 season: the Cubs became the only team in the history of major league baseball to dispense with the position of field manager. Wrigley's College of Coaches employed a series of rotating (and then more permanent) "head coaches" from 1961-65. In 1963, the experiment seemed to hold promise, as head coach Bob Kennedy led the team to an 82-80 finish, the Cubs' first winning record since 1946. But they reverted to losing seasons in 1964-65, and the College of Coaches experiment was abandoned at the end of the 1965 season, when Leo Durocher was hired to manage the Cubs.

The team of Durocher and Holland floundered in 1966, when the Cubbies finished dead last in the National League. But beginning in 1967, the Cubs jumped into contention in the NL with a series of first division ballclubs and six straight above .500 campaigns, led by three Baseball Hall of Famers — Billy Williams, Ferguson Jenkins and Ernie Banks — and featuring other stars like Ron Santo, Glenn Beckert, Don Kessinger and Randy Hundley. Banks was already a mainstay with the Cubs by 1956, but Holland's scouts (including the legendary Buck O'Neil) had signed and developed Williams, Santo and Kessinger, and Holland acquired Jenkins, Hundley and Beckert through trades and the Rule V draft. The 1969 Cubs broke from the gate quickly and appeared headed for the National League East Division championship but were overtaken by the "Miracle" New York Mets. The 1969 campaign proved to be the high-water mark of the Holland era, as the Cubs gradually sank back in the NL East standings, reverting to their losing ways in 1973. Holland retired two seasons later and was replaced by E. R. "Salty" Saltwell, the Cubs' longtime treasurer. [http://www.thebaseballcube.com/managers/gms/Salty-Saltwell.shtml]

John Holland died in Chicago at the age of 69.

External links

* [http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/John_Holland BR Bullpen]

References

* Baseball America Executive Database