Brian Holiday’s smug facial expression as he exited the mound was ordinary, but he was pissed.
As Oklahoma State pitching coach Rob Walton neared the mound and motioned for a reliever out of the bullpen, ace pitcher Sam Garcia stood outside the dugout alongside his teammates, waiting to greet Holiday after the eighth inning of the series finale against BYU. The OSU right-hander’s facial appearance, however, gave Garcia a feeling that this departure from the mound would be just like any other.
“He comes in (the dugout) and he’s mad,” Garcia said. “And I’m like, ‘You did really good.’”
Holiday’s response?
“Not good enough.”
Not even after 7 1/3 innings of work with 10 strikeouts. Of course, five earned runs are a glaring blemish, but an extensive outing to go with a double-digit strikeout total would be an achievement for most college pitchers.
Not Holiday.
Each time the 5-foot-11, red-headed pitching savant takes the mound, a competitive aurora nonpareil to most who share the baseball diamond with him is on display. It’s a mentality Holiday has held from the moment he first suited up in a baseball uniform during his T-ball days.
And so far, during his first season at OSU, it has sufficed.
Through 15 starts and 104 innings pitched, Holiday ranks third in the Big 12 with a 3.12 ERA and second in the conference with 118 strikeouts. Such production earned him spots on the All-Big 12 first team and on D1Baseball’s midseason All-American list.
“I knew it was gonna happen,” Mississippi State reliever and former teammate of Holiday’s at College of Central Florida, Cam Schuelke said. “I’ve been around him for a full year. He’d been successful at the Cape Cod Summer League. He’d been successful in high school. And he’d been successful at junior college his whole life.
“He was underrated going in… that pissed Brian off going in. And if there’s one thing you don’t want to do, it’s piss Brian off.”
Holiday’s elusive 12-6 curveball and old-fashioned high leg kick make him one of the more unique prospects heading into the 2024 MLB Draft. MLB scouts might not be willing to spend a first-round selection on him, but a clear consensus among those sampled by The O’Colly indicated that Holiday will earn an opportunity to play professional baseball.
“He’s an old-school kind of guy,” said one scout, who was granted anonymity to speak freely. “He’s a guy who just has all the tools of a good pitcher. Really a unique 12-6 (curveball). Nice slider — more of a slurve. Good changeup. Good fastball. Just a really nice all-around pitcher.”
Holiday’s success in his first season of college baseball shouldn’t come as a surprise, though. Just ask his coach, teammates and those he’s competed against and alongside, who described Holiday’s stellar junior campaign as “a long time coming.”
“I knew people who knew him far in advance of his arrival here at Oklahoma State, and the word ‘special’ was so often used, almost one-hundred percent of the time,” OSU head coach Josh Holliday said in March. “And now you’re seeing that every time he pitches.
“Brian is a really good pitcher, but he’s an even better teammate. It’s always good knowing that we have him on our team, and we’re enjoying every day that he’s here. He is special.”
From the moment his baseball career began, Holiday competed with the older age group.
His competition was often five, six, sometimes seven years older. Yet most of the time, he would come out victorious. Of course, there were many learning moments along the way. But Holiday always managed to adapt. He thrived off the older crowd, doubting his capabilities sheerly based on their age discrepancies.
“You don’t tell Brian, ‘No,’” his brother Zack Holiday said. “You just don’t. He hates being told, ‘No.’ And when you do, it’s like awakening a sleeping giant.”
Brian’s competitive flare was on display off the field, too.
During his adolescence, when he and Zack weren’t enduring the daily grind of baseball, they’d compete head-to-head on MLB 2K5 for hours each day.
The brothers are separated by only three years in age, and they naturally meshed. Brian looked up to Zack on the diamond. He asked his brother for advice on throwing mechanics, pitch delivery, feasible arm slots, all at a young age.
But off the diamond, they were fierce rivals.
Brian said he most often claimed victory during their video game sessions. Zack, of course, said otherwise. However, when Brian did lose, those nearby would endure his wrath.
“He was maybe 4 or 5 at the time, but he broke a video game controller over my thigh, just because he lost the game,” Zack said with a laugh. “I just remember looking at him, speechless, like, ‘What the heck was that?’”
Simultaneously, such actions didn’t surprise Zack. It was, retrospectively, an early sign of the competitive flare that would so often define Brian’s baseball career.
“That’s just the competitive nature in Brian,” Zack said. “If he isn’t first, he’s nothing. He’s gonna be angry about it. It’s win at all costs with him.”
During a premier travel-ball event during his senior year at Land O’Lakes High School, Brian got touched up in his team’s opener. Zack said Brian didn’t utter a word the rest of the day. Pure stone-cold silence.
Days later, in a matchup against the Scorpions Baseball Club, featuring former No. 1 MLB Draft selection Jackson Holliday, OSU third baseman Aidan Meola and others, Brian threw a seven-strikeout, no-hitter through seven innings.
It earned him the side title “Doc,” based off the nickname tethered to former Philadelphia Phillies All-Star pitcher Roy Halladay.
“Even though our names were just totally different,” Brian said with a laugh. “It is what it is, though.”
And the nickname found its way to Brian’s other travel team. Shortly after, his teammates at Land O’Lakes received word.
It stuck. And all Brian could do was embrace it. Which he did.
Soon, Brian “Doc” Holiday became a statewide legend.
Every opposing team knew of him.
They dreaded hearing his name echo over the ballpark sound system when Land O’Lakes’ starting lineup was announced. Zack said he recalled hearing scoffs and grunts from opposing fans when they heard Brian’s name announced.
“Brian is just so determined and driven in everything he does,” Zack said. “His work ethic is through the roof. You won’t find anyone who works harder than Brian.”
By the end of his senior season, he’d built himself a reputation as a ballplayer. All thanks to his grit, passion for the game and the aid of a 12-6 curveball.
Zack was 12 when he learned the art of throwing the 12-6 curve. It did wonders for him until he gave up baseball after his high school career concluded.
Brian’s unorthodox size had always been a turn-off to college scouts. His fastball velocity was average at the time. So, Zack knew Brian needed a pitch that would set him apart from his competition.
During one of their backyard catch sessions, Zack pulled his brother aside and explained the history of the pitch and how to throw it. Naturally, Brian wanted to emulate his brother. Zack initially warned Brian that throwing it improperly could result in damage to his throwing arm.
““Brian just didn’t take ‘No’ for an answer,” Zack said.
So, Zack gave his two cents.
“Look, Brian,” he explained. “if you want to throw this pitch, don’t (jerk) anything. Just throw it naturally.”
The brothers spent multiple days each working on the pitch, until eventually Brian got a feel for it.
Brian’s prior version of a curveball featured a sidearm slot that sent just enough spin on the baseball off the release point to generate a slight drop.
Now, “Brian had a breaking pitch that was three years more advanced than anyone else (his age),” Zack said.
At one point during his freshman season at Land O’Lakes, Brian faced a kid committed to Florida State during an at-bat.
Brian got ahead in the count but struggled to deliver the knockout blow. The opposing batter fouled off pitch after pitch. Eventually, Brian threw Pitch 9 of the at-bat, missing just outside the strike zone for Ball 4.
Once the batter reached first base and handed his shin gear and gloves to his coach, he looked at Land O’Lakes’ first baseman and uttered, “That kid is going places. That is a big-league pitch.”
Eventually, word got back to Zack, who admittedly couldn’t contain his emotions.
“Just hearing something like that after you work so hard to achieve or develop something is so fulfilling,” Zack said. “And it was still a work-in-progress. But to see it start getting noticed was pretty cool.”
It remains a pitch that sets him apart in college baseball. Just like he had hoped when he and Zack first began practicing its mechanics.
“It’s pretty dang high in terms of (curveballs I’ve faced),” said Cowboys’ left fielder Nolan Schubart. “Especially when he’s got his slider and changeup working as well. I mean, it’s pretty gross.”
And the pitch paid dividends once Brian began his chapter at College of Central Florida.
“It’s nasty,” Schuelke said. “He has a tendency to make batters look pretty foolish.”
But the 12-6 curveball isn’t his only unique trait. Enter the Nolan Ryan-variated leg kick.
Early in his freshman season at Land O’Lakes, Brian missed playing time due to a shoulder impingement. So, when he started working to regain pitch velocity and proper mechanics with his assistant coaches, he wanted to try something different.
Holiday grew up idolizing Nolan Ryan. One of his favorite pastimes includes watching old clips of Ryan dominating the rest of the Major Leagues.
So, he tried to emulate what he studied from Ryan.
On every pitch he’d throw, Holiday would kick his left leg up in the air moments before delivery. Soon, it became routine.
Now, it’s part of him.
“The 12-6 curveball, the old-fashioned leg kick — he’s just so unique,” D1Baseball national writer and analyst Mike Rooney said. “Any time I talk to someone from Oklahoma State, they just rave about his competitiveness. He’s a little bit of a mystery, but, of course, in a fun way.
“His whole get-up is just very old-fashioned, and I dig that.”
Brian’s former coaches and teammates don’t have many complaints about him. But Marty Smith, Brian’s head coach at College of Central Florida, had to endure the minuscule total.
“I’ll tell ya, he never wanted to come out of a game,” Smith said with a laugh. “Regardless of his pitch count, his efficiency, whatever, he’d always want to stay in the game and finish it out.
Smith described Brian as an “embracer of the moment.” And why wouldn’t he be?
Brian walked on to Florida Southwestern State College out of high school. Brian said he thought many overlooked his competitive side.
He would have taken a D-II offer, he said. Instead, he settled for a walk-on spot at a junior college.
He was primarily used as a reliever during his lone season as FSWSC. But his stuff and upside were promising enough that Smith offered Brian a scholarship once he sought other opportunities—or entered the junior college transfer portal.
But once Brian added a slider to his pitch arsenal, he became “virtually unstoppable,” Smith said.
“I knew it was good,” Smith said. “He just had the appropriate feel to just have the same feel he has with his 12-6 curve. And it just became another weapon for him and something else hitters had to look forward to. They couldn’t just say, ‘OK, fastball, curveball. Fastball changeup.’”
So, the mound visits were a “hassle” for Smith, he said. Pitching changes were notably worse.
“I always knew I’d have a tough time getting off the mound,” Smith said. “And each time was an adventure. He wanted to stay in the game. It was never ugly. It was always, ‘Hey, I got this. I’ll get out of this.’”
His mound production spoke for itself. Brian finished his sophomore season with a 3.07 ERA through 16 starts and 88.0 innings pitched, striking out 141 along the way. His stellar campaign guided College of Central Florida to an NJCAA national title, where Brian was named the MVP of the World Series.
He committed to OSU in September 2022. But the hype around his name carried more and more aurora and buzz as the months went by.
Eventually, his opportunity at OSU came calling. And the rest is history.
“He always had the track record of being a dominant presence when he performed at whatever level,” Holliday said. “But more than anything, it was the way people spoke about him as a person, his leadership, the way he carried himself. People who encountered him said immediately, he’s just different.
Few are astonished of his immediate success at the D-I level.
From the moment Brian stepped foot on campus at OSU in the fall, everyone close to him knew he was a unique talent.
“You could tell from the start that he was special,” Schubart said. “He’s just so gross. I didn’t get a hit off him in the fall, I don’t think. He pretty much owned me in the fall.”
Throughout the fall, Brian firmly established himself as one of the go-to guys among his teammates and coaches. Now, he’s merely writing his story.
From complete-game efforts against TCU and UCF in the Big 12 Tournament semifinals to the unsung pitching gems against Arkansas, Central Michigan and Houston, Holliday and Co. haven’t shied away from the fortune that comes with having a prospect like Brian on the roster.
And since his first start on the road against Sam Houston State on Opening Weekend, Brian hasn’t looked back. To some, it’s an abrupt rise to the college baseball limelight. But to those close to him, it’s been years in the making.
“Just the way he competes and wants the ball and trusts himself, and just the way he handles things, it’s remarkable,” Smith said. “It’s fun. You want every one of your kids to compete like he does and do things the way he does.”
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