Giants' Derek Holland now pitching for family's favorite team

SAN FRANCISCO

On the night Derek Holland’s team lost the World Series, his uncles tried to hide their utter delight.

Sitting in the Texas Rangers family section for the decisive Game 5, on Nov. 1, 2010, lifelong Giants fans Warren Henderson and Wesley Henderson even pretended to root against their favorite team. They kept their “SF” hats stowed away for the evening.

Maybe they fooled their fellow spectators.

But their own hearts weren’t buying it.

“Inside,” Wesley says now, “I was really rooting for the Giants.”

There’s no more acting required: Derek Holland is one of them now, having signed with the Giants and securing a proper family reunion.

“Now I can say I’m living a dream with their favorite team,” Holland said recently.

The crazy thing is, neither of his Giants-mad uncles live anywhere close to the Bay Area. And other than a few fleeting visits to Candlestick Park in the late ’60s (for Wesley only), the bulk of the Giants “games” the uncles saw in person consisted of Strat-O-Matic simulations in their basement back in Ohio.

“Most of the time, I was the Giants manager,” Wesley recalled. “Because I always thought I could do a better job than the actual manager.”

Even now, they root from afar. Wesley, 60, works for the Postal Service in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. Warren, 53, is an airline pilot in Arizona.

But, boy, do they ever love the Giants.

“They’re diehards, to be honest,” said Holland, who allowed five runs (three earned) over five innings against the Dodgers in his Giants debut last Saturday. “When I told them I’d signed with the Giants, they were pretty ecstatic about it. They were quizzing me on some of the stuff.”

It’s funny to think Wesley and Warren were quizzing Holland on anything because they already speak like longtime Giants season-ticket holders.

You half-expect their closet is full of old Croix de Candlesticks and Ron Herbel bubblegum cards.

When asked who some of his favorite players were over the years, Wesley mentioned Willie Mays and Willie McCovey of course, before earning his orange-and-black stripes.

“Jack Clark. Darrell Evans. John Montefusco. Jim Barr. Gary Lavelle. Randy Moffitt,” he said.

And little brother?

“One guy I really liked was Rich Aurilia. David Bell. Obviously, Barry Bonds. Randy Winn. Oh, man. You’d have to give another day to come up with a complete list,” Warren said. “There are just so many guys. Will Clark. Jeffrey Leonard. Chili Davis. Candy Maldonado. Kevin Mitchell. Bob Brenly. Mike Krukow ...”

Their sister, Wendy, is Derek’s mother. Their fandom can be traced to one of their father’s military stops. Walt Henderson was stationed at the former Castle Air Force Base in Atwater (near Merced) from 1967-70. During that time, Wesley made two trips with his Little League team to see the Giants play in person.

He saw McCovey’s mammoth frame patrolling first base and Mays’ cap flying off in center and Jim Ray Hart hitting balls to the moon and Tito Fuentes turning slick double plays.

Above all, he saw that glorious old bucket of seats called Candlestick Park. “I’m jealous of that,” sighed Warren, who was too little to go.

The family was stationed in Puerto Rico for a few years after that before settling in Newark, Ohio (where Holland would grow up). There was a pretty good baseball team in Cincinnati in the 1970s, and Warren originally fell under the spell of the Big Red Machine.

“I was impressionable,” he explained Thursday.

But his older brother kept singing the virtues of Montefusco and Johnnie LeMaster and Chris Speier and by 1977 or ’78, Warren forever changed his allegiance to San Francisco.

Now, the uncles share the same favorite player. They’re both high on a veteran left-hander who bucked long odds to make the opening day team after signing as a minor-league free agent.

Holland, 31, impressed in spring and, in the wake of injuries to Madison Bumgarner and Jeff Samardzija, will spend the early season as the No. 3 starter.

Not long ago, Holland was one of the Rangers’ most dependable starters. He had his best season in 2013, when he had a 3.42 ERA over 213 innings, with 189 strikeouts and 64 walks.

Holland threw his four-seam fastball at around 95 mph in those days, but injuries (notably left-knee surgery and a subscapular shoulder strain) put his career in jeopardy.

He pitched 135.0 innings for the Chicago White Sox last season. But his four-seamer dipped into the 91-mph range, and batters teed off. After a strong start, he faded and finished 2017 with a 6.20 ERA.

One hand: “It sucked,” Holland said. “It was just a dark time.”

On the other hand, at least he was pitching again - this time injury free.

“I get it: I had a 58.00 ERA or whatever,” he said. “But you know what? I competed every single time out. I never gave up and continued to fight. Despite what was going on, I continued to push away.”

His velocity is still in the low 90s, but the Giants think he can reinvent himself thanks to improved command of his changeup. And a couple of longtime Giants observers agree. Warren, the Arizona resident, saw Holland pitch a lot during spring training and noticed a difference.

“Last year, for some reason, he got really flat in his delivery ... You pitch the same plane and hitters are not going to be fooled,” he said. “(In spring), it was coming out of his hand a lot better, and it was definitely working downhill.”

Of course, his uncles would have been plenty happy to see Holland win a championship in 2010, even if it hurt along the way.

But rooting for him in 2018 will be a lot easier. After Holland officially made the Giants roster in spring, Wesley texted him a with message: “Go get yourself a ring now with the good guys.”

“They were very happy,” Holland said. “And I am, too.”