James William Holt (May 27, 1944 – March 29, 2019) was an American professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to catch ...

and

first baseman A first baseman, abbreviated 1B, is the player on a baseball or softball team who fields the area nearest first base, the first of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. The first baseman is responsible for the majori ...

Career

He graduated from Graham High School (North Carolina), also known as Graham Colored High School, and was drafted by the Kansas City Athletics in 1965. He was also drafted by the U.S. and his subsequent service in Vietnam delayed the start of his professional baseball career. He made his major league debut on April 17, 1968 and played his last game on October 3, 1976. On the Arizona Instructional League team in 1967, Holt batted a team-best .367 on the Athletics' affiliated squad that also included

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, and

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. Holt was an

and

with the

Minnesota Twins The Minnesota Twins are an American professional baseball team based in Minneapolis. The Twins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. The team is named afte ...

from 1968–74 and

Oakland Athletics The Oakland Athletics (frequently referred to as the Oakland A's) were an American Major League Baseball (MLB) team based in Oakland, California from 1968 to 2024. The Athletics were a member club of the American League (AL) American League We ...

from 1974–76. As a member of the

1974 World Series The 1974 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 1974 season. The 71st edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff played between the American League (AL) champion (and two-time defending World ...

champion Athletics, he had a pinch-hit single in game two, which the Athletics lost to the Dodgers. He drove in 2 runs with a pinch-hit single in game four, which the A's won. He had a career batting average of .265 with 19

home runs In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run ...

and 177

runs batted in A run batted in or runs batted in (RBI) is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored (except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play). For example, if th ...

in 707 games. He was good defensively, recording a career .993

fielding percentage In baseball statistics, fielding percentage, also known as fielding average, is a measure that reflects the percentage of times a baseball positions, defensive player properly handles a batted or thrown ball. It is calculated by the sum of putout ...

playing at all three outfield positions and first base. In 3621.1 innings in the field, Holt committed only 12 errors. He played in 4 World Series games and 8 American League Championship Series games. After his major league career ended, he played with the Chihuahua Dorados in 1977 and the Monterrey Sultanes in 1978, both in the Mexican League Northeast. He died on March 29, 2019, at 2:08pm in the small Osceola Community, North Carolina; which is, located just north of the city of Burlington, in Alamance County.James Holt obituary

References

External links

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SABR Biography Project
1944 births 2019 deaths African-American baseball players American expatriate baseball players in Mexico Arizona Instructional League Athletics players Baseball players from Alamance County, North Carolina Denver Bears players Dorados de Chihuahua players Florida Instructional League Twins players Major League Baseball first basemen Major League Baseball outfielders Minnesota Twins players Navegantes del Magallanes players American expatriate baseball players in Venezuela Oakland Athletics players Peninsula Grays players People from Graham, North Carolina Sultanes de Monterrey players Tacoma Twins players Tigres de Aragua players Tucson Toros players 20th-century African-American sportsmen 20th-century American sportsmen 21st-century African-American sportsmen {{US-baseball-first-baseman-stub