A Baseball Life: Matthew Holliday

Baseball is a lengthy game, you have to stay until the 9 th inning to see the final result.
At 23, Matthew Holliday, first baseman for Hong Kong baseball team, is still at the“early innings” of his baseball life. His ultimate goal was just like every baseball player, to play in Major League Baseball.
Hong Kong had given him the start, but lacking of competitions and exposure, Hong Kong was also the place that held back Holliday’s development.

“Hong Kong can play,” Holliday commented on how good was the Hong Kong baseball team. At the Asian Games, Hong Kong weren’t anywhere close to be one of the favorites like South Korea or Japan. However, Hong Kong players surprised the other teams. Holliday hit a solo homerun against a Korean professional pitcher became the biggest surprise of the whole tournament.

“The first at bat against him, I was grounded out by a pretty good pitch, a breaking ball,” Holliday said, “so the second at bat, I was just geared up for the fastball, hefinally threw me one at the right spot, I just swung as hard as I could.”

Born in Hong Kong, Holliday went to international school, not knowing much Cantonese, his first year with the Hong Kong team wasn’t easy, “but we knew each other better after a year, and they were really nice to me.”

If you ever went to Sai Tso Wan at night, you would probably have heard people yelling “Pikachu”. They were calling Holliday, due to his shape and his swinging motion, it just looked like the anime character swinging its tail.

If you did not take him seriously, Holliday could hurt you easily with a long bomb,just like the cute Pikachu, maybe that was the reason people gave him that nickname.

On the field, Holliday used his solid defense and batting abilities to bring victory to his team. He was also a humorous nice young man.

Holliday found his interest with baseball, watching people playing TV when he was 8. At first, he said he was not really good at it, just tried to enjoy the game. Until he pitched for the first time, he realized he was really in love with baseball. However, playing baseball in Hong Kong was not an easy path.

Asked if he ever felt Hong Kong was pulling him back, Holliday was straightforward.

“Maybe a little bit, we want to play more games. Playing more games is just a better experience, you can get more exposure.”

Holliday was frustrated about Hong Kong’s lack of competition. “We practice every day and play games against each other, it’s just seeing the same thing over and over again. It’s okay, but it’s not helping you develop,” said Holliday.

Even lamenting how Hong Kong did not provide a chance to its players to go further,Holliday still thanked this small city gave him chances to play against good international teams like Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, and he knew “Hong Kong baseball is on the right path.”

Holliday recently signed his first professional contract with United Shore Professional Baseball League, an independent league based in Detroit, Michigan. Joining theWestside Mammoths, the Hong Kong first baseman would start his season this May.

Found in 2016, USPBL had a significant number of players signed by MLB teams, it was safe to say Holliday was also on the right path.

Holliday might be the Hong Kong player closest to the MLB, and yet the distance was still miles away. However, his game was still at the “early innings”, let’s buckle up and see where Holliday’s bat would take him to.