A few biographical tidbits about the Rangers pitcher teammates call "Wonder Boy." You know, the 22-year-old baby-face who started last season near the bottom of the minor league system and has morphed into one of the most valuable commodities in the organization.

Derek Holland was not a child prodigy, a high school phenom or a big-time college star.

Holland, who has settled nicely into the starting rotation, winning his last three starts, was never even the ace of the high school staff back home in Newark, Ohio, which should not be mistaken for a baseball breeding ground.

When his summer league team reached the Babe Ruth League World Series in 2004, the coach never deemed him worthy to start a game.

When he graduated high school in 2005, not a single four-year college offered a baseball scholarship. He might have liked to go just down the road to Ohio State, whose famed football stadium in Columbus he has calibrated sits 43 miles from his family home, but the Buckeyes were not remotely interested.

It was only after Derek's dad, Rick, an electrician, anted up $1,200 to send his son to an Arizona showcase camp that Derek got a chance to pitch after high school. He wowed the coaches and scouts enough to earn a trip to a community college in relatively obscure Hanceville, Ala.

So it's not hard to understand how Holland could sit in the Rangers dugout last week, smiling as a steady stream of teammates made "Wonder Arm" and "Wonder Hands" references, and declare, "I never would have dreamed I could be here already ... but I am glad the opportunity arrived."

Pitching "here" over the last month, Holland beat the Mariners, allowing two hits while finishing one out short of a complete game. He shut out the Angels, allowing three hits in nine innings, beat the wild-card rival Red Sox and Thursday helped staunch a two-game losing streak against the Twins. He has allowed three earned runs in his last 21 innings.

Not a bad month's work for a 25th-round draft choice who signed in May 2007. Now his long-overlooked left arm will have to carry a heavy load if the Rangers have any chance at postseason play.

Perhaps only Wendy Holland, who works in the auto claims department for a giant insurance company and has never scouted another pitcher, knew this would happen. She says she could see what all those early coaches and scouts couldn't because of an incident soon after her son was born. She simply couldn't get her nine-pound baby home from the hospital in the "cute outfit" she picked out, because his hands were too big to fit through the sleeves.

"I knew then and there he was going to be famous for his hands," she declared over the telephone from the family home in Newark. "I knew he would throw a baseball or play the piano."

Her son smiles when the tale is re-told in the dugout. He doesn't shrug or make a son-thinks-his-mother-is-being-silly face. Instead, he volunteers he will be eternally grateful to his parents for showing faith and support when others did not. His success is their success.

And then Holland quickly added that he has no hard feelings toward those who were less supportive.

RICHARD W. RODRIGUEZ / Special to DMN

Texas Rangers pitcher Derek Holland signed as a 25th-round draft choice in May 2007 but has had a rapid rise through the organization.

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"To be honest, I was not very good," he said. "I was a typical lefty. I had two pitches, a fastball that didn't have much speed and a change-up that didn't fool many people."

That fastball traveled in the low 80 mph range, which most certainly would have doomed him to life in baseball's slow lane had he not had the good fortune to be invited to Wallace State Community College, which bills itself as "a power in the Alabama Community College Conference."

Wallace State coach Randy Putman never saw Holland pitch at the showcase camp in Arizona. He wasn't there. But a former player who now scouts for the New York Mets was, and he recommended two pitchers from Ohio. One had the potential to be a star, the scout gushed. The other was Derek Holland.

And so Holland packed all his worldly possessions in an ancient rusted Honda Accord with more than 200,000 miles of service, glided through Columbus, and headed 600 miles south to learn how to pitch.

Putman liked the raw Holland the first time the two met, but it was not so much for his pitching ability. The coach found he had a "yes sir, would do anything kid" who soaked up instruction and applied lessons almost immediately. The coach put Holland on a strength program while pitching coach Chuck Davis concentrated on correcting mechanics. Both preached the importance of challenging hitters. Almost overnight, the pitcher's velocity rose to a more respectable 90 mph.

"His competitive desire and fire were unmatched," Putman said.

But the most important moment in the relationship between coach and pitcher came early in the freshman's 2005 fall season. Holland was in the midst of yet another poor pitching performance when the two visited on the mound.

"I told him I was tired of seeing him pitch like a sissy," Putman recalled over the phone from his office in Hanceville. "Only I didn't say 'sissy.' I said a lot of things I told him he could think about heading back to Ohio. Some folks may say I scared him. I'd say I motivated him."

Holland vividly recalled the moment. He remembered already allowing three runs in the first inning, the site of the game, the time of day and having his manhood challenged.

"He knew I had a little bit of talent and I could pitch if I stopped trying to be too fine and threw the ball," Holland said. "He was just making a point. If it wasn't for him coming out that day and ripping into me, I don't know where I would be now."

Holland pitched well enough the rest of the season to impress major league scouts. The Rangers drafted him in 2006. The rules then allowed him to return to school for his sophomore year before making a decision. He continued to improve his second year at Wallace. He finally signed in May 2007, forgoing an invitation to pitch at Arizona State University.

Two good seasons at Arizona State, and Holland might have been a first-round pick in the June 2009 draft. Seven-figure contracts trump five-figure deals.

"But there would have been the risk of injury," Holland said. "Besides, I was ready for professional baseball. All I wanted to do then is what I want to do now – play the game the way it is supposed to be played."

He credited lessons learned from coaches and trainers at whirlwind minor league stops in Spokane, Wash.; Clinton, Iowa; Bakersfield, Calif.; and Frisco, where his fastball topped out at 96 mph, for helping his steady improvement.

Rangers pitching coach Mike Maddux called Holland a very quick learner who has the ability to understand concepts on the fly. "If he stays healthy and continues to progress, he could be a nice piece for the Rangers for a very long time."

For now, Holland said, he remains very much a student of the game. The only concession to celebrity is that the old Honda is gone, replaced by a Cadillac Escalade EXT. He remains a creature of habit, always among the first to report for workouts and the last to leave.

When the Rangers are at home, he eats breakfast at the same Denny's every morning. And every night before he pitches, he pops in a DVD and watches the same scene from For Love of the Game, a 1999 Kevin Costner baseball movie that he has watched since his first year in junior college. Holland studies Costner as he makes his way from the clubhouse to the mound and delivers the first pitch.

"As soon as the umpire yells 'strike one,' I turn it off. I really have never seen the whole movie. I hope it has a happy ending."

Just as Rangers fans are hoping for Derek Holland.

Born: Oct. 9, 1986, Newark, Ohio

Throws: Left

Ht./Wt.: 6-2, 185

Did you know? Holland was named Nolan Ryan Minor League Pitcher of the Year in the Rangers organization for 2008, going 13-1 with a 2.27 ERA at Clinton, Bakersfield and Frisco. He was named to Baseball America's minor-league all-star first team.