Now that 25-year-old left-hander Derek Holland has established himself as a bona fide Major Leaguer, he might be setting his sights on another high-profile stage. The Rangers' pitcher with the wispy but well maintained mustache may be eying a cast spot with "Saturday Night Live" if this whole professional athlete thing somehow doesn't pan out.
One night after tossing 8.1 scoreless frames as the Rangers won Game 4 of the World Series, Holland was asked to conduct an in-game interview with FOX broadcasters Joe Buck and Tim McCarver during the third inning of Game 5. After dispensing with the who, what, where and why of his sterling, Series-tying performance on Sunday, the topic shifted toward Holland's skill at impressions. First up, Holland gave a spot-on take of Ron Washington as the Texas skipper pulled him from Sunday night's game. Then, at the prodding of Buck, the gregarious Holland called part of Matt Holliday's at-bat against his teammate C.J. Wilson as longtime Cubs broadcaster Harry Caray.
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Buck so enjoyed Holland's willingness to play along that he seemed to momentarily lose sight of the fact that a fairly significant ballgame was taking place.
Joe Posnanski I admire the guts of Holland doing that Harry Caray impression on National TV but ...
Seeing as how Holland is 25 years old, he may actually be more familiar with Caray by way of comedian Will Ferrell's signature impression of the iconic broadcaster. Among Ferrell's go-to impressions during his stretch on "SNL", the idiosyncrasies of Caray -- some exacerbated by a 1987 stroke -- are familiar to a generation too young to have ever tuned in to WGN to hear him bellow "Cubs win! Cubs win! Cubs win!"
WATCH: Will Ferrell's Harry Caray Impression
After coaxing out the Caray impression, Buck prevailed upon Holland to deliver his Arnold Schwarzenegger impression as the broadcast went to commercial at the middle of the third inning.
Again, Holland's impression -- definitely a bit more ramshackle than his Caray -- may be at least as dependent on other impressions as it is on the source material. Perhaps it's the version of Arnold from Conan O'Brien's late night show that provided that inspiration here?
Of course, with Arnold it can be hard to know if you're getting an impersonator or the genuine article.