Who’s Who in the England Team
Doc Holden—Captain, Scarboro' Seagulls, 1937. Now catches for Greenfield Giants. A safe hitter. Known as the crooning baseballer.
Leo Joseph ‘Doc’ Holden (1906–1967) was the joker in the pack. A ‘radio entertainer with guitar and banjo’, Canadian Leo Holden arrived in the UK in 1935 to pursue a career in entertainment but, by 1937, had settled in Leeds and by the next year, would be married to local woman Emily Rushworth. Although he continued to appear on radio when opportunities arose, his main occupation was first baseball and then groundsman at a greyhound track.[i]
Although born in Winnipeg, it was in British Columbia that Leo Holden made his name as a baseball player. His big brother, Larry Holden, was already a star of the Vancouver Senior City Amateur League, playing for the Vancouver Firemen, when, in 1928, Leo joined him on the West Coast. After two seasons with the Vancouver Knights of Columbus, Leo Holden moved to Victoria and there, really got down to work, revealing himself to be an ace hurler for a succession of teams in the Victoria Senior Amateur League, including the Jokers, the Sons of Canada, and Green Mill. This all while nursing a tubercular knee that left him with a limp.[ii]
(As an aside, a third Holden brother, Roy, also became a star of the Vancouver Senior amateur scene.[iii])
It was small wonder that George McNeil snapped him up to become the Scarborough Seagulls’ lead pitcher when he settled in Yorkshire in the summer of 1937. (Holden actually started as catcher to McNeil was pitcher, but it wasn’t long before McNeil realised that their positions should be reversed).[iv]
By the start of the 1938 season, Holden, like many of the pro players, had defected to the International Baseball League (IBL) in the face of the NBA’s merging of the North of England League and Yorkshire League and introduction of a cap on the number of pro players per team to two. Holden, now settled in Leeds, played first base for the Leeds team during the IBL’s brief existence (Ross Kendrick was Leeds’ pitcher). Then, like the best of the IBL’s players, Holden had to go cap in hand to the NBA for a berth in a Yorkshire–Lancashire League team when the IBL folded. Thus, it was while playing as catcher for the Bradford (Greenfield Giants) team that Holden, one of the best pitchers in the English leagues, was selected for the 1938 England team (probably at the recommendation of George McNeil, his captain at Scarborough).[v]
Holden began the 1939 season playing for Leeds in the Yorkshire–Lancashire League. He sparkled at the bat but once more found himself relegated to catching duties. For a reason that I cannot determine, he disappeared from the Leeds roster midway through June. It was probably a blessing, as the Leeds team would go on to have one of the worst runs of any team in any NBA league, losing every one of its 12 games.[vi]
Holden remained in Leeds throughout the war, raising a family, working in a glassmaking factory by day, and managing a cinema in the evenings. He also served in the Home Guard. He also continued to play baseball in an amateur league. Another of the baseball-playing Holden brothers, Roy, like big brother Larry, a fixture in the Vancouver Senior City League, paid Leo a surprise visit in 1941 when he arrived in England with the Sappers. Holden returned to Canada with his English family after the war. He died there in 1967.[vii]
The real joker in the pack, it is something of a mystery why Leo Holden did not have a more substantial career in England. It is true that by the time he arrived, the appeal of American baseball had already peaked, and it may be that he was more focused on the entertainment career that, after all, is what brought him to England in the first place. A case of what could have been…
[i] Radio entertainer: ‘Baseball Exhibition at Thrum Hall’, Halifax Evening Courier, 17 May 1938. This is also the profession he lists on his entry in the passenger lists for the SS Andania, arriving Liverpool, 4 Ocober 1936, UK and Ireland, Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878-1960. From the latter, his biography can be traced back to the 1931 Canada Census, Victoria, British Columbia, and forward to his date of death, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/249420345/leo-joseph-holden, ancestry.co.uk, Ancestry.com Inc. Operations, accessed 1 August 2025. Marriage: https://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/search.pl, entry for Leo Joseph Holden cross-referenced to Emily Rushworth, second quarter 1938. Groundsman: entry for Leo J Holden, Leeds, 1939 England and Wales Register, ancestry.co.uk, Ancestry.com Inc. Operations, accessed 1 August 2025. On the radio in 1939: ‘Broadcasting Ronight’, Staffordshire Sentinel, 13 January 1939.
[ii] The BC baseball careers of Larry and Leo Holden can be assembled from information at Jay-Dell Mah’s indispensible Western Canada Baseball website: https://www.attheplate.com/wcbl/index.html, accessed 1 August 2025. That this Leo Holden is Winnipegger Leo Joseph Holden can be confirmed by the biography provided here: ‘Leo Holden’, Victoria Daily Times (Victoria, BC), 21 August 1938. This is firther supported by Leo Joseph Holden having a brother Lawrence Bernard Holden (1906–1990): see findagrave entry, Note 43 above. That Leo Holden and Doc Holden are one and the same is confirmed by a piece in the Sports Mirror Column, Times Colonist, 16 February 1940. Tubercular knee and limp: Stu Keate, ‘Reunion in Leeds’, Province (Vancouver BC), 19 February 1941.
[iii] See Note i above, final reference.
[iv] Catching for Seagulls: ‘Baseball: Hull’s Cup Tie Success’, Hull Daily Mail, 2 July 1937; pitching for Seagulls: ‘Baseball: Hull Again Beat Seagulls’, Hull Daily Mail, 2 July 1937.
[v] Holden in IBL: ‘Baseball: Giant Win Three-Run Game’, Hull Daily Mail, 4 June 1938. Playing for Bradford: ‘Baseball: Teams for League Cup Match at Bridlington’, Hull Daily Mail, 2 August 1938.
[vi] Holden sparkling with the bat in 1939: ‘Baseball: Hull Win a “Thriller” at Leeds’, Hull Daily Mail, 12 June 1939. Leeds bottom of the table, no wins, 12 defeats: ‘Baseball: Grey’s Final Visit to Halifax’, Rochdale Observer, 5 August 1939.
[vii] Pete Sallaway, Sports Mirror column Victoria Daily Times, 28 March 1944.