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Baseball in the Netherlands started in 1911 in Amsterdam. The first league (now the Honkbal Hoofdklasse) began in 1922.
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The driving force in the early days of Dutch baseball was J.C.G. Grasé. This man from Amsterdam went to the United States for a vacation. There he saw a couple of baseball games and introduced the game in the Netherlands in 1911. Because of his profession as teacher of the English language, he could translate the difficult rules of the game. The first official games were played in 1911.
On March 12, 1912 Grasé founded the Dutch Baseball Union. Grasé was also the founder of the oldest still existing baseball club in Europe, Quick Amsterdam (March 1, 1913). In those early years the Dutch Baseball Union and Quick Amsterdam were quite the same.
The first official competition was played in 1922. The major league was formed out of four clubs that year: Ajax (a branch of the famous soccer club), Blue White (also a soccer club), Hercules and Quick Amsterdam. Quick Amsterdam became the first Dutch champion. In these early years, people could talk for days about a scoreless inning.
During the first years, baseball is only played in Amsterdam. Later the game is introduced in Haarlem as well. These two cities will dominate Dutch baseball until 1963.
In 1925 a ship of the American Navy visited the harbour of Amsterdam. Players of Blue White heared this news and invited the sailors to a game of baseball. It will be a big deception for Blue White. After one inning the Americans are leading 14-0. After two hours of play, the final score is 27-2.
In the early days the pitcher was the one who could throw the fastest ball. In those days, you were considered a bad sport if you bunted or took advantage of the lack of control by a pitcher. It was considered a humiliation to get a BB. It was far better to hit a fly out than to reach the bases on four balls. Baseball was played in shorts (The White Sox were not unique!).
At the end of the 1937 season, one final game will decide who will be the Dutch champion. EDO from Haarlem and Blue White from Amsterdam, will play each other. The games are still played by the hour. A game lasts two hours. The coach of EDO thinks that he has won the game after the final out of an inning. But according to the umpire there are three more minutes to be played, so a new inning is about to start. The players of EDO are furious and Blue White ended up winning and became Dutch champion. But 1937 was the last year that a game lasted two hours. From 1938 games in the major league will last nine innings.
In 1939 a team of Mormon preachers from Salt Lake City played in the Dutch league under the name Seagulls. They only lost two games (vs Blue White from Amsterdam 7-1 and vs. HHC from Haarlem 6-2).
After the German invasion in May 1940, baseball will live through a hard period. As the war continues, baseball materials get more scarce. From 1943 baseballs were made of some kind of rubber with a cork center. Two hits and the balls did break. These balls were made by the tyre company Vredenstein. These balls didn\'t have any seams so some pitchers cut out a small piece, so they could throw some curves. Because baseball materials were very scarce, clubs were forced to mend cracked bats with screws or whatsoever.
After WWII the Americans helped Europe rebuild with the Marshall Plan. They also sent shiploads of baseball materials to the Netherlands: uniforms in any kind of color, bats, balls etc. Teams like OVVO from Amsterdam and HHC from Haarlem played in red uniforms.
Many games were played against military teams. In their own league, the Dutch could hit quite well, but not against the better skilled Americans. The pitcher Han Urbanus was the best Dutch pitcher in these days. When you managed to get a hit against him, you had a starting spot in the Dutch national team. A Dutch American journalist, Albert Balink, managed two trips to spring training camp for Han Urbanus. This journalist new that the Dutch would need practice to improve. Another player, Martin Jole, went to a spring training camp of the Cincinnati Reds. This Martin Jole, was one of the players that could hit Han Urbanus. He learned the Dutch players that swinging a bat day after day would improve your hitting. Albert Balink also introduced medals for the best players and hitters. In this way he taught that baseball is a sport of stats. In 1953 Han Urbanus got a phone call from the USA. The New York Giants had offered him a minor league contract. He refused. He preferred to teach his fellow countrymen what he had learned in the USA.
From 1949 to 1953 OVVO from Amsterdam dominated Dutch baseball by clinching the national titles in these years. In 1955 the club will win it all one more time. After that year, they will never win a championship again.
The help of the Americans resulted in the first European title in 1956. In Rome, Italy, Han Urbanus seemed a defensive force. And the Dutch batters did very well. Because of the European title, the Dutch were allowed to go to the Global World Series. American coaches like Ron Fraser and Bill Arce helped the Dutch to improve their game. Baseball fields were built everywhere.
In 1963 a real baseball stadium was built in Haarlem. This stadium would be the base of the Haarlem Baseball Week, a yearly event.
Until 1963 baseball was dominated by teams from Amsterdam and Haarlem. But in 1963 Sparta from Rotterdam became Dutch champion. From 1963 to 1974 the club will clinch nine national titles, a record only to be improved in 1985 by Haarlem Nicols. This club is the result of a merger between EHS and EDO, both located in Haarlem. The new club will play its home games in the new Pim Mulier Stadium.
In the early sixties, each team played 14 games. One game every weekend. If your team had a dominating pitcher, he could win 12 of those 14 games and your team would win the pennant.
Dutch baseball is dominated by Sparta from Rotterdam in the first years of the seventies. The magnificent three from the Dutch Antilles are unstoppable: Hudson John, Simon Arrindell and Hamilton Richardson. These three had a big influence on Sparta. But after 1974 it will be over.
At the end of the 1972 season the soccer club Ajax, decides to cut lose the baseball branch. This is the end of a legendary ball club. Soccer players like Johan Cruyff and Johan Neeskens did play baseball. Cruyff was a decent pitcher.
Then at the end of the 1977 season there is some turmoil at O.V.V.O. from Amsterdam. This baseball club is a branch of a soccer club. The soccer (amateur) club is involved in a scandal as the amateur club seems to pay its soccer players. The baseball branch doesn\'t agree and big names like Han Urbanus decide to leave and found a new club: Amstel Tigers. Players like Charles Urbanus jr. (pitcher/shortstop), Jan Hijzelendoorn (pitcher), Paul Smit (catcher) and Don Wedman decide to join. Almost the complete major league team will follow. The Dutch Baseball Federation tries to mediate, but the rebels will not come back. The city of Amsterdam appoints a terrain in the Western part of the city. First Amstel Tigers think that the field will be too far away. But in the end the new club will build a baseball field (Quick Amsterdam, mentioned before, now plays on this field). In the meantime O.V.V.O. can not be persuaded to take a step back to a lower division. Amstel Tigers will start its first season in the overgangsklasse. A league, one level lower than the Major League. With players like the ones mentioned above it won\'t come as a surprise that the club will go to the highest league the next season (1979). Because O.V.V.O. refuses to take a step back, the 1978 season will be a disaster and the team will be demoted. Amstel Tigers will be champion in 1979, 1980 and 1986.
In 1979 a Dutch pitcher makes his MLB debut on the mound in Milwaukee. The Red Sox are trailing 4-1 as they call pitcher Win Remmerswaal. His debut will be a good one even though his team will lose 5-3. After the game shiploads of journalists ask him all kind of questions. They want to know how he did come this far. The MLB career of Win Remmerswaal will only last two seasons due to injuries. After the 1980 season, Remmerswaal will have pitched 22 games (3 victories and 1 loss). His short career in baseball\'s Walhalla has lasted 55 innings. After his Major League career, Remmerswaal went to Italy. He played for several teams for many years.
The eighties and nineties will be bad decades for many baseball clubs. In 1986, Charles Urbanus jr. decides that it will be his last season. On the long run (2 years) this will be a huge blow for his club, Amstel Tigers. Urbanus was a magnet for players. It was an honour to play with him. But an Amstel Tigers without him is not so big anymore. After the 1988 season the club will not be capable to field a decent team. The members decide to vote for a merger with H.C.A.W. from Bussum, a club that did demote to the lower league. In this way the club will play in the Major League in 1989 again. None of the members of Amstel Tigers will play for the new merger club H.C.A.W. – Tigers. In 1988 Giants from Diemen will move to Almere. This move will be the herald of a new club, Almere \'90. Strangly, the new club will not play in the Major League for the last 12 years of the 20th century. In 1994 the legendary Haarlem Nicols will be declared bankrupt.
In 1981 Neptunus (baseball branch founded in 1942) from Rotterdam will win the pennant for the first time. It will be the first of eleven titles in the next decades.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Wikipedia
