Honkbal! Netherlands Bids to Host MLB in 2014
On Wednesday, a story appeared that a Dutch delegation is getting ready to make its final bid to host a Major League Baseball game in 2014, centered around a new stadium capable of seating 30,000 to be built in Hoofddorp, a small city outside Amsterdam. (Significantly, the story indicates that American baseball people have assisted them with the text, which indicates that there is a high chance the bid will be accepted.) Bert Blyleven‘s homeland made a surprising run in the 2009 World Baseball Classic — the Dutch team stunned Dominican Republic twice and finished seventh out of 16 teams — but most American baseball fans still don’t have much sense of the baseball past, present, or future in Netherlands.
Then again, neither do many of the Dutch. As Rogier van Zon, editor of the main Dutch baseball site honkbalsite.com, explained in a 2009 interview with Patrick Newman:
Maybe it is hard to believe, but when the Dutch beat the Dominicans and advanced to the second round, there was hardly any newspapers or tv stations in the Netherlands that brought the news. The only media attention was a small article on one of the last pages of the sports section. Except baseball fans, probably the most people in the Netherlands didn’t even know what the Dutch team had done. Baseball isn’t a popular sport in the Netherlands.
Still, Netherlands has long been the baseball powerhouse of Europe — as van Zon says, the Dutch team has won the European Championship 20 times since 1956. Indeed, Holland is probably the greatest baseball country outside the Americas and East Asia, both through the Caribbean islands of the Netherlands Antilles (particularly Curaçao, but also Aruba, home of Sir Sidney Ponson), and also in mainland Holland. Baseball has been played by the Dutch for a century, introduced in 1911 by an English teacher from Amsterdam who discovered it on a trip through America. The Dutch major league, founded in 1922, is called Honkbal Hoofdklasse (“honkbal” is Dutch for “baseball”). It’s made up of just eight teams, and is an amateur league, not professional, though van Zon explains that each team is permitted one player without a European passport, a bit like the Japanese “suketto” system that allows a limited number of foreign players on a team.
Netherlands has also provided more of a pipeline to the majors than you might think, and it goes beyond Rik Aalbert Blijleven. Though Bert Blyleven himself is quite something. Of all players (UPDATE: I should have said, of all major league players) born outside the United States and Puerto Rico, only seven, from seven different countries, have ever been inducted into the Hall of Fame. Blyleven is only the second Hall of Famer born outside the Americas, and the first, Harry Wright, was born in England in 1835. The complete list:
Harry Wright – Great Britain
Rod Carew – Panama Canal Zone
Luis Aparicio – Venezuela
Tony Perez – Cuba
Fergie Jenkins – Canada
Juan Marichal – Dominican Republic
Bert Blyleven – Netherlands
As of 2009, van Zon indicated that there were 13 Netherlands-born players in the American minor leagues, along with an additional 40 born on islands in the Netherlands Antilles, including Curaçao and Aruba. Just three months ago, the Pittsburgh Pirates signed 18-year old Dutchman Danny Arribas. In addition to Blyleven, there have been eight other major leaguers born in Netherlands, including Greg Halman, Rick VandenHurk, and Robert Eenhoorn, who is sort of the face of Dutch baseball: he’s the former manager of the Dutch national team and current Technical Director of the Royal Dutch Baseball and Softball Association. (Eenhoorn was an infielder with the Yankees in the mid-’90s, and has the distinction of having been beaten out at shortstop by Derek Jeter.)
Netherlands already hosts two prominent baseball tournaments, the Haarlem Baseball Week in Haarlem and the World Port Tournament in Rotterdam — the most recent WPT concluded in July, with Taiwan (or Chinese Taipei) defeating a Cuban team which had won the previous six tournaments. The tournaments take place every two years in an alternating cycle, with the Baseball Week in even years and WPT in odd years.
Dutch players also participate in the European baseball championships, the Baseball World Cup, and of course the World Baseball Classic. Players on the 2009 Netherlands WBC team included both prospects and retired veterans, from Ponson and Randall Simon to VandenHurk, Halman, and Kenley Jansen (who at the time was still a catcher in the Dodgers organization). Eenhoorn has said that he turned in a plan for a European Professional League, made up of club teams from across Europe, which was announced in 2008; since that time, however, no further news has emerged from MLB or Baseball Europe.
Last year, Major League Baseball explored sending teams to Italy for spring training. Before the Dutch submitted their current bid, MLB apparently approached the country to see whether it would be possible to host major league games in Netherlands in 2012, but apparently the Hoofddorp stadium simply was not able to be ready in time. Italy and Germany also expressed their intention to submit bids for 2014, but MLB’s director for Europe told a Dutch reporter in May: “Your country is in pole position now.”
In an email to me, van Zon said:
I guess if it is necessary to submit a bid then there is no certainty… But I do think that in Europe this is the most serious attempt so far.
…
It is a fact that Dutch baseball continues to get better. The Netherlands is already in the top 6 of the world. And the youthplayers are getting stronger each year. This is also evident from the participation in the Little League World Series last month.
Understandably, van Zon doesn’t want to get too optimistic. But barring unforeseen complications, it seems very likely that the Major Leagues are coming to the Low Lands, and soon. Once that happens, the Dutch influx into the major leagues is only likely to increase. The Dutch don’t yet have a team good enough to barnstorm against Major Leaguers, and the traveling MLB squad may not get a chance to see the Dutch play. But the Dutch will see them. And that will only raise the profile of the sport in the country, encouraging even more people to play their country’s century-old sport. Baseball has gotten a great deal more global under Bud Selig’s tenure, and Selig has long desired to establish a foothold in Europe. He may soon get his wish.
MLB just an hour from home, SWEET :)
“born outside the Americas”
Do you mean born outside the US? Canada (North America), Venezuela (South America), and Panama (Central America) are all in the Americas.
As I wrote above, Bert Blyleven and Harry Wright are literally the ONLY TWO Hall of Famers born outside the Americas, because everyone else who is in the Hall of Fame was either born in North, South, or Central America.
Sorry, I was confused by the text.
When I saw your list of players from outside the United States or Puerto Rico, I immediately noticed one name missing, and on looking it up there were more.
Cristobal Torriente — Cuba
Jose Mendez — Cuba
Martin Dihigo — Cuba
Also, Harry Wright was inducted as a pioneer/executive, not a player. There have been plenty of other people inducted as pioneer/executives who were born outside the Americas — Henry Chadwick (England) and Barney Dreyfuss (Germany) spring to mind.
Jim, you make a good point, and the way I’m defining it is rather nitpicky, but: to Major League Baseball’s everlasting dishonor, Martin Dihigo, Jose Mendez, and Cristobal Torriente never played in the major leagues. They played in the Negro Leagues, and were inducted for their stellar play in that league.
I’m only talking about major league players — and though Harry Wright was not inducted for his play in the major leagues, he nonetheless was a major leaguer.
Alex Remington hates
blackbrown people.No.
Interesting, as I have to assume that getting players from the Dutch would be preferable in the sense that you can likely avoid the “Miguel Tejada is two years older” syndrome, and avoid the sharks that people call agents down in Latin America.
Very nice article. I’m infatuated with Honkbal and Dutch players in general, so I hope they get their bid.
That said, the repeated omission of the definite article from “*The* Netherlands” was driving me absolutely bonkers!
Eric, I actually had a conversation about that with my editor, who thought it sounded weird too. I made the choice to avoid the definite article. I don’t know if any native Dutch would disagree with my decision, but the political name of the country is Netherlands, as indicated in the CIA World Factbook, and using the definite article is nonstandard for most countries.
For countries where it was standard in the past, such as Ukraine, the use of the definite article has since been rejected under current editorial practice as being subtly disrespectful. The reason is that the definite article in the name of a country tends to indicate an instrumental use of that country’s name.
For example, in Russian, “Ukraine” means “at the edge,” so calling it “The Ukraine” effectively accepted the Russian government’s none-too-secret position that Ukraine was effectively a country whose sole existence was defined by their border with Russia.
“Netherlands,” of course, means “Low lands,” or “low countries,” and that’s what the country is called in virtually every language — “Pays-bas” in French, “PaÃses Bajos” in Spanish, “Paesi Bassi” in Italian. The reason, of course, is that much of the country’s land lies below the water level. (And, yes, the definite article is often used too, but the use of the definite article in those languages is far more regular than it is for English, and therefore far less nonstandard when it comes to the name of a country.) Calling it “The” Netherlands simply seems slightly disrespectful to me, seeing the country’s name more as a descriptor and less as a proper name.
Of course, I call it “The” United States all the time. But I’d feel really weird about calling it “The” Costa Rica or “The” Puerto Rico.
Feel free to disagree with my reasoning, but that’s the reason I wrote it that way.
Just don’t call our country Holland!
Bert Blyleven calls it Holland
Fair enough. I have trouble seeing the marginalization in this particular instance, and question whether such a subtle statement is worth distracting from your writing with jarring, non-standard usage. However, I do very much appreciate you taking the time to explain your reasoning to me.
Linguapolitics and honkbal!
You are missing a k in Linguapolitiks
It is The Netherlands like it is The United States and The United Kingdom because it refers to multiple countries forming a single state.
This could refer to the fact that the Netherlands used to be autonomous states that formed a republic (The Republic of the Seven Netherlands), it could refer to the years after Napoleon that the Belgians and the Dutch formed a single country for 15 years which was called the Kingdom of the Netherlands, or it could refer to the modern position where the kingdom is formed by the Netherlands, Aruba, Curacao and Sint Maarten. Ofcourse the latter would be odd since the Netherlands would be called the Netherlands since it contains the Netherlands and other states.
You’ll be glad to know that in Dutch we just use the singular so its Nederland or Netherland.
Yep. The fact that “Nederland” is singular in Dutch, not plural, also informed my decision. It also informed my decision to use the singular form of the verb in the headline: “Netherlands Bids to Host,” not “Netherlands Bid to Host.” Of course, in the UK, unlike in the US, countries are treated as collective nouns — so they’d say “Netherlands Bid” anyway.
” Of all players born outside the United States and Puerto Rico, only seven, from seven different countries, have ever been inducted into the Hall of Fame.”
You omitted three additional Cuban Hall of Fame players: MartÃn Dihigo, José Méndez, and Cristóbal Torriente.
See above: Dihigo, Mendez, and Torriente never played in the major leagues, and so were excluded according to my (perhaps questionable) definition.
I have a friend who plays pro baseball in Sweden of all places and he says that the quality of play over there has grown a great deal since he has been there.
It is cool that your friend is improving the play in Sweden.
I believe Andruw Jones also played for The Netherlands in the 2006 WBC…?
He did. Not very well though :(
Sharon Martis threw a 7 inning perfect game against Panama that the Netherlands won on the mercy rule
HONKBAL!
Exactly. This awesome word might be the single best reason to support baseball in the Netherlands.
For those of you who don’t know: the sport is called honkbal over here because a “honk” is a base, and a “bal” is very obviously a ball.
Personally, I’m not interested at all in our national competition, but if MLB teams are coming that close to my hometown, that would be pretty awesome.
this is exceptional news. from now on i will be referring to walks as “honks on bals” and doubles as “two-honkers”. actually, if someone could teach me to count to 4 in dutch that’d be really fantastic
een twee drie vier
Actually it might be fun to know the proper Dutch terms
strike – slag (slag actually means hit)
ball – wijd
base on balls – vier wijd
walk – vrije loop
single – honkslag
double – tweehonkslag
run – punt (point)
out – uit
stolen base – gestolen honk
pitcher – werper
catcher – achtervanger
first baseman – eerste honkman
second baseman – tweede honkman
third baseman – derde honkman
short stop – korte stop
left fielder – linksvelder
center fielder – midvelder
right fielder – rechtsvelder
That’s as entertaining as explaining to a non-baseball fan how a man can actually walk with four balls. Har Har.
Gestolen honk! This is a great language.
The only thing going against it is calling runs “points”.
cktai – THANKS for that list … agree totally that it sticks out that run = point??? Bleh :-(
It’s also not obvious why strike = hit???
So, is a triple = driehonkslag?
And then a home run = vierhonkslag? I’m surprised it doesn’t get its own special name …
What do they call “home plate”?
It’s apparently a great language for swearing, too. Would love to hear the audio of a manager and an ump arguing a close play in Dutch.
At least they’re “punts” which is different and better than points.
actually I’m not aware of any Dutch name for home run. we just call it home run. Also I dont really know how they started calling strikes “slag” I always seemed reasonable to me until I started writing it down. I think it refers to a hitting opportunity. the dutch word wijd means wide.
home plate = thuisplaat
bat = knuppel
at bat = slagbeurt
ball (as in the thing you throw) = bal
“outside the United States and Puerto Rico.” Puerto Rico is part of the US, just like Washington DC–also not a state, also does not get to vote, but does get to pay taxes.
Still not sure? If you go to Puerto Rico from a state, have you left the country? Nope. No customs to clear, you are still in the same old country.
Anyways, same thing with Panama Canal Zone.
Yes. Still, though Rod Carew was born in the Panama Canal Zone, he is typically described as a Panamanian, not as an American. In a similar way, Clemente, Cepeda, and Alomar have been very proud to represent Puerto Rico in the Hall of Fame, rather than the United States of America. While all were born in countries that were United States possessions at the time of their birth, none was born in one of the 50 states of the United States of America, and the politics of American ownership of the Canal Zone are considerably more contentious than those of P.R.
So I described it as “the United States and Puerto Rico” in order to make it clear that I was including Puerto Rico. Perhaps a better phrasing would have been, “the United States including Puerto Rico.”
For one thing, there’s a difference between a state and a nation. Puerto Rico is universally considered its own nation for international sporting competition.
That’s the soccer equivalent of being the best MLS team. *grin*
A MLB game in *The* Netherlands will probably be the first ever below sea level.
I’m sure the Marlins Mermaids play below sea level.
http://mlb.mlb.com/fla/fan_forum/history.jsp
Came across a recap of the first game in the Holland Series:
http://nos.nl/video/269751-holland-series-2011-eerste-duel.html
Really cool that mlb is trying to develop the game in Europe through bringing their teams for spring training or reg season or even through the baseball tomorrow fund to help build fields… Gotta keep it up, I’m from france and the sport is still unknown(10,000 players out of 60 million people).
Personnally i believe it’s very important to have kids play the game during physical education classes, even if we simplify the rules or the equipment used(maybe no gloves, play with a soft touch ball..). It might be more important to try to develop the game within schools and showcasing the game to a broader mass than bringing over mlb teams for games that will be followed exclusively by people who already play or know the game.
Baseball writing has advanced from poetic mysticism to a fully contextualized article such as this. Alex can mix it up about saber and poly sci, notice the nuanced understanding of Russian-Ukrainian dynamic in the comments. Remington proves you have to know a little about many things to understand a lot about a specific thing. Well done.
Thank you. Though, in my opinion, there’s nothing wrong with poeticized mysticism, in its place. I grew up reading “The Kid Who Only Hit Homers”; I bet a lot of us did. But everything is certainly better with context.
Even though I will go and watch the MLB games in 2014 (assuming they will be organized), organizing just one or two MLB games in The Netherlands, or in Europe for that matter, won’t suffice to make the game more popular in Europe. MLB must understand they need to intensify their cooperation with individual (national) european country baseball associations far beyond what they currently do through Europe’s participation in the Little League program. Admittedly, that’s a heck of a job, requiring a much different approach than in USA, as most european countries don’t have a school-sport system like what is existing in the USA. MLB’s will need to adapt their role and make it suitable to function in Europe. It will just take a long time to create the basis of a broader baseball culture than what we currently already have in The Netherlands. But we (incl. MLB) need to be patient and give it a chance. For example, MLB should take a very close look at Rick van der Hurk’s “European Big League Tour” initiative, and build on that model.
If MLB doesn’t take serious building up baseball from the very bottom (youth development), I predict the same will happen as what happened with NFL in Europe: they failed miserably. So MLB: develop bottom up, not top down!