Bench clearing brawl between Hoofdklasse finalists 2006 and 2007

May 22

by Pim van Nes

Last weekend KNBSB had two games scheduled between CORENDON KINHEIM and MINOLTA PIONIERS. Saturday’s game in Haarlem was postponed for rain and Sunday’s game in Hoofddorp started under sunny conditions, but stranded in a mass fight around second base. Two earlier double plays by PIONIERS had been broken up by offensive base running by KINHEIM, which resulted in the hospitalization of PIONIERS shortstop Mervin Gario after the second incident. In the bottom of the sixth inning, when PIONIERS wanted to react on KINHEIM come back from 5-1 behind to 5-5, Edwin de Graaf wanted to steal second base for PIONIERS, but KINHEIM shortstop Roel Koolen tagged him out, closing the inning without damage to the 5-5 score.

Though the attendance was about to prepare for the seventh inning, KINHEIM infielders ran into the light collision at second base, immediately followed by their outfielders and by PIONIERS players clearing the bench in their dugout. Despite of their cold blooded reputation, Dutch players started a real fight with slamming and kicking from both sides. In conformity with a new regulation requested by clubs and stipulated by KNBSB for bench clearing brawls, home plate umpire Edwin van den Berg called the game over. Coaches and players will be punished, causing decrease of quality in both teams in the next few weeks. Last two seasons PIONIERS and KINHEIM had been finalists in Hoofdklasse playoffs and this season they had occupied top two positions in the early ranking: KINHEIM runner-up now after leader PIONIERS.

Yesterday the game, rained out on Saturday, was played by KINHEIM and PIONIERS in Haarlem’s Pim Mulier Stadion. Each club was completed by players from their lower teams, because several regular players had been suspended by the federation in a speedy manner. PIONIERS took an early 2-0 lead, but KINHEIM again came back from behind and won the nine-innings game by 10-4. The gap between the two clubs narrowed, but DOOR NEPTUNUS, sweeping ADO in two games, profited immediately and may profit even more by the fight between the two competitors of 2006, 2007 and 2008 so far. The recent decade multi champion club from Rotterdam has apparently been woken up from the two knock-outs by the other Rotterdam club, SPARTA/FEYENOORD. NEPTUNUS made progress in the Hoofdklasse ranking from fifth to second position now and SPARTA/FEYENOORD maintained playoff position by repairing a home defeat with a road victory in two games versus L&D AMSTERDAM.

On Thursday the first half of the Hoofdklasse ranking will play versus clubs from the second half. Number one PIONIERS meets number eight MEDIA MONKS RCH, number two NEPTUNUS meets number six AMSTERDAM, number three KINHEIM meets number seven ADO and number four SPARTA/FEYENOORD meets number five MR COCKER HCAW. If everything then happens as expected, Hoofdklasse will have the third weekend clash between leader PIONIERS and their immediate runner-up. Between May 1 and 4 PIONIERS beat AMSTERDAM all three times, last weekend PIONIERS was to face KINHEIM for two games and next weekend PIONIERS will play a home game in Hoofddorp and a road game in Rotterdam versus present number two NEPTUNUS. PIONIERS is a feared opponent for NEPTUNUS, since the last two years NEPTUNUS suffered early defeats by PIONIERS in the semi finals of the national playoffs. This time it seems as if NEPTUNUS manager Eric de Bruin has refreshed his selection in preparation for European Cup games in Regensburg in June and looking forward with more optimism to coming up games versus PIONIERS.

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Sunday, May 18 2008