Rogier van Zon of Honkbalsite.com reports that the 54-year-old Charles Urbanus Jr. will take over as head coach of 2008 Dutch champion L&D AMSTERDAM PIRATES. Chairman John Witte said that his name was right at the top of their list of candidates. He will succeed Rikkert Fanyete, who was at the helm for the last two seasons.
Urbanus Jr. played 15 years in the Hoofdklasse after his debut in 1971 and won awards for best batter, best pitcher and most valuable players during his active career. He also played in 131 games for the Dutch national team and was inducted into the hall of fame in 1997.
At the beginning of the 1990ies he was the head coach of NEPTUNUS ROTTERDAM and won the league title in 1991 and 1993, as well as three European Cups. Since 1995 he coached several teams for AMSTERDAM and led the Rookie team of the PIRATES to two national championships the past two years.