by Pim van Nes
Because of his approaching departure from baseball to soccer, technical director baseball of the Netherlands’ federation KNBSB, Robert Eenhoorn, was invited by Honkbalweek president Frits Mulder to throw the ceremonial first pitch for the present finale game between USA and Japan. The former short-stop with New York Yankees (the last before Derek Jeter) made a decent throw in the glove of USA catcher Chris Okey. Eenhoorn was praized for his work for Dutch baseball and applauded by the 3.000 fans in the stadium.
Also this Sunday afternoon game is being watched by scouting experts from Italy. Since Wednesday Italian national team coach Bill Holmberg was spotted by Mister-Baseball.com in the press-and-scouts box of Pim Mulier stadium, but as from last Thursday also his manager Marco Mazzieri has been attending games of Haarlemse Honkbalweek. “I have seen all games with the Dutch team of course”, he told Mister-Baseball.com just before the finale game, “and I got quite impressed by the young emerging talent at third base of the Dutch team!” The player referred to by Mazzieri is Stijn van der Meer.
Photo by Petra van der Valk