by Guus Mater
Hardly no softball player is as international as Brenda De Blaes. Born and bred in Antwerp, De Blaes played for clubs in her home country Belgium, then in the Netherlands, in Italy and USA. Now, aged 35 years young, she plays second base for Team Australia and hits an average of .389 during the prelimanary round of the Women’s Softball World Championships in Haarlem, Netherlands.
,,This is a fabulous tournament” , says De Blaes, despite of several rainy days and games delayed due to rain and field conditions. For the first time in three years, she is back in Europe and will be able to visit friends en relatives of her younger years in neighbouring Belgium. “Because I still feel hundred percent Belgian. For sure I still know what a “frietkot” is”. (Frietkot is Flemish word for a small stand for French fries, GM).
Long ago she started playing baseball and softball for Pioneers, a small Antwerp team. ,,I was looking for an aggressive kind of sport”, she remembers. In those days, boxing was not really an option. After a career in Belgium, where she reached the national softball team, she traveled to Twins in Oosterhout for five seasons in the Netherlands league, Italy for seven seasons combined with Bollate and La Loggia. Additionally De Blaes played some summerball in the USA.
Since 2008 she has an Australian passport. That document was delivered too late for her to join the Australian national team, when it participated in the Olympics in Beijing the very same year. For the sake of love she has chosen to be Australian, since her life partner is another Australian women softball player. The couple lives in sunny Brisbane.
De Blaes considers she had her best years in Italy as an semi-pro, where she played ball in 250 games collecting 34 homeruns among 297 hits in 756 at-bats and an on-base percentage of .496. About European softball, represented in Haarlem by the teams of Czech Republic, Great Britain, Italy and the Netherlands, De Blaes is not too optimistic. ,,The level is not as high as it was some years ago. I have no real explanation for that. They lack American coaches and they should play more games. Also, there’s not much money involved.”
After the tournament (“Of course, we will win!”) and some family visits, De Blaes will return to Australia, in order to continue playing her favorite game. She loves it and she feels fit. ,,I am gonna play until I am sixty”, she says. No worry about De Blaes’s Olympic career, as when softball is back on the Olympic program in Tokyo (2020), she still will be on the field. De Blaes intends to stay active for another quarter century, now having already a quarter century career in softball leagues. Performing in that way, De Blaes is a perfect example of physical fitness.