by Pim van Nes
Robert Eenhoorn strikes again. Effective on January 1st 2009 he became the first Technical Director Baseball of the Netherlands federation KNBSB. Before the end of 2008 Eenhoorn was already involved strongly in the contracting of American baseball coach Rod Delmonico as his successor in his previous position as national team manager. Today the federation announced that within a few weeks, two American pitching coaches with family ties in the Netherlands were signed for the Netherlands national baseball team.
In December Bert Blyleven agreed to be pitching coach for the Netherlands towards and during the second World Baseball Classic, to be held in March 2009. Blyleven was born Dutch in the city of Zeist, near Utrecht, but later as an adult he played as a Major League pitcher during 23 years. Now, in the early days of the new year 2009, the first press release under Eenhoorn’s responsibility as technical director announced that Jim Stoeckel, Director of International Operations of the Cincinnati Reds since over two years, agreed to be pitching coach of the Netherlands national team this season after the World Baseball Classic. During this tournament Stoeckel will be bullpen coach.
It will be fourth time that Stoeckel will be involved with Netherlands baseball, because he was already national team manager from 1981 through 1983 and a second long term from 1989 through 1991. He also helped the Netherlands out for one special tournament in Taiwan in 1984. In 1981 he was assistant coach at Harvard University, when he signed with KNBSB. In 1989 he was head coach of Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina. Since 1983 he has been pitching coach and international scouting coordinator for the Los Angeles Dodgers organization and till 2006 for the Indian River Community College in Fort Pierce, Florida. In November 2006 he was appointed Director International Operations by the Cincinnati Reds for the seasons 2007 and 2008.
Stoeckel was one of the American scouts, who inspired young talents in the Netherlands to try their luck in American baseball in the eighties. This inspiration was extended by the next national team manager Pat Murphy, which resulted in the first flows of players from Hoofdklasse across the Atlantic Ocean. All of them improved their performances and some even made it to the Majors. Robert Eenhoorn was an infielder in Stoeckel’s Davidson College, when he was discovered by New York Yankees scouts. Their contract was the start of Eenhoorn’s stairway upwards to Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. Now Eenhoorn has chosen Stoeckel to enforce his national team coaching staff in the Netherlands.
On January 20, the two new American coaches Delmonico and Stoeckel, will arrive and settle in the low country behind the North Sea dikes. Last summer they worked together in MLB Academy for Europe, financed by the Italian Olympic Committee CONI in Tirrenia, near Pisa. They got acquainted in Italy working for European players and this year they will cooperate again for Netherlands players only. In 1981 Stoeckel debuted as Netherlands manager with a surprise victory for his home grown Hoofdklasse players beating in a best-of-five final in Haarlem an Italian team despite of many players imported from USA, who had dominated European baseball in 1975, 1977 and 1979. Later that year the nearby city of Leiden registered the birth of Elisabeth Stoeckel, daughter of Jim and Suzy.
Pim van Nes
Baseball writer for
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