by Pim van Nes
According to USA media the surprising Netherlands were the darlings of the recent World Baseball Classic because of their team spirit and passion, which brought them in Round Two, shocking American hotels and other franchises. The players were already checked out by the hotel management in Portorico and in the sports shops in Miami, Florida stocks were piled up with Dominican shirts and only one Netherlands shirt.
The best part of the Netherlands team was pitching and defense. Four pitchers kept their opponents scoreless by conceding no earned runs and no runs at all. All four pitchers play or played their regular season games in the Dutch major league, called Hoofdklasse. The best of them all was Rob Cordemans, the 34-year-old right-hander of the fusion club Sparta/Feyenoord in Rotterdam. In 3 World Baseball Classic games he collected 6.1 innings with no runs and an ERA of 0.00. By doing so, he preceded three other Dutch pitchers with same ERA (0.00) but in less innings: Tom Stuifbergen in 4 innings, Alexander Smit in 3.1 innings and Diegomar Markwell in 1.1 innings.
The Netherlands played 6 WBC games with 28 players without a Major League position 2009 versus American selections loaded with Major League players: 2 games versus Dominican Republic, 2 games versus Puerto Rico, 1 game versus Venezuela and 1 game versus United States of America. Cordemans played a key role as stopping reliever in the two victories over Dominican Republic and he shared in the 3-1 lost game from Venezuela blanking their offense during his two complete innings.
Cordemans was a darling for American correspondents like Jack Curry of the New York Times, but now back in Rotterdam he was also darling for the barbecue fans in the free entry ballpark of his club Sparta/Feyenoord. With an apron as a body protector he took care of the hamburgers and chicken legs on the second day of the Hudson John Tournament, organized and hosted for the 11th time by the fusion club. On the field three Dutch clubs and one Belgian played each three pre-season games. Namur Angels from Belgium was the first ever foreign club in the history of the event, replacing L&D Amsterdam Pirates due to European obligations in Italy.
The other club from Rotterdam, DOOR Neptunus, won the 11th edition of the Hudson John Tournament with three shut-out victories: 9-0 over Sparta/Feyenoord on Friday, 5-0 over MediaMonks RCH on Saturday and 11-0 over Namur Angels on Sunday. Best pitcher of the tournament was lefty Diegomar Markwell (Neptunus) with another ERA of 0.00 and his first baseman Jeffrey Arends became MVP and best hitter, thanks to 10 hits out of 11 at-bats and a slugging of 1.455. Starting pitcher for Neptunus’ game 3 was 16-year-old Niels Hartevelt, who kept the Belgians hitless during his three innings on the mound with 2 strike-outs and 1 walk conceded.
All games results: Sparta/Feyenoord – DOOR Neptunus 0-9, MediaMonks RCH – Namur Angels 4-0, Namur Angels – Sparta/Feyenoord 1-18, MediaMonks RCH – DOOR Neptunus 0-5, Namur Angels – DOOR Neptunus 0-11, Sparta/Feyenoord – MediaMonks RCH 6-3.
Pim van Nes
Baseball writer for
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