According to Honkbalsite.com the 34-year-old outfielder Dirk van’t Klooster of the Hoofdklasse club Corendon Kinheim returns to the Dutch National Team. He accepted an offer from head coach Jim Stoeckel, who took over at the helm of the national team during the winter, succeeding Rod Delmonico.
Van’t Klooster retired from his international career after last year’s World Baseball Classic and didn’t play in the World Port Tournament and the Baseball World Cup. With him back on the team currently 30 national team players are working out regularly in preparation of the Haarlem Baseball Week and the European Baseball Championship in Stuttgart, Heidenheim and Neuenburg, Germany in July. Before the start of the tournament in Haarlem the roster will be reduced to 24 players.
Being absent from the International Baseball stage last summer Raily Legito passed Van’t Klooster (211) on the all-time list with 217 games for the Dutch National Team. Van’t Klooster was number one since 2007. He is batting .377 (OBP .435/SLG .519) with seven extra base hits, 17 runs and ten RBI in 19 games this season. On Monday he hit a game-winning homerun in the ninth to beat L&D Amsterdam 7-6, completing the sweep for Kinheim, which ranks second behind DOOR Neptunus in the Hoofdklasse standings.
Photo: © Ron Wickert, www.eott.nl