by Pim van Nes
For the second consecutive time a Dutch pitcher has been selected for the World Team in the Futures Game organized by Major League Baseball. Last year Rick van den Hurk got the start and the win of the 9th Futures Game and two weeks from today Shairon Martis, 21 years of age, will participate in the 10th Futures Game, hosted by MLB in Yankee Stadium in New York. Both this Minor Leagues All Star Game on July 13 and the Major Leagues All Star Game on July 14 will be attended by Dutch national team manager Robert Eenhoorn. Martis is a frequent national team player, who surprised with a stunning 65 pitches shutout complete game victory in the first World Baseball Classic and later helped the Netherlands with the 2007 European Championship and finishing fourth in the World Cup tournament in Taiwan, following medal winning countries USA, Cuba and Japan.
Martis is the second Dutch pitcher in the Futures Game, but he is also the fourth Dutch player selected for a Futures Game ever. Five times even a Dutch player got this invitation, as outfielder Wladimir Balentien played in the 2006 edition as well as in the 2007 edition. Two months later he debuted for his Seattle Mariners in the Major Leagues. Florida Marlin Rick van den Hurk had already debuted in the Major Leagues 3 months before he played in the Futures Game. The first Dutch player invited for the Futures Game was infielder Evert-Jan’t Hoen, who participated in the first version of this young event, initiated in 1999.
This year’s tenth Futures Game is the third consecutive edition with a share from the Netherlands with Balentien, Van den Hurk and Martis. Three of the four World Team players have played for the national team of the Netherlands: Evert-Jan’t Hoen, Wladimir Balentien and Shairon Martis. Only Rick van den Hurk could escape from an Orange selection by leaving too young for the States, being disabled for a surgery and recovery and being picked quickly from Single A right away to the 25 men Major League roster of the Florida Marlins in 2007.
Repeatedly Van den Hurk as a Major League player has expressed to American and foreign journalists his desire to play for the Netherlands national team too. As soon as he had landed in his native country after his first Major League season, he visited the Netherlands playoff games between Corendon Kinheim and Konica Minolta Pioniers. In December the rookie pitcher spoke in the Dutch federation’s coach clinic in Rotterdam. Now he is recovering from a second medical treatment in the USA, where he was assigned by the Marlins to their AA team in Carolina. The other two recent World Team players work on AAA-level: Balentien returned from Major Leagues to Tacoma Rainiers and Martis was recently promoted from Harrisburg Senators to Columbus Clippers, rejoining his former co-Senator and NT-mate Yurendel de Caster.
The Netherlands has 40 players in American professional baseball. In the Major Leagues Jair Jurrjens with the Atlanta Braves, Sidney Ponson with the New York Yankees and Andruw Jones with the Los Angeles Dodgers. In the Minors we meet four of them on Triple A level: Balentien, De Caster and Martis with the Washington Nationals and Sharnol Adriana in Mexico. On Double A level Gregory Halman, recently promoted from Single A by Seattle Mariners, Roger Bernadina with the Washington Nationals, Hainley Statia with the Los Angeles Angels and Rick van den Hurk with Florida Marlins. Except Van den Hurk all AAA and AA players have already participated in the national team of the Netherlands. So did also Single A players Alexander Smit (Cincinnati Reds) and Loek van Mil (Minnesota Twins), but still waiting for their first NT call up are Single A players Kenley Jansen, Sharlon Schoop and Ulrich Snijders. In Independent League ball are Randall Simon and Ivanon Coffie in addition to 22 players in Rookie and Summer Leagues.
Pim van Nes
Baseball writer for
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