Kinheim: European Champion risking European Suspension

by Pim van Nes

The Dutch Final Four will take off on Thursday with two series for the best-of-five between the numbers one and four and between two and three. Five days after the first ever Final Four organized in Spain by European federation CEB for clubs from Mediterranean countries, many northern countries in Europe continue their major and minor league competitions. So are the four clubs in the Netherlands, 1500 km north from Barcelona, to meet in the semi-finals of the Hoofdklasse playoffs. Participating clubs in games one are European champion 2007 and 2008 Kinheim, European champion 1994, -96, 2000, -01, -02, -03 and -04 Neptunus as hosts and visitors Amsterdam and Pioniers.

Regular season finished with fully booked programs last weekend with Kinheim winning first spot in final standings thanks to their 6-0 victory over Sparta/Feyenoord on Saturday and with Neptunus securing the second spot thanks to their 10-0 victory over Pioniers on Sunday. Defending champion Corendon Kinheim will receive Konica Minolta Pioniers in Pim Mulier Stadium in Haarlem and in Rotterdam DOOR Neptunus will receive L&D Amsterdam in the Familie Stadium. Since the Parma dynasty in Europe ceased in the mid nineties of the last century, clubs from the Netherlands have dominated European baseball with presently the latest two crowns for Corendon Kinheim. However, it looks like 2009, the year of European cooperation to regain Olympic qualification, will start with European Cup tournaments in April without European King Kinheim just because of the Olympic Games.

Although the International Olympic Committee IOC had ruled out baseball from its worldwide podium effective after the recent Games in Beijing, it now looks like the European Baseball Confederation CEB has ruled out Olympic Games with retrospective effect. CEB seems to ignore the last Olympic Games hosting baseball, despite of IBAF president Harvey Schiller desperately seeking reunion for baseball with the Olympic family of Belgian Uncle Jacques Rogge. In Antwerp, Belgium, the board of Corendon Kinheim will have to explain and to apologize its absence in Barcelona during the first ever Final Four tournament.

These two games for four clubs, according to CEB, should have gotten priority though initiated and published too late and scheduled too early by CEB. Only Italian short season [edit: the Spanish season ended in early August] finished the weekend before the Final Four, all other countries in Europe still played ball during the event. Also in the Netherlands, where the postseason will last until mid October, without any chance of flexibility for the clubs schedules. Their players, including seven from Kinheim, had to defend national and continental colors in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, since their national team became European Champion 2007 in Barcelona. Hoofdklasse games had to be interrupted for this reason till three days after the Beijing closing ceremony, but CEB intends to punish the Netherlands club and players for playing Olympic Games besides official games of their national major league.

Pim van Nes
Baseball writer for
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