by Pim van Nes
With so many baseball tournaments being hosted in southern countries in Europe, northern country Netherlands has a very useful sponsor in travel organization Sudtours, specialized in south bound trips. Founder and owner Hans Mosselman was awarded as the best sponsor for KNBSB during the 2008 ceremony for the best players of Hoofdklasse baseball and softball. 2008 Baseball MVP was named Pioniers catcher Mark Duursma, elected before nominees Bas de Jong (L&D Amsterdam) and Tjerk Smeets (Corendon Kinheim).
Mark Duursma was also the best hitter based on batting average. Only in the last few regular season games Duursma managed to gain first position in the ranking preceding two more catchers: Sidney de Jong (best catcher of the Olympic Games in Beijing) and Martijn Meeuwis (who joined the Olympic selection to China as stand-in catcher and outfielder). Mark Duursma did not, contrary to his brother Michael Duursma as shortstop. In 155 at-bats Mark Duursma produced 60 hits for a season average of .387.
Beating clearly the two other nominees Leon Boyd (DOOR Neptunus) and Patrick Beljaards (Kinheim), Rob Cordemans got the 2008 best pitcher award during the ceremony organized by KNBSB in the House of Sports, the multiple-federations office in Nieuwegein, near Utrecht. The Sparta/Feyenoord pitcher kept his ERA as low as 0.86 and the opponents’ batting average at .162. Due to an early season injury Cordemans could not totalize as many pitchers wins as Patrick Beljaards (11), but his 9-0 record was close enough to be added to more first pitching rankings, such as most strikeouts (112).
Debutant manager Rikkert Faneyte of Amsterdam Pirates received the award as best coach of the year. Faneyte played for the Pirates in Hoofdklasse seasons 1985 thru 1991 and 1997 thru 2001. Between 1991 and 1997 he was a professional player in the United States, where he made his Major League debut in 1993 as an outfielder for the San Francisco Giants, starting a career of 80 games in the Majors. As from 2006 Faneyte has assisted in the Amsterdam coaching staff, but this year’s first time as head coach turned out to be victorious.
Konica Minolta Pioniers had several individual successes in yesterday’s ceremony, because not only Mark Duursma was elected MVP and best hitter, also Jourick Blanco (picture shows the two teammates) was awarded as Homerun King of the season. He produced six, as many as Amsterdam catcher Sidney de Jong, who however needed three at-bats more than Blanco (133). Jermaine Esprit of Mr. Cocker HCAW was honored for most stolen bases: 18 in 21 attempts.
Also the youngsters in the Sudtours Hoofdklasse were awarded. The Guus van der Heijden Memorial Trophy for the best international player under 23 went to Amsterdam’s pitcher Pim Walsma. The Roel de Mon Award for best pitching talent in the Hoofdklasse was handed to Kinheim pitcher Robin van Eis and the Ron Fraser Award for the best developing junior player was DOOR Tridents player Erik van Dorp. Guus van der Heijden was a president for the KNBSB and the CEB, Roel de Mon by far was the best pitcher in the Netherlands during the 40s and 50s of last century and Ron Fraser was the first American manager of the Dutch national team.
Pim van Nes
Baseball writer for
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Photo: © Ron Wickert, www.eott.nl