I'll be there in May. What are the chances of seeing a baseball game while I'm there? The World Baseball Classic starts this week. It is what made me think of this. I was hoping to see a soccer (football) game too in Holland or the UK, where I will be stopping before heading home. I think soccer is only on the weekends, so that will mostly likely have to be in the UK.

I did a quick search online and couldn't find anything I could read! I was hoping a local here could give me a little info on this.

Bert Blyleven should be in the Hall-Of-Fame.....

Block

Rik Aalbert Blyleven had 250 losses in his career..

Too many IMO, to make the hall

Best Regards


Smuler

Niekro,G. Perry,Nolan Ryan.....All more losses but they too played on some horrid teams at points in their career.

A few years back I was sitting in Maxeys coffeeshop in Maastricht (great shop) and I was talking sports with a couple of the locals. I had a Yanks hat on and one of the fellows asked me about baseball. I mentioned that Blyleven was Dutch....when I made that comment a third local turned around and simply said "he should be in the hall" The other guys had no clue as to what he was talking about and myself and him got a laugh.

I understand Blyleven is Dutch and a coach for the team in the upcoming World Baseball Classic. I was hoping to see a game in the Netherlands in May though.

Interesting to see that the topic of baseball come up. I was talking to my youngest son about Netherlands and baseball tonight, and I was explaining to him who Bert Blyleven is. I have made a point of meeting and having some clinics with coaches and umpires in the Netherlands. The interest is growing there, which I find fascinating. I watched the Red Sox win the World Series in some pub at around 6:00 am in 2004 in Amsterdam......... a great baseball moment for me, and it is an Amsterdam memory. And yes I know, it will NEVER be as popular as football (soccer.) in the Netherlands, but it just never thought I d even see it brought up on this forum.

Look even for you weak hitting sore armed old guys the NL's could be your ticket to a "professional" career in baseball.


Not the Netherlands but one of the kids in the family ( a decent 4 year starter but certaily not great college player) spent a wonderful summer getting paid to play baseball in Belgium. Play and coach since he knew more about the game than anyone asoicated with the team.

A summer he will remember for the rest of his life.

Any ideas on a schedule for May?

Bac si , a couple years back I ran across an add looking for Americans that had played baseball at about any level. They were most interested in finding someone who could still pitch a little and be willing to teach the local players how to pitch and throw a curve. I can assure you if I had ran across 20 years ago I would have been on the next flight over.

Baseball (called "Honkbal" in dutch) is a relatively small sport in Holland.
So even though Holland and Italy usually end up 1 and 2 in Europe, worldwide I don't think they've ever won something big.

Guess that's why it's difficult to find a decent website with a schedule for 2009.
Only one I could find was this one:

http://www.honkbalsite.com/competitie/2 ... lagen.html

Looks like there's plenty of games in May.....

Just turned on my tv to see the Dutch leading the Dominican Rep. 3--0 after 2 innings. Can it last?

It did

The Netherlands just beat the DR

HUGE International upset

Congrats Holland...

next..Puerto Rico ??


Best Regards

Smuler

That was pretty remarkable. I hope that someone who is both baseball and soccer knowledgeable can put the magnitude of this upset in perspective for our friends who are not "baseball literate". The Netherlands- Puerto Rico game is at 18:30 EDT on Monday. Since the US goes on daylight time in a few hours I think that's 1:30 on Tuesday in Holland.

The Dutch beating the Dominican team is one of the biggest upsets in International sports history. If baseball was big in the Netherlands they would close the schools and and have every single policeman/woman working today. Thats how huge that was... But it is'nt so carry on... Blyleven does not belong in the Hall..sorry.

Note that the Dominican Republic has so many every day players on it's roster

The only guy I recognize from the Netherlands roster is " has-been " Sidney Ponson...


http://web.worldbaseballclassic.com/ros ... eason=2009


Best Regards

Smuler

Rick VandenHurk from Eindhoven started four games for Florida last year. I was watching one of the games tonight and the announcers said that the combined payroll of the Dutch team was around $400,000 last year. The combined salaries of the Dominican team was around $80,000,000. The pitcher who started yesterday's game for Holland, Robbie Cordemans, made $40,000.00 last year. ESPN pointed out that that is half of what Alex Rodriguez makes per game. It's a shame that discussions of professional sports seem to turn to money at some point but I thought that those figures illustrated the magnitude of yesterday's upset.

Actually Arod makes about 170.000 per game!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I turned it on in the 9th inninng and thought I was hallucinating. But I did wonder how it played out in the media in Holland. It probably got more press in the USA, but for sure in the Hispanic countries. I was really happy for the Dutch team.

The Dutch beat the Dominicans again and advance to the next round. What a ball game. Kudos to the Oranje.

Netherlands won again!!! Beating the Dominican Republic twice is unbelievable!!!!!

Dutch win! The Dutch win again! In 11 innings, they won against the DR again. I certainly would like to see a game in May now!

I'm rooting for the Netherlands to go all the way!!