After a shocking 7-6 upset over Cuba, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, AKA “Honkbal”, is headed to San Francisco for the WBC semi-finals, with only a relatively meaningless game for seeding remaining against Japan before they head to America, and, no doubt, total world domination.
So, with that in mind, it may be a good idea to check out this link, which serves as a English-to-Dutch dictionary for baseball/honkbal terms.
It is well known that I am a big fan of the Dutch word for baseball: Honkbal. In Dutch, apparently honk means home, purpose or goal, but thanks to the fact that it means something entirely different in English, it is, well, an inherently fun and an inherently funny word to us. And the style of play of the the Dutch National Team, who upset Cuba yesterday, is infectious, a team of athletic, smooth-fielding players who won’t let the fact they play for a country that isn’t among the traditional baseball powers stop them from showing that they belong.
And, by the looks of what was trending late last night, I’m not alone in having Honkbal fever:
Honkbal fever- catch it!
What, did you expect me to do the Dominican Republic first after I did Team USA? Well, sorry to disappoint, as I’m focusing on the Dutch today.
The Netherlands may seem, on the surface, to be a country unlikely to be a baseball power, but that is only when one assumes that “The Netherlands” is just the country in Europe. In reality, “The Netherlands” in baseball competition (and certain other forums) is the “Kingdom of the Netherlands“, a sovereign state that includes not only the Netherlands but also it’s Caribbean holdings, most notably Curacao and Aruba.
You can find the roster for the Netherlands here, although there is a slightly different- and possibly more up-to-date version- here, go after the jump for my analysis of it.
The Netherlands was the biggest surprise of the 2009 WBC, defeating the Dominican Republic twice and advancing to the second round. Then, in the 2011 World Cup, they actually won the whole tournament, beating out the mighty Cubans in the finals. Clearly, the Dutch are the class of European baseball, and have taken their place as one of the finest baseball nations in the world… sort of.
I say “sort of” because the Netherlands is something of a misnomer. When you first hear of a Dutch baseball team, you might think that they are all from Holland, perhaps playing Honkbal (as baseball is called in Dutch) by windmills or dykes. However, that isn’t exactly true. You see, the Kingdom of the Netherlands is a far larger state than simply Holland. Several Caribbean countries, such as Curacao and Aruba, are part of the Netherlands. This isn’t to say that there aren’t baseball players from the European Netherlands- there are, and in fact one of the two professional baseball leagues in Europe is based there.
The Dutch figure to bring the majority of their previous international teams to the 2013 WBC, featuring players from the US Minors, the Dutch Hoofdklasse and perhaps a few Major Leaguers. They certainly won’t be favored to make noise in the tournament, but it’s unlikely that they will go quietly, and it’s possible that the Oranje just may again shock the world.
So, after much research, the Dutch national team can be found under the jump. The usual rules apply:
The Baseball Continuum 