 Breaking News: Rob Cordemans to play for ADO!
Nederlands
  THE HAGUE / AMSTERDAM -
Veteran pitcher Rob Cordemans will play for ADO in the new season!
The news of the unexpected transfer broke these days, less than a week before the transfer period ends.
With the transfer, Cordemans returns to the club where he played earlier in 2006 and 2007.
Somewhat over a week ago, on October 15, Cordemans was the starting and winning pitcher for the Dutch Baseball Team in the final of the World Championship against Cuba in Panama, resulting in the first-ever and historic world title for the Netherlands.
Amsterdam's Head Coach Charles Urbanus confirmed the transfer on Wednesday-evening.
,,I'm not happy with this'', he stated.
,,It came unexpected for.
Rob was very satisfied with us and has had an unbelievable good season, probably one of the best, if not the best, of his career.''
,,I'm very disappointed for two reasons'', Amsterdam's Chairman and sponsor John Witte reacted.
,,The first is that I don't understand the transfer sportively seen and that it not matches earlier statements.
The second is the late period in which the transfer occurs, putting us in a difficult position, unless we do the same to approach other pitchers, but that doesn't fit in our policy.
Of course, this is a set-back, but we're not in panic, we will have a good team again next season.''
Bart Volkerijk, Chairman of ADO, also confirmed the transfer on Wednesday-evening.
,,We're working on creating a new face of the topsport-part of ADO.
For that, we've found some new sponsors, making it possible to acquire Cordemans, who wants to help us climb back to the top.
The success of the Dutch Team resulted in several companies having more interest in sponsoring.''
This season, Cordemans was the pitching ace for L&D Amsterdam Pirates, with whom he captured the Dutch championship title.
Cordemans, who turns 37 this week, finished the regular season with a 9-1 record and league-best 0.31 ERA.
In 88 innings, the righthander struckout a league-leading 127 batters and walked only 10, while giving up only 40 basehits and five runs (three earned).
This was Cordemans' second season in Amsterdam.
Before coming to Amsterdam, Cordemans played two seasons for Sparta-Feyenoord in Rotterdam.
Rob Cordemans started his career with The Hawks in Dordrecht, but then went on to play for Neptunus in Rotterdam.
There, he made his big league-debut in 1994 and played the majority of his 18-year career on the highest level.
Cordemans became the ace in the pitching staff of Neptunus, where he played for 12 seasons (1994-2005).
Hereafter, he threw for ADO in The Hague in 2006 and then tried his luck to become a professional pitcher in the Taiwanese Professional League.
He got a contract to play for the President Lions, but was released in mid-season and returned to the Netherlands, where he finished the season playing for ADO.
In 2008 and 2009, he returned to Rotterdam to play for Sparta-Feyenoord.
While playing for Neptunus, Cordemans won eight Dutch championships, seven European Cups, three CupWinners Cup and seven Super Cups.
On June 7, 1995, Cordemans made his debut in the Dutch National Team during an exhibition game and went on the become a solid starter, appearing in almost 50 international events.
With the Dutch squad, Cordemans participated in four Olympic Games (Atlanta, 1996; Sydney, 2000; Athens, 2004; Beijing, 2008) and in both editions of the World Baseball Classics (2006, 2009), but also seven European Championships (1995, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2010), seven World Championships (1998, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011) and five Intercontinental Cups (1995, 1999, 2002, 2006, 2010).
This month, by participating in his seventh World Cup, Cordemans became only the second player in history to have participated in seven World Cups and seven European Championships.
The other is pitcher Bart Volkerijk, who played in nine European and seven World Championships and nowadays is the Chairman of the Board for ADO.
In 2009, Cordemans broke Volkerijk's record to become the pitcher with the most games pitched in the Dutch national team.
Volkerijk was recordholder with 71, but Cordemans now has 81.
Cordemans was named Best Pitcher of the Dutch big league five times, in 1999, 2002, 2003, 2005 and 2008, and will be a prime candidate again this season.
With the move, Cordemans moves from the team that won the Dutch championship to the club that almost relegated this season.
With a 5-37 record, ADO finished in last place in the Dutch big league and therefore again had to participate in a Promotion/Relegation Play-Off.
In this best-of-five, ADO won 3-1 vs. Euro Stars to secure its spot in the big league for next season.
Throughout this season, it rumored that ADO was in financial problems and even might withdraw its team from the highest division.
,,That's true, we've stated that ourselves also'', Volkerijk confirms.
,,That's not completely solved yet, but there are positive curves.''
ADO is now in a merger-talk with Losdun Lakers, another baseball- and softball-club from The Hague.
Volkerijk: ,,That will strenghthen our base, resulting in a club that has 22 teams to become a financially sound club''.
(October 26)
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