(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photos courtesy of Curaçao Baseball Week/Leonid Antonia Photography)
 Softball-game, fireworks closes successful Curaçao Baseball Week
Nederlands
 WILLEMSTAD / SANTA ROSA (Curaçao) -
The third edition of the now-annual Curaçao Baseball Week ended on Friday-evening (December 4) with Ball Park Night and fireworks to conclude a week of clinics and games at Tio Daou Ball Park at Santa Rosa.
Participating in the event were most Curaçao-born players, who are now playing professionally in the USA.
Some of those players also have played in the past for the Netherlands Baseball Team or are (still) current members of the national squad, which participates under the name of Kingdom of the Netherlands in events as the World Baseball Classic and the recent Premier12.
Amongst the participating players were Wladimir Balentien, Andruw Jones, Didi Gregorius, Jonathan Schoop, Jurickson Profar, Shairon Martis, Hainley Statia, Kalian Sams, Chris Garia, Diegomar Markwell, Kevin Moesquit, Dashenko Ricardo, Gianison Boekhoudt, Randolph Oduber, Carlton Daal, Sherman Lacrus, Juremi Profar and Ozhaino Albies, as well as coaches Hensley Meulens and Ben Thijssen.
Meulens led the Netherlands Kingdom Team as Manager during the Premier12.
Meulens is the Hitting Coach of the San Francisco Giants and was the first Antillian player to reach the Major League when he made his debut in 1989 playing for the New York Yankees.
Gregorius, Schoop, Profar, Martis play in the Major League, Jones and Balentien have played in the Majors.
Balentien currently is popular in Japan.
Also participating were Netherlands Team Manager Steve Janssen and KNBSB's Technical Director Gijs Selderijk.
On the first days, there were several clinics for youth-players in different age-groups.
There also was a meet-and-greet with the players and there were two coach-seminars.
Amongst the clinicians in the coach-seminars were Meulens, Janssen, Thijssen, San Francisco Giants Bench Coach Ron Wotus, Jim Jones, Robert Coffie and Martijn Nijhoff (KNBSB).
The Curaçao Baseball Week ended on Friday-evening with a well-visted softball-game in which the participating (professional) players played, as well as a Homerun Derby, which was won by Kalian Sams.
A concert and a big fireworks then ended the successful week.
Recently, it was announced by organisor Blue Bay Curaçao Golf & Beach Resort that the Curaçao Baseball Week will continue for another three years.
Next year, the Curaçao Baseball Week is scheduled to take part on November 25 through December 2.
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| (© All Photos courtesy of Curaçao Baseball Week/Leonid Antonia Photography) |
(December 7)
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