(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photos by Henk Seppen & Robert Bos)
 Roster Dutch Team announced; Mike Hartley Pitching Coach
Nederlands
 ROTTERDAM (Neth.) -
Steve Janssen, the Manager of the Netherlands National Baseball Team, announced his preliminary roster for this years World Port Tournament, which will be held in July in Rotterdam (Netherlands).
The announcement was made on Monday-afternoon (April 13) during a meeting in Rotterdam, where the Royal Dutch Baseball and Softball Association (KNBSB) kicked off the new season in the highest baseball and softball leagues.
It was also announced that former Major League-pitcher Mike Hartley is the new Pitching Coach of the Dutch Baseball Team.
The 53-year old Hartley pitched for six seasons in the Major League between 1989 and 1995 for five different clubs.
He made his debut in 1989, pitching in five games for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Hartley then had full Major League-seasons in 1990-1993, playing for the Dodgers, Philadelphia Phillies and Minnesota Twins.
He was 6-3 in 1990 for the Dodgers, then 2-0 in the next year before being traded to the Phillies, where he was 2-1 in the remainder of the season.
The righthander then was 7-6 in 1992 with the Phillies and was traded to the Twins after the season.
In 1993, Hartley was 1-2 with the Twins, but then became a Free Agent in October of that year.
He signed with the California Angels, but was purchased by the Chiba Lotte Marines to play in Japan.
After having pitched their, Hartley signed with the Boston Red Sox in April 1995 and made his comeback in the Major League that season, pitching in five games for the BoSox.
He was released in August and signed with the Baltimore Orioles six days later, then appeared in three more games with the O's, before becoming a Free Agent.
In his six big league-seasons, Hartley pitched in 202 games, mostly as a closer.
He was 19-13 with a 3.70 ERA.
In recent years, Hartley was active as a pitching coach and instructor in Germany, Italy and Croatia.
He coached with Heidenheim Heideköpfe (Germany), Grosseto (Italy) and the National Team of Croatia.
He also has been Pitching Coach of the professional Reno Silve Sox in an Independent League.
Last week, he traveled with the Dutch AAA-team to Barcelona (Spain), which participated in the MLB Spring Academies Tournament there.
Dudley Leonora has been selected for the first time in the Dutch Team.
Leonora will make his big league-debut this season playing for Corendon Kinheim.
Former pros Loek van Mil and Nick Urbanus will make their comeback in the national team.
Van Mil will pitch for Curaçao Neptunus this season, while Urbanus recently returned from the States and will play for L&D Amsterdam Pirates.
In November, the Dutch Team will be one of the participants in the new global Premier 12, which will be held in Taiwan and Japan.
The top-12 of the world ranking will participate in this event, which will feature many professional players.
Current Dutch Major Leaguers Jonathan Schoop (Baltimore Orioles), Kenley Jansen (Los Angeles Dodgers) and Andrelton Simmons (Atlanta Braves) already have shown interest to participate.
Gijs Selderijk, who succeeded Robert Eenhoorn as Technical Director, also announced that the ties with Aruba and Curaçao will be strengtened even more.
Former Dutch Team-player Eugène Kingsale will lead te creation of a Baseball Academy on Aruba.
Curaçao already has an Academy.
,,The cooperation within the Kingdom will be intensified'', said Selderijk.
Also during the meeting, Juni Francisca was introduced as one of the new coaches of the Netherlands National Women Softball Team.
The preliminary roster for the National Softball Team already was announced last month.
Besides that, the set-up of the new Dutch National Softball League was explained.
As earlier reported on this this, the Golden League will be the new highest division, while the Silver League is the second league.
The Golden League opens next Saturday, the Silver League opened last weekend.
Selderijk added that 2015 and 2016 will be two bridging years for softball after the subsidies were stopped by the Netherlands Olympic Committee.
The focus for softball this year will be the European Championship in July in Rosmalen (Netherlands) and the participation of the Talent Team Holland (formerly Dutch Juniors) in the Golden League.
The preliminary roster is as follows:
Pitchers (10):
Arshwin Asjes, Tom Stuifbergen (both Corendon Kinheim), Rob Cordemans, Kevin Heijstek (both L&D Amsterdam Pirates), Bayron Cornelissen (Vaessen Pioniers), Berry van Driel, Kevin Kelly, Diegomar Markwell, Loek van Mil and Orlando Yntema (all Curaçao Neptunus).
Catchers (2):
Gianison Boekhoudt (Curaçao Neptunus) and Dashenko Ricardo (Corendon Kinheim).
Infielders (6):
Michael Duursma, Nick Urbanus (both L&D Amsterdam Pirates), Dwayne Kemp, Stijn van der Meer (both Curaçao Neptunus), Dudley Leonora and Kevin Moesquit (both Corendon Kinheim).
Outfielders (5):
Quintin de Cuba (Corendon Kinheim), Shaldimar Daantji, Kalian Sams (both Curaçao Neptunus), Gilmer Lampe (UVV) and Danny Rombley (Vaessen Pioniers).
(April 13)
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