(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photos by Bianca van Deursen, Marco Stoovelaar & Fred Versluis)
IN MEMORIAM 
...Hans van Deursen...
(1946 - 2016)
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 Former baseball-umpire Hans van Deursen passed away
Nederlands
 HAARLEM (Neth.) -
Former baseball-umpire Hans van Deursen has passed away on Tuesday, December 6 at the age of 70 after a brief, but severe illness.
The memorial and cremation service takes place on Tuesday, December 13 at the Crematorium Westerveld, at the Duin en Kruidbergweg 2-6 in Driehuis, starting at 4:30 PM.
Afterwards, there will be an opportunity to condolence the family in the clubhouse of Olympia Haarlem, which located at the Henk van Turnhoutpad in Haarlem.
Johannes Hendrikus Josef van Deursen, who was born in Haarlem, was still active in Dutch baseball.
Through this past season, he was one of the Technical Commissioners or so-called Umpire Observers.
He observed, evaluated and reported on baseball-umpires in the highest league.
But he did the same in several lower divisions, reporting on (talented) umpire, who might be considered for an assigment in a higher league.
Hans van Deursen had been a passionate baseball-umpire himself for a long time and started calling games in 1970 in the Haarlem Region.
Like all umpires in those days, he went through the entire system of officiating in several divisions en route to the top.
He promoted from regional leagues to national leagues in 1978.
After officiating in the Third, Second and First Divisions for some years, Van Deursen made his debut in the Dutch big league in 1984.
Van Deursen was one of the 'old-school' umpires.
As he 'spoke' the language of coaches and players, he almost never encountered problems during his games.
Also because of his knowledge of the rules and because he had a clear explanation in case a call was disputed.
Hans van Deursen was one of those umpires, who don't attract the attention upon themselves, but just do their job leading the games.
He also was known for his good contact with catchers when he was behind the plate.
Overall, he was a well-respected umpire, who had a long career at the highest level.
...Hans van Deursen with Sjaak Beljaards (right) and...
...Hans de Nieuwe are honored with other members of...
...the groudscrew during the rain-pestered...
...World Championship Softball in 2014...
(© Photo: Fred Versluis) |
Van Deursen also briefly umpired at an international level.
He made his international debut in 1989 when he was assigned to be one of the umpires at the European Junior Championship, which then was held in Leeuwarden (Netherlands).
Two years later, Van Deursen was one of the umpires at the World Port Tournament in Rotterdam (Netherlands).
Hans van Deursen was a first baseman and catcher and played some seven seasons in the baseball-team of Haarlem-based TYBB, the club that merged some years ago with DSC '74 to become the current Olympia Haarlem.
Besides playing baseball, Van Deursen also played softball and soccer.
Through the years, Van Deursen had a good contact with his fellow-umpires, took care of them and always strived for good and better relations between officials and clubs.
With that background, in 1991, he became a member of the board of BUBS, which tales care of the interests of Baseball and Softball Umpires, as well as Official Scorers.
Since 1996, he was the vice-chairman, a position he held for several years.
Also since the early nineties, Van Deursen was an umpire instructor.
During umpiring clinics and also during the annual BUBS Weekend, Van Deursen was one of the instructors and shared his knowledge of the game with current and future umpires.
Van Deursen was always in a good mood and shared a laugh with everyone.
He stopped as an umpire the big league-level after the 1999 season, but returned briefly in 2001.
However, from 2000 on, he continued umpiring at a lower level, accompanying and supporting younger umpires.
In 2005 he retired as an umpire and was decorated by the KNBSB for being active in several positions for 35 years.
...Hans van Deursen during a meeting...
...of game-officials in 2008...
(© Photo: Marco Stoovelaar) |
After concluding his umpiring career, he became an Umpire Observer and was active as such through this past season.
He also became a member of the Terrain Commission of the Royal Netherlands Baseball and Softball Association (KNBSB) in 2007.
He had been a member of this commission ever since.
In this function, Van Deursen inspected playing fields of both baseball and softball and recommended changes when needed.
Hans van Deursen had a good knowledge of how a field supposed to look and how to do maintenance, as he was a longtime member of the groudscrew of the bi-annual Haarlem Baseball Week.
Van Deursen was one of the veteran members with Gerrit Ligtenburg, Willem Hurkmans, Tinus van Rullen, Sjaak Beljaards, Herman Muller, Johan Kluijskens and Hans de Nieuwe.
Van Deursen, along some of the others, also was part of the groundscrew that worked during the Women's Softball World Championship in Haarlem (Netherlands) in 2014.
That event was pestered by a lot of rain, but each time, the crew was able to make the fields playable, which gave them a lot of recognition and compliments.
The groundscrew was espially honored and was presented with gifts by the players of the Netherlands National Softball Team for their extensive and hard work during the event.
The World Championship was staged on the site of Olympia Haarlem, the club he was involved with closely the past years, after also taking care of things at his former club TYBB.
Hans carried out many activities at Olympia Haarlem, which is a multi-sports club.
Amongst his many activities: member of the omni-board of the club, member of the board for the soccer department, trainer for soccer-teams, was a referee at both baseball- and soccer-games and manager of the clubhouse.
The webmaster of Grand Slam * Stats & News offers his condolences to the family of Hans and wishes them a lot of strength with this big loss.
(December 8)
(photo of Hans van Deursen courtesy of Bianca van Deursen)
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