(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo courtesy of TIW-Survivors)
 TIW-Survivors and Vatos merge; Sponsor announced for baseball-team
Nederlands
 DIEMEN (Neth.) -
The two Diemen-based baseball- and softball-clubs TIW-Survivors and Vatos have merged.
The two (small) clubs already shared the same complex, Sportpark 'De Diemen' in the city of Diemen, which is located at the east-border of Amsterdam.
The club will continue as TIW-Survivors, but it was announced that the teams of the now former-club Vatos will remain playing under that name and with its own club color-scheme.
With that, these teams keep their own identity, but as Vatos has become part of TIW-Survivors, everyone officially will be a member of that club.
Both clubs have completed the paperwork with the Royal Netherlands Baseball and Softball Association (KNBSB).
Last year, the baseball-team of TIW-Survivors remained unbeaten and was 16-0 to win the championship-title in Pool C of the Third Division.
The team will play in the First Division this year.
Vatos played at the same level, but in Pool G.
They finished in eighth and last place with a 4-17 record.
The women softball-team of TIW-Survivors finished in third place last season in Pool C of the Third Division with a 12-6 record and two ties.
The women-squad of Vatos was 8-9 to finish in fourth place in Pool M of the Fourth Division.
The men softball-team of TIW-Survivors last year played in Pool C of the Second Division and finished in fifth place with a 6-11 record and one tie.
The new club now has some 155 members.
,,Vatos rented the fields and the clubhouse from us the past three years for practice and playing their games.
Now, Vatos has become part of TIW-Survivors.
With that, we gained some 50 new members and also more teams.
It is our goal to grow in the near future'', said Steven van Loggem, chairman of TIW-Survivors, a few days in DiemerNieuws, the weekly newspaper of Diemen.
,,We already gave clinic for students at a school in Diemen.
Via after-school activities, we would like to let them get acquainted with baseball and softball.''
...In September last year, TIW-Survivors named its...
...entrance lane to its site after Jonas Ossendrijver, who is...
...one of the oldest members of the club...
(© Photo courtesy of TIW-Survivors) |
The playing site at Sportpark 'De Diemen' was improved last year and new light-towers were placed to enable the club to practice longer in the evening.
This year, the club has planned a Caribbean Tournament on its site on May 28 and 29.
Also scheduled is the annual Willem Schreuders Tournament on June 12.
Besides that, a reunion is scheduled for May 15.
There was more good news, as the club announced that Reclame-bureau Aorta Productions will be the main sponsor of the baseball-team in the upcoming three years.
A look back into history.
TIW-Survivors has a long history, as its predecessor goes back over 90 years ago.
In June 1924, Amsterdam-based soccer-club VVGA started a baseball-team.
The club became very successful and played its home games besides the now defunct stadium of famous soccer-club Ajax, which also had a successful baseball-team.
Before the start of the 1966 season, the club changed its name to HVGA (Baseball Club Giants Amsterdam) and played its games at Sportpark Ookmeer, which is the current location of big league-club L&D Amsterdam Pirates.
After the 1967 season, another move and change of name followed.
This time, the club went on to play at Sportpark 'De Diemen" and changed its name to Giants Diemen.
In 1970, the club moved to Sportpark 'Spoorzicht' in Diemen, which was to become its home site for the coming years.
It was on that complex that Giants Diemen became a successful team in the Dutch big league.
After the 1972 season, the baseball-department of Ajax (which was started in 1921) merged with Giants Diemen.
A major chapter began in the middle of the 1987 and 1988 seasons, as it was announced that Giants Diemen was to move to nearby Almere.
Part of the club, including the big league-team, indeed moved to Almere to become Almere Giants '24.
However, a big part of the club didn't want to move and remained in Diemen, which led to the founding of Survivors in 1988.
The move to Almere wasn't successful, as the club stopped playing in 1989.
Survivors was more successful after it had separared and went on playing on Sportpark 'De Diemen'.
There, the club shared the fields with HCTIW (which was founded in 1940) and played at the complex sinds 1979.
It didn't take long before both clubs merged to become TIW-Survivors and temporarily moved back to Sportpark 'Spoorzicht', as their complex was renovated.
In July 1990, Sportpark 'De Diemen' became the club's permanent home and still is.
It was at that site that the men softball-team of the club was very successful in the Dutch big league.
In 1999, a group of friends formed a baseball-team, which they called Vatos, a Mexican-slang word for 'mates' or 'friends'.
The team started playing in 2000, as part of Amsterdam-based Xanthos, which at that time was the name of OVVO.
The main baseball-squad of Xanthos (which then played in the big league), also played its home game at the site of TIW-Survivors.
Shortly thereafter, the main baseball-squad of Xanthos merged with Almer '90 and the remainder of the club was renamed again in OVVO and moved back to its original location behind the now former site of the soccer-stadium of Ajax, 'De Meer', which was the home of the club through the 1995-1996 season.
Vatos became an independent club and played its games at 'De Diemen', sharing it with TIW-Survivors.
A new chapter in the history of TIW-Survivors and Vatos started a week ago when the merger became official.
(February 17)
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