(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
IN MEMORIAM
...Leen Staub...
(1939 - 2017) |
 Neptunus-icon Leen Staub passed away
Nederlands
 ROTTERDAM (Neth.) -
Leen Staub, former player and coach of Neptunus, but above all, a club-icon, has passed away on Thursday, September 28 at the age of 78.
Before the start of Game 3 of the Holland Series between Curaçao Neptunus and L&D Amsterdam Pirates on Sunday, October 1 in Rotterdam a minute of silence was observed in his honor.
The memorial service will be held on Thursday, October 5 at Uitvaartcentrum Monuta Memoriam at Langenhorst 100 in Rotterdam.
The service begins at 4:30 PM.
Afterwards, there is an opportunity to offer condolences to the family.
Leen Staub had been associated with Neptunus for more than fifty years.
He joined the Rotterdam-based club in the sixties as a player, but went on to coach, groundskeeper, administrator and much more.
While playing for the main-squad of the club when it played on a lower level, amongst Staub's teammates were Frans van Aalen and Piet Eenhoorn, two other icons of the club.
In the late seventies, Leen Staub joined the coaching staff of the main squad and became the 1B Coach, a position he would held for many years.
It was in this capacity that Staub became known throughout the highest baseball division.
Staub loved coaching and being on the field.
But besides all, he enjoyed having fun and always had a broad smile on his face.
He had fun in the dug-out, on the field, with his players, but also with opponents and umpires.
There wasn't a game without Staub making jokes with baserunners, the opponent's first baseman or the 1B Umpire.
However, Staub also was very serious while coaching and stepped up for his players and could fiercely argue a call with an umpire when he disagreed.
But he also could tell his own players when they did wrong.
Staub led the main-squad of Neptunus as its Head Coach in the early seventies, but went on become an Assistant Coach in 1979 when it made its debut in the Dutch big league.
Since then, Staub was the 1B Coach through 1992.
In that span, Neptunus won the Championship-title twice (1981 and 1991), participated in four European Cup-tournaments and two European Cup Winners Cup-tournaments.
The team won the Cup Winners Cup in 1990 and won two European Cup-medals (silver in 1992, bronze in 1983).
During his stay as Assistant Coach, Leen Staub served under several Head Coaches, being Piet Bouts, Frans van Aalen, Wim Onderstal, Tim Schmidt, Harry van der Berg, Hamilton Richardson, Huub Kohl and Charles Urbanus.
When his coaching career with Neptunus ended after the 1992 season, he returned one more season as a coach in 1996 when he was the Assistant Coach of Koos van der Mark at Sparta.
Besides being the team's 1B Coach, Staub also looked after the playing field.
He frequently swept the field and put on the lines.
In later years, he was joined by his father-in-law Aad Dame, who was to become the team's groundskeeper and equipment manager.
While being active as a coach, Staub remained playing and baseball and softball himself for many years in lower-division teams of Neptunus.
Staub also was active as an administrator.
In 1985, he was member of the Organizing Committee of the very-first edition of the World Port Tournament, which went on to become a successful bi-annual international event in Rotterdam since then.
After concluding his active career, Leen Staub remained a frequent visitor of the games of Neptunus, with whom he also traveled abroad when it participated in European Cup-tournaments.
Unfortunately, due to health problems in the past few years, Staub was unable to come to the Neptunus-stadium.
The colorful personality of Leen Staub will surely be missed.
The webmaster of Grand Slam * Stats & News offers his condolences to Leen's family and wishes them a lot of strength with this loss.
(October 1)
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