(Story & Photos by Marco Stoovelaar)
IN MEMORIAM
...Aart Wedemeijer...
(1925 - 2017) |
 Former umpire Aart Wedemeijer passed away
Nederlands
 HAARLEM (Neth.) -
Former baseball-umpire Aart Wedemeijer has passed away on Tuesday, October 10, thirteen days before his 92nd birthday.
The memorial and cremation service will be held on Tuesday, October 17 at Crematorium Westerveld at the Duin en Kruidbergerweg 2-6 in Driehuis.
This service begins at 11 AM.
Afterwards, there is an opportunity to offer condolences to the family.
Aart Wedemeijer had been very active in baseball for almost fifty years, but he will mostly be remembered as a very well respected baseball-umpire.
In 1956, while being just 30 years old, Wedemeijer joined the Schoolsport Commission of the then Rayon Haarlem.
He served in this commission for six years and was its chairman in 1958.
Hereafter, Wedemeijer was a longtime member of the Disciplinary Committee in Haarlem, serving in several positions for sixteen years.
After being a member of the committee, he was its chairman (1972-1976), then its secretary (1977).
Other members of this committee in several of these years included legendary baseball-umpires Co Hetem and Piet Schijvenaar.
From 1976 on, Aart Wedemeijer also has been a member of several national committees of the Royal Netherlands Baseball and Softball Association (KNBSB) for some thirty years.
He was the chairman (1976), then a member of the Accomodations Commitee (1976-1981), was a member of the Baseball Chapter of the Dutch Association in 1985, was the coordinator/secretary of the Baseball Umpires Committee in 1986-1987 and led the Scoring Committee for five years (1986-1990).
In these same years, Wedemeijer served the longest in two other committees.
He was an 18-year member of the Baseball Game Rules Committee (1979-1996), which also included to other wellknown former baseball-umpires at that time, Piet van Deenen and Hans Schotel.
In 1979, Wedemeijer joined the Baseball Committee that handles Protests for a period of five years.
He returned in this committee in 1996 for another 10-year period.
In 2005, Wedemeijer resigned from the Protests Committee.
In following years, he frequently kept on visiting baseball-games, mostly in his residence Haarlem.
There, he also attended some reunions of former international Netherlands Team-players and game-officials during the Haarlem Baseball Week.
In the late fifties, Aart Wedemeijer became a baseball-umpire.
He developed into a very talented umpire and quickly rose on the ladder, making his debut in the highest division in the early sixties.
Wedemeijer became a well-respected umpire who was known for his rule-knowledge, but also having the control over the games and handling situations very well.
Later, his sons Harry and Lex went on the become Official Scorers.
...Aart Wedemeijer with his wife Gon and former...
...Netherlands Team-player Don Wedman...
...at a reunion during the 2012 Haarlem Baseball Week...
(© Photo: Marco Stoovelaar) |
After a few years, Wedemeijer was also assigned for international games.
In 1966, he was one of the umpires that officiated during the third edition of the international Haarlem Baseball Week, which was held almost every two years since then.
It was the first of eight Baseball Weeks, Wedemeijer participated in, his last being in 1978.
It was also during a Haarlem Baseball Week that Wedemeijer experienced a low point in his career, which was not his fault, as he just administered the rules.
During the 1969 Baseball Week, a game between the Netherlands and the Sullivans from the USA had to be stopped because of a bench-clearing brawl.
In the sixth inning of the game, Sullivans-hitter Bob Kruger was called out at first base, because Jack Benedict, the runner who was forced out at second base on his grounder, broke up the double play with his leg upward too high towards second baseman Johnny Jonkers.
This was ruled as interference by 2B Umpire Cor Blitterswijk and so, the hitter also was called out.
With that, the inning ended with a double play, which led to a big argument from Sullivans Manager Bob Sullivan, whose behaviour during the game had been irritating, according to the newspaper reports from the game.
Moments later, with the Sullivans leading 11-4, Jonkers was the lead-off hitter for the Netherlands in its sixth at bat and was awarded first base with catcher's interference by Wedemeijer, who was the Home Plate Umpire in this game.
This time, Bob Sullivan, pitcher Carl Angelo and some other players started arguing with Wedemeijer.
During this situation, and exchange of words also followed between players of both teams.
Dutch catcher Hans Augustinus tried to calm Angelo, but an American player fell to the ground during a confrontation with player Hamilton Richardson.
This eventually led to a nasty bench-clearing brawl.
Wedemeijer and the other three umpires kept their calm, succeeded in restoring the order, ejected no one and continued the game.
Both Sullivan and Angelo were booed by the spectators for their inappropriate behaviour on the field towards the umpires.
The Sullivans went on to win the game with a big 21-6 score.
Aart Wedemeijer became one of the most experienced Dutch baseball-umpires.
He also became the first Dutch umpire to officiate in a World Championship, as he was invited to be one of the umpires when the global event was held in Cuba in 1973.
The same year, he officiated at the European Championship in Haarlem.
Wedemeijer also was an umpire during some European Cup-tournaments that were held in the Netherlands.
After the 1985 season, Aart Wedemeijer retired as an umpire after 27 years.
In these years, he belonged to a group of experienced and well-respected umpires, including Teun van den Berg, Cor Blitterswijk, Bertus Caldenhove, Hans Corpeleijn, Henk van Dalen, Piet van Deenen, André Haring, Ton Hout, Dick van der Klaauw, Gerard van Klingeren, Bram Klijnsmit, Bert Lauer, Lou Meyer, Jan Pauwels, Henk Ronnenbergh, Hans Schotel, André Schrijber, Piet Schijvenaar and Bert Staller.
With his experience and knowledge of the rules, Wedemeijer also became a mentor to younger umpires.
In the seventies and early eighties, several of these younger umpires made their debut in the big league, including Ton Bodaan, Fred van Groningen Schinkel, Fred de Kramer, Henk Meerleveld, Dick Mos, Chris Pieters, Karel van Veen, Franklin Victor and Willem Visser.
Van Groningen Schinkel and Pieters were members of the umpire-corps with Wedemeijer during the European Championship in 1973.
A year after retiring as an umpire, Wedemeijer, who briefly was an Umpire Observer, became the chairman of the Scoring Committee.
Besides that, he kept on serving in the Rules Committee and Protests Committee, before retiring in 2005.
For his many activities, Wedemeijer was decorated by the KNBSB in 1978.
He also received a Royal Decoration, as he was Knighted in the Order of Orange-Nassau.
Aart Wedemeijer, who always looked happy with a smile on his face, will surely be missed.
The webmaster of Grand Slam * Stats & News offers his condolences to Aart's wife Gon, his sons Aart, Lex and Harry, grandchildren and other family and wishes them a lot of strength with this big loss.
(October 14)
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