(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Henk Seppen)
 Umpiring-icon Fred van Groningen Schinkel to retire
Nederlands
 AMSTERDAM (Neth.) -
An era is coming to an end next Saturday, July 22, as umpiring icon Fred van Groningen Schinkel will end his very impressive career!
Coming Saturday, Van Groningen Schinkel will dress up for the final time as an umpire and will officiate in his last game at the big league-level.
The veteran umpire will be at first base in the game of L&D Amsterdam Pirates against HCAW, which will be played at Sportpark Ookmeer in Amsterdam, starting at 2 PM.
...Fred van Groningen Schinkel...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
Van Groningen Schinkel is currently in his record-extending 46th season in the highest Dutch baseball-league.
This is by far the most ever by a Dutch umpire at the highest level.
Almost surely, Van Groningen Schinkel will rank in the top-5 with this accomplishment worldwide.
The most seasons for an umpire in Major League Baseball is 40, which has been accomplished by still-active Joe West, who made his debut in 1976 and recently officiated in his 5,000th Major League-game.
Van Groningen Schinkel started umpiring in the sixties.
He made his debut in the highest league on May 6, 1972 when he was at first base in the game between HCK (Kinheim) and OVVO.
In his long career, Van Groningen Schinkel has been active in more than 1,200 regular season games in the Dutch big league and numerous games in Play-Offs, Play-Downs and Holland Series.
Van Groningen Schinkel became an international umpire in 1977.
Since that year, he umpired in more than 80 international events, including the Olympic Games of 1996 (Atlanta, USA) and 2004 (Athens, Greece), the first World Baseball Classic in 2006, four World Championships, nine European Championships, 15 Haarlem Baseball Weeks, 11 World Port Tournaments and many more events.
Since 2005, Van Groningen Schinkel also is active as a Technical Commissioner during international events, organized by the European Baseball Confederation (CEB).
In 2010, Fred's son Stenar van Groningen Schinkel made his debut in the Dutch big league.
Since then, father and son officiated several games together.
They also will be on the field together coming Saturday when Stenar will be behind the plate in Amsterdam.
Peter Brink completes the 3-man umpiring crew, while veteran scorers Marco Stoovelaar and Francis Speters have been invited for this special and memorable game to be the Official Scorers.
Stoovelaar is one of three Official Scorers, who are active in their 41st season, the others being Feiko Drost and Ben Goorts.
Willem Broertjes will be the Technical Commissioner on Saturday.
(July 19)
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