(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
IN MEMORIAM
...Gerard van Tiggelen...
(1948 - 2017) |
 Amsterdam Pirates Chairman Gerard van Tiggelen passed away
Nederlands
 AMSTERDAM (Neth.) -
Gerard van Tiggelen, chairman of baseball- and softball-club Amsterdam Pirates, has passed away on Sunday, January 15 at the age of 68.
While he was ill for some two years, he remained active for his club until the last moment.
The funeral service is a private and closed ceremony.
Coming Sunday, January 22, at 4 PM, Amsterdam Pirates will have a memorial at its clubhouse to remember its chairman.
The sympathetic Gerard van Tiggelen was very driven and engaged towards his club, was approachable for all members and had a smile for everyone.
He was open for discussions, had a lot of ideas and shared his thoughts, but also his proudness of his club, with everyone with whom he spoke.
One of those proud moments came last Summer when the baseball-squad of L&D Amsterdam Pirates for the first time in its history captured the European Champions Cup in Italy.
Van Tiggelen was chairman of Amsterdam Pirates for only a few years after succeeding John Witte.
In that span, he not only showed and shared his passion for the club, but for baseball and softball in general.
With that, he quickly became very well liked, respected and appreciated by his fellow-board members, as well as by executives of other big league-clubs.
On its website, Amsterdam Pirates remembers its chairman and states that Gerard van Tiggelen has done a lot of work for the club at different levels, including making the club financially healthy and prepare it for the future.
Under the chairmanship of Van Tiggelen a solid financial base was realized, the start of a new administrative organisation and the obtaining of a subsidy for the construction of an artificial grass-field, with plans being worked out at the moment to realize this in the near future.
Gerard van Tiggelen not only was very active for Amsterdam Pirates, he also looked around for the best interests of the sport in the Netherlands.
Van Tiggelen was one of the initiators to fill in and control the baseball-topsport a different way.
Some of his initial thoughts are part of the base for the definitive text for the multi-year plan of the Dutch Assocation.
During Van Tiggelen's chairmanship, Amsterdam Pirates not only was a strong baseball-team within a club, but returned to being a true club again with a strong main squad in both baseball and softball.
A club with topsport, but also with room for recreational playing, with equal attention for all levels within the club.
Van Tiggelen was passionate, both for the sport and his club, but never wanted to be in the foreground.
But he also was proud of the accomplishments the club realized in both baseball and softball.
Recently, due to his illness, Van Tiggelen had announced that he would step down as chairman, but would continue support the club's board as an advisor.
The board of Amsterdam Pirates states that he had many more ideas to better organize the club and baseball in general and that his initiatives will be continued in his memory.
The webmaster of Grand Slam * Stats & News offers his condolences to Gerard's wife Yvonne, their daughters Bente and Lieke and other family and wishes them a lot of strength with this big loss.
(January 20)
(private photo of Gerard van Tiggelen published with permission of the Van Tiggelen-family)
| 
