(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
IN MEMORIAM
...Maartje Nierop Groot...
(1935 - 2017) |
 Former Official Scorer and Administrator Maartje Nierop Groot passed away
Nederlands
 HAARLEM (Neth.) -
Former Official Scorer and Administrator Maartje Nierop Groot has passed away on Monday, July 24 at the age 82.
The memorial and funeral service will be held on Monday, July 31 at the Crematorium Westerveld, at the Duin en Kruidbergweg 2-6 in Driehuis.
The service begins at 11:15 AM.
Afterwards, there is an opportunity to offer condolences to the family.
Maartje Nierop Groot was one of the first Official Scorers in the Dutch big league baseball.
Official Scorers were first assigned to games at the highest level halfway the sixties and she joined the scorers-corps in 1971.
Back then, she was one of the first female Official Scorers.
Other wellknown scorers in those years were Cees Boer, Joop van Bolhuis, Gerard Bronner, Piet de Goede, Herman van Deursen, Joop Hartman, Rinus Onderwater, Jo Pleijt, Herman Spilker and Jet Wedemeijer-van Leeuwen, who had become the first female Official Scorer in 1966, when the first group of scorers was named.
In these years, Maartje Nierop Groot was married to then big league- and National Team Coach Cees Herkemij.
Their son Peter Herkemij later also played baseball, but then stepped in his father's footsteps to become a coach.
One-and-a-half-week ago, he was the Manager of the Netherlands Juveniles Baseball Team that finished in fifth place at the European Championship in Vleuten (Netherlands).
Maartje was a member of the scorers-corps through 1986.
In that year, she was one of the Official Scorers during the first World Championship Baseball held in the Netherlands and retired after the season.
In her scoring career, she also was assigned as Official Scorer for eight Haarlem Baseball Weeks, as well as European Cup-tournaments that were held in the Netherlands.
In 1975, she joined the Scoring Committee of the Netherlands Association, which was then chaired by Theo Vleeshhouwer.
Maartje became the secretary of the committee, which she remained until 1979.
Hereafter, she served as a member of the committee through 1987.
As secretary of the committee, she assigned the Official Scorers to the games.
While being a member of the committtee, Maartje Nierop Groot always took good care of 'her' scorers.
She made sure that the facilities to work on the field were correct and always had good contact with her scoring colleagues.
She listened to questions and gave advice to new scorers.
She also did that when she was assigned to the Haarlem Baseball Week.
Back then, she did the work of what now is named Scorer-in-Chief or Scoring Director, as she was the Scorer Liaison in five 'Weeks'.
It was during the Haarlem Baseball Weeks halfway the seventies that computer statistics were introduced.
And it was Maartje, together with scoring colleague Gert Snel and later Harry Wedemeijer, who did a lot of work securing that box scores and statistics were made of the games played during the international tournament in Haarlem.
During the Baseball Weeks in the eighties and early nineties, Maartje's son Peter was a member of the group that printed and distributed the daily magazine of the event and later led this group, while her daughter Yvonne was a member of the Press Committee during two of the events.
After retiring from the Scoring Committee, Maartje Nierop Groot was decorated by the KNBSB.
In following years, she remained active in baseball and softball, as she was an administrator in two boards.
In 1978, she had become the secretary of 'De Kieviten', which promoted both baseball and softball.
'De Kieviten' also had become an alumni-club.
Maartje stopped as secretary in 1991 and was then named Honorary Member of 'De Kieviten'.
In 1995-1998, she returned as secretary.
In 1989, Maartje Nierop Groot became a member of the board of the Netherlands Baseball and Softball Museum and Hall of Fame.
She retired from this position in 1997.
The webmaster of Grand Slam * Stats & News offers his condolences to Maartje's son Peter, daughter Yvonne, grandchildren and other family and wishes them a lot of strength with this loss.
(July 26)
(private photo published with permission of the family)
| 
