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(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photos by Henk Seppen, Alfred Cop & Kennemerland Rabbits)
 Danny Rombley Most Valuable Player; Rob Cordemans Best Pitcher 2017
Nederlands
 HOOFDDORP (Neth.) -
Danny Rombley (L&D Amsterdam Pirates) is the Most Valuable Player of the 2017 season in the Dutch big league, while veteran righthander Rob Cordemans (also L&D Amsterdam Pirates) again won the award for Best Pitcher.
For Rombley, this was his first MVP Award, while Cordemans won his tenth Best Pitcher Award.
It marks the fifth time since 2011 that both the MVP and Best Pitcher are playing for Amsterdam Pirates.
In 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 both awards went to the Amsterdam-club in four consecutive years.
In 2015, the team again had the Best Pitcher, then had the MVP again last year.
Since 2005, it now has happened seven times that both awards went to players of the same team.
In 2005, Neptunus won both awards and in 2009, it was Hoofddorp Pioniers, before Amsterdam Pirates started its streak in 2011.
This years winners were announced tonight (Saturday, October 28) during the KNBSB Baseball Softball Stars Awards, which is the annual presentation of the awards for the best baseball- and softball-players of the past season.
Tonight, the event was held at Claus Park Collection in Hoofddorp.
It marked the sixth time that the awards were handed at this location, the last time was two years ago.
Last year, the awards were handed out at the Lichtfabriek in Haarlem.
For the second consecutive year, the Stars Awards were handed out in the month of October.
Before last year, the last time the awards were handed out in October was in 1988.
From 1989 to 1999, November was the month in which the awards were presented.
The awards have been handed out in December mostly since 2000.
As was done in the previous three years, the Slugger also was handed out again tonight.
The Slugger is the highest recognition award of the Royal Netherlands Baseball and Softball Association (KNBSB) and is handed out to a person (or persons), group, club or organization for promotional activities in order to promote the sport(s) of baseball and/or softball on national and/or regional level.
In 2014, the award was handed out for the first time again since 1999.
Tonight, the Slugger went to Jack Heuts, who has been very active for many years in the Province of Limburg.
There, he promoted baseball at the local clubs and worked hard to get these teams competitive.
Go here for the Softball Awards
Photo Galery of the Stars Award Night
(October 28)
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...Danny Rombley...
...Most Valuable Player...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
Most Valuable Player
Danny Rombley (L&D Amsterdam Pirates) was named Most Valuable Player for the first time in his career.
The 37-year old Rombley was nominated for the MVP Award in 2007 and 2009 when he played for Kinheim.
Rombley was the league's Best Hitter in 2007.
Rombley batted .390 this season (46-for-118) with 10 doubles and five homeruns.
The rightfielder scored 31 runs and batted in 40.
Throughout the season, Rombley struckout only nine times.
Rombley not only was the leading hitter of the Amsterdam-squad, he also led the team in runs batted in and homeruns.
His 46 basehits were third-best, following Zerzinho Croes (48) and Remco Draijer (47).
His 31 runs also were fourth-best, trailing Remco Draijer (37), Gilmer Lampe (34) and Zerzinho Croes (32).
Rombley shared the homerun-lead with Gilmer Lampe.
Defensively, Rombley made only two errors in 57 chances, resulting in a .965 fielding average.
His .390 batting average was the second-best in the league, as only Benjamin Dille (Curaçao Neptunus) hit better with .448.
His slugging average of .602 also was second-best behind teammate Gilmer Lampe (.609).
Danny Rombley led the league with his 40 runs batted in, followed by Gianison Boekhoudt (Curaçao Neptunus), who had 36 RBI's.
By leading Amsterdam in batting average, runs batted in and homeruns, Rombley realized a Team Triple Crown.
| MVP's, Amsterdam Pirates |
| 1987 | Rikkert Faneyte |
| 1990 | Scott Khoury |
| 1998 | Elston Hansen |
| 1999 | Rikkert Faneyte |
| 2007 | Fausto Álvarez Rizo |
| 2011 | Vince Rooi |
| 2012 | Rob Cordemans |
| 2013 | Bas de Jong |
| 2014 | Bas de Jong |
| 2016 | Nick Urbanus |
| 2017 | Danny Rombley |
The last outfielder to win the MVP Award was Bas de Jong in 2014, who also played for Amsterdam Pirates.
It marks the second year in a row and sixth time in the last seven years that a player of Amsterdam Pirates was named Most Valuable Player.
Rombley became the ninth player of Amsterdam Pirates, who wins the MVP Award.
It was the eleventh time that the award went to a Pirates-player, as two of them won the award twice.
With 11 MVP Awards, Amsterdam Pirates set a new record.
Before this year, the team was tied with Kinheim, which also had ten MVP Awards.
The closest team hereafter is Sparta, which has eight Most Valuable Players.
Danny Rombley was one of three players nominated for the MVP Award.
The other nominees were Rombley's teammate Gilmer Lampe and Benjamin Dille (Curaçao Neptunus).
Benjamin Dille led the league this year with a .448 batting average and also led in basehits (52) and on-base average (.518).
The Belgian player, who mostly was the lead-off hitter for Neptunus, scored 30 runs (7th place) and batted in 22 (14th place).
Gilmer Lampe was the third-best hitter in the league with a .374 batting average, but he led with a .609 slugging average.
Lampe was second in on-base average (.493), doubles (12) and homeruns (5), scored the third most runs (34) and batted in 29 runs (7th place).
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...Rob Cordemans...
...Best Pitcher...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
Best Pitcher
Rob Cordemans (L&D Amsterdam Pirates) was named Best Pitcher for the tenth time in his long and impressive career.
He first won the Award in 1999 when he played for Neptunus.
Hereafter, Cordemans again was the Best Pitcher in 2002, 2003 and 2005 when he also played for Neptunus.
The righthander won his fifth Best Pitcher Award in 2008 when he pitched for Sparta-Feyenoord.
In 2010, his first season with Amsterdam Pirates, Cordemans was nominated, then won again in three consecutive years (2011-2013).
Cordemans was named Best Pitcher for the ninth time in 2015.
With his tenth award today, Cordemans equals the record of Herman Beidschat.
It is the fifth time that he wins the award while playing for Amsterdam Pirates.
This year, the 42-year old righthander had another outstanding season at the highest level after having being sidelined with an injury for most of the 2016 season.
This season, Cordemans stayed unbeaten in the regular season.
He finished with a 10-0 record and an 1.58 ERA.
Cordemans appeared in 12 games (all starts) and struckout 68 hitters in 74 innings.
He walked only 11 hitters and gave up only 46 basehits and 13 runs.
His ten victories were the most in the league this season.
He also led the league with the lowest opposing batting average (.180).
Diegomar Markwell and Elton Koeiman (both Curaçao Neptunus) both win nine games.
With his 1.58 ERA, Cordemans finished in second place behind teammate Kevin Heijstek, who had the best ERA with 1.26.
His 68 strikeouts gave him third place in the league, behind Lars Huijer (Hoofddorp Pioniers), who struckout 78 and Kevin Heijstek, who closed with 72 strikeouts.
Last year, a streak of five consecutive years ended in which the award was won by a pitcher of Amsterdam Pirates, as Kenny Van Den Branden (Curaçao Neptunus) then won the award.
In 2015, Cordemans was named Best Pitcher for the fourth time in five years.
The other Amsterdam-hurler to win the award in that period was Kevin Heijstek, who won in 2014.
| Best Pitchers, Pirates |
| 1992 | Peter Callenbach |
| 2011 | Rob Cordemans |
| 2012 | Rob Cordemans |
| 2013 | Rob Cordemans |
| 2014 | Kevin Heijstek |
| 2015 | Rob Cordemans |
| 2017 | Rob Cordemans |
Since 1999, Cordemans had been nominated thirteen times for the pitching award and now has won ten of them.
He won the award three years in a row in 2011-2013, becoming only the fifth pitcher in history to do so.
Herman Beidschat won the trophy a record eight years in a row (1959-1966) while playing for EHS and Haarlem Nicols.
By being named Best Pitcher for the tenth time in his career, Cordemans equals the record of Beidschat, who also won ten pitching-awards.
It is the seventh time that a pitcher of Amsterdam Pirates wins this award.
The other nominees for the award were Kevin Heijstek (L&D Amsterdam Pirates) and Lars Huijer (Hoofddorp Pioniers).
Kevin Heijstek led the league in ERA (1.26) and was second-best in strikeouts (72).
He was third-best in innings pitched (78 1/3).
Like teammate Rob Cordemans, Heijstek remained unbeaten in the regular season.
He was 8-0 in 12 starts and threw two complete games.
Lars Huijer had the third-best ERA (2.01) and led the league with 78 strikeouts
He was fifth-best in innings pitched (71 2/3).
In the regular season, Huijer was 4-3 and threw in 12 games (11 starts), completing two.
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Statistical Awards
| Best Hitters, Neptunus |
| 1980 | Kevin McDonald |
| 1986 | Mike Gargiulo |
| 1991 | Marcel Kruyt |
| 1992 | Eric de Bruin |
| 1997 | Marcel Kruyt |
| 2002 | Dirk van 't Klooster |
| 2005 | Dirk van 't Klooster |
| 2006 | Raily Legito |
| 2015 | Christian Diaz |
| 2016 | Christian Diaz |
| 2017 | Benjamin Dille |
Best Hitter
Benjamin Dille (Curaçao Neptunus) was the Best Hitter this season.
The Belgian second baseman closed the regular season with a .448 batting average (52-for-116).
He was the lone .400 hitter this season in the highest league.
Second-best hitter Danny Rombley (L&D Amsterdam Pirates) closed with a .390 average.
In the previous two seasons, outfielder Christian Diaz (Curaçao Neptunus) won the batting title.
It marks the third consecutive year and eleventh time overall that a player of Neptunus is the leading hitter of the season.
Benjamin Dille not only is the first Belgian player to win the hitting trophy, he also is the first foreign player to be the Best Hitter in the highest league since Steven Russell (HCAW) had the highest batting average in 1993.
Since awards were first handed out to Best Hitters in 1953, remarkably enough, Dille is only the tenth foreign player to win the award.
The other were Americans, with Frank Millerd winning the award in two consecutive years, 1983-1984, while playing for ADO and Amsterdam Pirates, respectively.
Homerun King
The award for Homerun King went to Gianison Boekhoudt (Curaçao Neptunus) for the second consecutive year.
In 2015, Boekhoudt shared the lead with Bryan Engelhardt (Kinheim), as both hit eight homeruns.
However, the award then went to Engelhardt, as he hit his homeruns in 122 at bats, while Boekhoudt needed 148.
Last year Boekhoudt was the lone leader by hitting five homeruns.
This season, the catcher led the league with eight homeruns, followed by three players, who belted five, being Jeffrey Arends (Hoofddorp Pioniers), Gilmer Lampe and Danny Rombley (both L&D Amsterdam Pirates).
Last year was the first time since 2003 that the Homerun King played for Neptunus.
In that year, Evert-Jan 't Hoen hit the most homeruns.
It marks the ninth time that a player of Neptunus leads the league in homeruns.
Amongst them is Jacky Jakoba, who was the Homerun King in 1983 and 1984.
He set a single-season record in both years when some fields were much smaller than nowadays.
After hitting 18 in 1983, he belted 24 homeruns a year later and that record still stands.
Most Stolen Bases
Rick Kuipers (Pickles UVV) led the league this year in Stolen Bases with 14.
He was caught stealing five times.
Finishing in second place was rookie Joey Eeman (Hoofddorp Pioniers), who had 13.
Roelie Henrique (HCAW), who won the award last year for the third time in four seasons, this time finished in a tie for seventh place with nine stolen bases.
The last time that a player of UVV won the award was in 2015 when Gilmer Lampe stole the most bases.
The only other time that a player of UVV stole the most bases was in 1978 when Jos Kervers stole 17.
...Benjamin Dille...
...Best Hitter... | 
...Gianison Boekhoudt...
...Most Homeruns... | 
...Rick Kuipers...
...Most Stolen Bases... |
| (© Photos: Henk Seppen) |
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Other Awards
...Loek van Mil...
...Holland Series MVP...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
Most Valuable Player Holland Series
The winner of this award was announced and handed out after completion of the final game of the Holland Series.
Last year marked the first time that the award was handed out during the award ceremony to crown the Dutch champion.
In previous years, the award was handed out during the Stars Awards, as part of the other award-presentations.
This year, the award went to relief pitcher Loek van Mil of Curaçao Neptunus, which captured its fifth consecutive championship-title.
In the Series, Van Mil won two games and earned one save, while striking out nine hitters in 8 1/3 inning, giving up six hits and two runs.
...Tom de Blok...
...Guus van der Heijden Memorial...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
Guus van der Heijden Memorial Trophy
The winner of this award is for the most talented baseball-international under 23, who plays for the Netherlands National Team.
In the past that was combined when a player also showed good accomplishments in the Dutch big league.
But in recent years, the award was handed out to a National Team-player, who are also active in professional baseball-teams.
The award is named after Guus van der Heijden, the longtime baseball-executive and former President of the Royal Netherlands Baseball and Softball Association (KNBSB).
For the second year in a row, the trophy went to pitcher Tom de Blok.
Last year, De Blok was active as reliever in the Dutch big league for L&D Amsterdam Pirates.
This year, he again was on the roster of Amsterdam, but didn't play for the squad, as he made his professional debut.
It marks the third consecutive year that De Blok wins an award, as he won the Roel de Mon Award for most talented youth pitcher in 2015.
Early April, De Blok signed a contract with Detroit Tigers.
A month later, the righthander made his professional debut playing for West Michigan Whitecaps, one of the Single-A Teams of the Tigers.
In June, De Blok briefly was assigned to Connecticut Tigers, which plays in Single-A Short Season, but he returned to the Whitecaps a few days later.
In his first professional season, De Blok pitched in 24 games, starting 12 of them.
He was 4-2 with one save and a 2.74 ERA.
In 82 innings, De Blok struckout 78 batters and walked only 14.
In March, De Blok was one of the pitchers in the Netherlands Kingdom Team that reached the Semi-Final of the World Baseball Classic.
He then pitched in two games, both in relief, and struckout two hitters in two scoreless innings, giving up one basehit.
While the trophy is handed out to a player of the Netherlands National Team, it marks the sixth time that this award is won by a player, who is associated with Amsterdam Pirates.
Wismar Ansjeliena was the first in 1989.
He was followed by Rikkert Faneyte (1990), Pim Walsma (2008) and Nick Urbanus (2012).
As mentioned, De Blok also won the trophy last year.
...Donny Breek...
...Roel de Mon Award...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
Roel de Mon Award
This award is handed out annually to the most talented youth pitcher of the year.
The award is named after legendary pitcher Roel de Mon, who in 1943 set a single-season record with 235 strikeouts.
De Mon, who once averaged 15 strikeouts per game in a four-year period, played for Schoten and SC Haarlem, as well as in the national team.
Like last year, the award was handed out to Donny Breek of DSS.
This season, his second at the highest level, the righthander was 1-3 with a 7.95 ERA.
He pitched in 12 games, including ten starts, and struckout 34 hitters in 48 2/3 inning, while walking 39 and giving up 58 basehits.
In the following Promotion/Relegaton Pool, Breek was 2-0 with an 0.84 ERA and 14 strikeouts in 10 2/3 inning.
In August, Breek participated with the Netherlands Under-18 Team in the Under-18 World Championship in Canada.
There, he struckout 18 hitters in 16 2/3 inning, while giving up only two earned runs.
Last month, Breek was signed to a 7-year professional contract by the Minnesota Twins.
With that, he will make his professional debut next year.
It is the third time that a pitcher of DSS wins the Roel de Mon Award.
The only other was Robin van Doornspeek, who won in 1998.
Breek becomes the sixth pitcher to win this award two years in a row.
Alexander Smit (PSV) won the award in three consecutive years (2000-2002).
Henk Meijer (Sparta, 1972-1973), Christian Ruggenberg (Twins, 1990-1991), Kevin Heijstek (Neptunus, 2004-2005) and Kevin Miner (Amsterdam Pirates, 2006-2007) won the award in two consecutive years.
Ron Fraser Award
This award is handed out to the most promising youth-player.
The award is named after Ron Fraser, who was the first American Head Coach of the Netherlands National Baseball Team.
He guided the Orange squad to three European Championship-titles.
This year the award went to Delano Selassa (HCAW).
After having played in a few games of HCAW last season, Selassa played in his first full big league season this year.
As middle infielder, Selassa played in 19 games and batted .281 (18-for-64) with three doubles and two triples.
Selassa, who missed several games due to an injury, scored ten runs and batted in seven.
In August, Selassa won the title at the European Championship with the Netherlands Under-23 Team.
In this tournament, he batted .222, scored seven runs and batted in eight.
Selassa is the fourth player of HCAW to win the Ron Fraser Award.
The others were Jan de Graaf (1970), Ralph Milliard (1989) and Maickel Rietel (2014).
...Evert-Jan 't Hoen...
...Leen Volkerijk Award...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
In Memoriam Leen Volkerijk Award
This award is handed out annually to a person who has had many contributions to the development of (young) players.
The award is named after Leen Volkerijk, a longtime baseball-coach, who also served as (pitching) coach of the Netherlands National Team and himself was active for many years in the development of young players.
This year the award went to former big league- and National Team-player Evert-Jan 't Hoen, who was an infielder and mostly played for Neptunus.
In 2013-2016, 't Hoen was the Head Coach of Neptunus and guided the squad to the Dutch championship-title in his first four years as Head Coach at the highest level.
In 2012, he was the winner of the first-ever Bill Arce Award for the Most Promising Coach.
In 2015, 't Hoen won the Coach of the Year Award.
In recent years, 't Hoen is the coordinator for the organization of practices and clinics of Rotterdam United Baseball and the Baseball Academy Rotterdam Unicorns.
This year, Evert-Jan 't Hoen was the 3B Coach of the Netherlands Under-23 Team that captured the title at the European Under-23 Team in the Czech Republic in August.
A month earlier, he also was the 3B Coach of the Netherlands National Team during the World Port Tournament in Rotterdam (Netherlands).
...Ronald Jaarsma...
...Coach of the Year Award...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
Coach of the Year Award
This award was won this year by Ronald Jaarsma, who made his debut as Head Coach of Curaçao Neptunus.
This season, Jaarsma led Neptunus to two titles.
In June, Neptunus won the European Champions Cup in Germany by winning 7-3 against UnipolSai Bologna (Italy) in the Final.
During the season, Neptunus had to deal with several injuries.
In the first four months of the season, the team also had to do without one of its pitching aces, Orlando Yntema.
Despite that, the team finished in second place in the regular season to qualfy for the Championship Pool.
The team then finished in first place to reach the Holland Series.
In the Championship Final, Neptunus faced L&D Amsterdam Pirates, who was labeled as the favorite.
But Neptunus proved to be the best team, won the Series in five games and captured its fifth consecutive title.
It marks the eighth time that the award went to a coach of Neptunus.
Charles Urbanus won in 1992 and 1993 and Robert Eenhoorn won in 2000 and 2001.
Hereafter, in 2004, the award went to the 3-man coaching-staff of the team, which then shared equal duties, as there was no Head Coach.
The members of that staff were Jan Collins, Paul van den Oever and Ben Thijssen.
In 2009, Steve Janssen was the next Neptunus-coach to win the award, then Evert-Jan 't Hoen won in 2015.
Bill Arce Award
This award was introduced in 2012 for the Most Promising Coach to not only recognize his accomplishments, but also to stimulate him to develop more.
The award is named after American baseball-ambassador Bill Arce, who had a long association with Dutch baseball.
Arce coached the national team, participated with teams in the Haarlem Baseball Week and organized many clinics.
Bill Arce passed away on March 7 of last year at age 90.
This year, the award was handed out to Michael Duursma.
The former short stop retired as an active player after the 2016 season when he played for L&D Amsterdam Pirates.
That concluded a 21-year career at the highest level.
Duursma played in many international events with the Netherlands National Baseball Team, including the 2008 Olympic Games and three World Baseball Classics (2006, 2009, 2013).
Since its founding in 2008, Duursma is active as an instructor at Baseball Academy Kennemerland Rabbits.
In May 2016, Duursma succeeded Bernie Beckman as technical manager of the Rabbits.
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