(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Henk Seppen)
 Tom de Blok nominated for Sportsman of the Year in Amsterdam
Nederlands
 AMSTERDAM (Neth.) -
Tom de Blok, pitcher of L&D Amsterdam Pirates and the Netherlands National Team, has been nominated for the annual Sportsman of the Year Award in Amsterdam.
The nominees were announced on Tuesday (October 31).
Other Awards to be handed will go to the Female Athlete of the Year, Team of the Year, Coach of the Year and Talent of the Year.
The winners are awarded the Fanny, which is named after legendary athlete Fanny Blankers-Koen, who won four Gold Medals at the 1948 Olympic Games in London.
The Awards will be handed out on Monday, December 18, during the 20th edition of the Sportgala Amsterdam, organized by Topsport Amsterdam.
Voting can be done at the website of the Sportgala Amsterdam.
Tom de Blok is one of three nominated athletes for the Award.
The others are Jesper Jobse (basketball) and Mirco Pruyser (field hockey).
In March of this year, De Blok participated with the Netherlands Kingdom Team in the World Baseball Classic, where the Orange-squad reached the Semi-Final.
After returning, he signed a professional contract in April with the 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.
Last Saturday, for the second year in a row, De Blok won the Guus van der Heijden Memorial Trophy, which is handed out annually to the Best baseball-international under 23.
Jesper Jobse finished in second place with the National Team in the 3x3 Basketball World Championship in France, then reached the quarter finals at the 3x3 Basketball European Championship in Amsterdam.
Mirco Pruyser scored two goals for the National Team against Belgium in fhe Final of the European Hockey Championship in Amsterdam, which was won with a 4-2 score.
Pruyser was the topscorer of the event with six goals.
(October 31)
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