(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Henk Seppen; Videos by Feiko Drost & Rob Schuurman)
Rob Cordemans breaks All-Time StrikeOut Record Nederlands
AMSTERDAM (Neth.) -
Veteran righthander Rob Cordemans is the new All-Time StrikeOut-leader in Dutch big league baseball!
On Thursday-evening (June 14), the 43-year old Cordemans started for L&D Amsterdam Pirates in the opener of its 3-game series against DSS at home in Amsterdam.
Pirates won the game 4-1, scoring all its runs in the third inning.
The righthander struckout eight hitters, which raised his career-total to 1,949 to become the new recordholder.
With that, Cordemans broke a 22-year old record.
In 1996, Bart Volkerijk retired after a 21-year career (all with ADO) in which he struckout 1.948 hitters, a record which seems to be unbreakable.
In 2012, Cordemans already broke another record of Volkerijk when he won his 151st game.
In 1994, Cordemans made his debut in the Dutch big league, pitching for Rotterdam-based Neptunus.
It was the beginning of an impressive career.
Cordemans pitched for Neptunus through 2005, then played two seasons each for ADO and Sparta-Feyenoord.
Since 2010, Cordemans pitches for Amsterdam Pirates.
Before tonight's game, Cordemans needed seven strikeouts to even the record and eight to break it.
For Cordemans, this was his third start of the season and his fifth appearance.
In his previous four games, his highest strikeout-total was five and his longest outing was five innings on May 26 against HCAW.
Last season, he started 12 games and pitched six or more innings in ten of those games.
In only two games, Cordemans struckout more than six hitters.
In his last regular season-game on May 26, Cordemans struckout only two hitters in five innings.
With that, it wat not really expected that he would break the record tonight.
But Cordemans had a strong outing.
He struckout two hitters in the first three innings, then added two more in the fourth at bat.
When he struckout his fifth batter in the fifth, the record appeared to be in the making and Cordemans was left in the game to give him the opportunity to break the record at home.
In the sixth inning, Cordemans began with another strikeout.
He then tied the All-Time Record when he closed this at bat by striking out rookie Junior Martina.
And so, Cordemans also took the mound in the top of the seventh inning.
First batter Tommy van de Sanden flied out, but hereafter, Cordemans struckout Kevin Nieveld.
He became Cordemans' eighth strikeout-victim tonight and the 1,949th in his impressive career to set the record.
The game was halted, as Cordemans' teammates walked to the mound to congratulate the righthander.
They were joined by the non-starting players, as well as the coaches, who came out of the dug-out and the bullpen.
Also entering the field to congratulate Cordemans was now former recordholder Bart Volkerijk, who attended the game and nowadays is the Executive Director of the Royal Netherlands Baseball and Softball Association (KNBSB).
Cordemans also received congratulations from veteran Home Plate Umpire Henri van Heijningen and DSS Head Coach Jerry Breek.
As mentioned, Cordemans set the record by striking out Kevin Nieveld.
He is the son of René Nieveld, who was a longtime teammate at ADO of Bart Volkerijk.
After setting the record, Cordemans was relieved by Maickel Rietel.
Jim Ploeger pitched the ninth inning for Amsterdam and earned a save.
Cordemans raised his record to 3-0.
The eight strikeouts are the highest total for Cordemans since he struckout nine hitters on June 2 last year, coincidentally also against DSS.
Rob Cordemans now has a chance to reach two more milestones and set two 'unbreakable' records.
He can become the first pitcher in history with 200 victories and 2000 strikeouts.
To to do, he needs 10 more victories and 51 strikeouts.
(more later)
(June 14)
Beneath are two recordings of the historic strikeout made by the two Official Scorers.
The top one is made by Feiko Drost, the bottom one is made by Rob Schuurman.
The voice you hear is that of Public Address Announcer Richard de Wolff.
Rob Cordemans breaks All-Time StrikeOut Record
AMSTERDAM (Neth.) -
Veteran righthander Rob Cordemans is the new All-Time StrikeOut-leader in Dutch big league baseball!
In 1994, Cordemans made his debut in the Dutch big league, pitching for Rotterdam-based Neptunus.
It was the beginning of an impressive career.
Cordemans pitched for Neptunus through 2005, then played two seasons each for ADO and Sparta-Feyenoord.
Since 2010, Cordemans pitches for Amsterdam Pirates.