(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Henk Seppen)
    Xander Bogaerts hits 100th Major League-homerun
Nederlands
 CLEVELAND, Ohio (USA) -
Xander Bogaerts hit his 100th career Major League-homerun on Wednesday (August 14) and he added his 101st moments later.
Bogaerts became the second Dutch player to reach the mark this season and the fourth overall.
The Aruba-born short stop hit all his homeruns while playing for Boston Red Sox.
...Xander Bogaerts hit his 100th homerun...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
On July 23, Amsterdam-born short stop Didi Gregorius of the New York Yankees hit the 100th homerun in his career in a game against Minnesota Twins.
He currently has 103.
On Wednesday, Boston opened the score against and at Cleveland Indians in the third inning with one out when Rafael Devers and Xander Bogaerts hit back-to-back homeruns.
For Bogaerts, this was his 100th.
With Boston leading 2-1 in the seventh inning, Mookie Betts doubled with one out.
With first base open, it was decided to walk Rafael Devers intentionally, but that decision backfired.
Bogaerts was the next batter and this time, he hit a 3-run homerun.
Boston won 5-1.
The Dutch homerun-list is headed by outfielder Andruw Jones, who recorded 434 in seventeen seasons, most of them with the Atlanta Braves.
Last year, second baseman Jonathan Schoop (like Jones from Curaçao) became the second Dutch player to reach the 100-homerun mark, while playing for Baltimore Orioles.
Schoop also hit a homerun in the final game he played for Baltimore, before being traded to Milwaukee Brewers for whom he hit four homeruns in the remainder of the season.
After the season, Schoop became a Free Agent and signed with Minnesota Twins.
So far this season, he has hit 16 homeruns to raise his career-total to 126.
Curaçao-born outfielder Wladimir Balentien hit 15 homeruns while playing the Major League.
Thereafter, he made his debut in the Japanese Major League in 2011.
Since then, Balentien has hit 279 homeruns for Yakult Swallows in Nippon Professional Baseball.
In 2013, he set a record with 60 homeruns in one season.
On July 31, short stop Andrelton Simmons of Los Angeles Angels also reached a milestone, as he played in his 1,000th Major League-game.
Simmons, who made his debut in 2012, played in his 1,001st game two days later, but he is sidelined since August 3 with a sprained left ankle.
Jones played in the most games by a Dutch player, 2.196.
Besides Bogaerts, Gregorius, Schoop and Simmons, there are three more active professionals in the Major League with a Netherlands passport.
They are second baseman Ozzie Albies (Atlanta Braves), closer Kenley Jansen (Los Angeles Dodgers) and infielder Jurickson Profar (Oakland A's).
| Major League Homeruns, Dutch position-players |
| HRs | Players | Gms |
| 434 | Andruw Jones | 2,196 |
| 126 (*) | Jonathan Schoop | 775 (*) |
| 103 (*) | Didi Gregorius | 818 (*) |
| 101 (*) | Xander Bogaerts | 878 (*) |
| 65 (*) | Andrelton Simmons | 1,001 (*) |
| 49 | Randall Simon | 537 |
| 48 (*) | Ozzie Albies | 336 (*) |
| 47 (*) | Jurickson Profar | 457 (*) |
| 28 | Roger Bernadina | 548 |
| 15 | Wladimir Balentien | 170 |
| 15 | Hensley Meulens | 182 |
| 3 | Gene Kingsale | 211 |
| 2 | Greg Halman | 44 |
| 1 | Robert Eenhoorn | 37 |
| 0 | Ivanon Coffie | 23 |
| 0 | Yurendell de Caster | 3 |
| 0 | Rikkert Faneyte | 80 |
| 0 | Ralph Milliard | 42 |
| (*) - Through August 14 |
|
Since 1989, there have been 18 position-players from the Netherlands who played in the Major League.
In 1989, third baseman/outfielder Hensley Meulens was the first and he also was the first player from Curaçao to do so.
The first Netherlands-born position-player was outfielder Rikkert Faneyte, who made his debut in 1993.
The first position-player from Aruba was outfielder Gene Kingsale, who debuted in 1996.
Fourteen of these players have hit at least one Major League-homerun.
In the early days of professional baseball in the USA, there have been four other players, who were born in the Netherlands, but all grew up in the States.
Three of them were position-players and one of them hit two homeruns.
That was outfielder Jack Lelivelt, who in 1912 homered twice while playing for the New York Yankees, which then were called Highlanders.
The team changed the name to Yankees the next year.
Lelivelt had played for Washington Senators in 1909-1911.
In December 1911, he was traded to a Minor League-team, who traded him to the Highlanders in August 1912.
On October 5, 1912, in the final game of the season, Lelivelt played with the Highlanders against his former team Washington.
It was in this game that the rightfielder hit his two homeruns.
This not only were the first 'Dutch' Major League-homeruns, it also were the lone ones in his career.
Lelivelt played in the outfield with Klondike Smith (centerfield) and Bert Daniels (leftfield).
Eh, no, this is not the Bert Daniels, who is the Public Address Announcer for both the baseball- and softball-team of Dutch big league-club DSS.
Besides the 18 position-players, there have been nine Netherlands pitchers in the Major League.
The first of them was Bert Blyleven, who made his debut in 1970, but he grew up in the USA.
The first Dutch born and raised pitcher in the Major League was Win Remmerswaal in 1979.
Seven of them also got some at bats, but none of them homered.
One of the above mentioned four early day-players from the Netherlands also was a pitcher.
That was Bill Lelivelt (the brother of Jack), who played for Detroit Tigers in 1909-1910.
(August 14)
|
