(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo courtesy of Netherlands Baseball and Softball Hall of Fame & The Herons)
IN MEMORIAM
...Gé van Berkel...
(1934 - 2019)
(© Photo: Neth. BB & SB Hall of Fame) |
 Dutch Hall of Famer, Coach, Promoter Gé van Berkel passed away
Nederlands
 HEERHUGOWAARD (Neth.) -
Gé van Berkel, who was a longtime baseball-coach and promoter of both baseball and softball, passed away early Monday-morning, June 17 at age 84.
For his many activities, Van Berkel was decorated by the Royal Netherlands Baseball and Softball Association.
He also received a Royal Decoration.
The memorial service will be held on Saturday, June 22 at 11:30 AM in Crematorium Waerdse Landen at the Krusemanlaan 5 in Heerhugowaard.
There also is a possibility to say goodbye on Thursday, June 20 at 7-8:30 PM and on Friday, June 21 at 3-5 PM at Langereis 54 in Nieuwe Niedorp.
Gé van Berkel was born November 11, 1934 and he started playing baseball at an early age.
He started his baseball-career in Haarlem when he began playing in a youth-team of SC Haarlem at age 10.
He later became a talented pitcher and played several games for the representative team of the City of Haarlem.
Van Berkel kept on playing and doing other activities for SC Haarlem, until he moved to Heerhugowaard in 1975.
At The Herons, Van Berkel became the Head Coach of the main baseball-squad.
He guided the team to a higher division, but then focused more on coaching and training youth-players.
On February 17, 2017, Gé van Berkel was officially been inducted into the Netherlands Baseball and Softball Hall of Fame.
The induction ceremony was held in an indoor sports facility in Heerhugowaard during a practice session for youth players of The Herons, the club where Van Berkel has long been associated with.
Van Berkel became the 50th person to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.
The inaugural class was inducted in 1983.
The last time before Van Berkel that someone was elected into the Hall of Fame was in 2014 when Loek Loevendie was honored this way.
The Hall of Fame is part of the Netherlands Baseball and Softball Museum, which is located in the Pim Mulier Stadium in Haarlem.
...Gé van Berkel adresses the attendees during...
...his Hall of Fame-induction...
(© Photo courtesy of The Herons) |
Coincidentally, Van Berkel and Loevendie were much alike, as both have been active in baseball and softball for many, many years.
Both also have been involved in coaching and development of youth players for a very long time.
For his many contributions in the field of player development, Van Berkel won the In Memoriam Leen Volkerijk Award in 2010.
Gé van Berkel had been active in baseball for seventy years, including more than forty for his club The Herons, which has its home-site in Heerhugowaard.
Since moving from Haarlem to Heerhugowaard in the seventies, he became a club-icon there and that earned him the nickname 'Mr. Herons'.
A few years ago, at age 80, Van Berkel retired as a coach, but he remained involved within the club's activities.
At The Herons, Van Berkel coached and trained many youth baseball-players.
Several of them continued to develop, reached the Dutch Major League and some even went on to play in the Netherlands National Baseball Team, including pitchers Eelco Jansen and Jeroen Deken.
In his long affiliation with baseball, Van Berkel was a big promoter of both baseball and softball, especially in the Province of Noord-Holland.
Van Berkel started introducing baseball on local schools and also conducted coach-clinics.
Besides that, he stood at the basis of the successful baseball- and softball-school Noord-Holland, trainingcamps that are hosted at the site of The Herons.
There, players from local clubs in the Province of Noord-Holland could participate in practice-sessions, conducted by some wellknown coaches, including (former) National Team-players.
The webmaster of Grand Slam * Stats & News offers his condolences to the family of Gé and wishes them a lot of strength with this loss.
(June 19)
|
