(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photos by Henk Seppen & Marco Stoovelaar)
 Hensley Meulens no longer Bench Coach of New York Mets
Nederlands
 FLUSHING, Queens, New York City, New York (USA) -
Hensley Meulens is no longer the Bench Coach of the Major League-team of the New York Mets.
On Wednesday (December 16), the club named Dave Jauss as its new Bench Coach for the new season.
It is not known at this moment, whether there will be other changes in the coaching-staff.
This year, the team finished in fourth place in the National League East with a 26-34 record in a season that was shortened due to the coronavirus pandemic.
...Hensley Meulens as Manager of the Netherlands Team...
...during the 2017 World Baseball Classic in Japan...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
Since 2009, Citi Field is the home-stadion of New York Mets (replacing Shea Stadium) and is located in Flushing, which is one of the largest neighborhoods of Queens, which is a borough of New York City and is the home of the Mets since 1964.
Flushing has a long Dutch connection.
On October 10, 1645, it was established as a settlement of New Netherland and was named after the Dutch city of Vlissingen, which became Flushing.
New Netherland was a Dutch colony, created in 1621 by the Dutch West India Company, and was located at what is now the east coast of the states of New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Connecticut .
New Amsterdam was the capital, located in lower Manhattan and later became New York.
The English took over control over the area in 1664 and renamed the area the Province of New York.
The English created Queens County in 1683 with the Town of Flushing becoming one of the original five towns of Queens.
Many years later, Dutch player Ralph Milliard played in ten Major League-games for the Mets in 1998.
In the same year, Robert Eenhoorn played in his final professional season.
He then played in Triple-A for the Mets, but never played for the team in the Majors.
Two other Netherlands Team-players later also played in Triple-A for the Mets, being lefthanded pitcher Radhames Dykhoff (2000) and outfielder Roger Bernadina (2016).
The 53-year old Hensley 'Bam Bam' Meulens was named Bench Coach of New York Mets on December 8 last year.
At that moment, Carlos Beltrán was the Manager of the team.
On January 22 of this year, Beltrán and the Mets separated due to his involvement in the Houston Astros sign stealing scandal.
Luis Rojas, who was the Quality Control Coach/Outfield Instructor in the announced staff of Beltrán, then was named Manager.
While there now was a new Manager, the coaching-staff of Beltrán, which was announced on December 8, remained unchanged for the 2020 season.
A month later, Brian Schneider was added as the new Quality Control Coach to take over that position from Rojas.
Before coming to New York, Meulens was a member of the coaching-staff of the San Francisco Giants in 2010-2019.
He was the Hitting Coach in his first eight seasons (2010-2017), then was the Bench Coach of Manager Bruce Bochy in 2018 and 2019.
In these ten years, San Francisco won the World Series three times (2010, 2012, 2014).
Bochy retired after the 2019 season.
The Curaçao-born Hensley Meulens played in the Major League for seven seasons.
In 1989, as first player from Curaçao, he made his debut with New York Yankees for whom he then also played in 1990-1993.
In the next three seasons, Bam Bam played in Japan for Chiba Lotte Marines (1994) and Yakult Swallows (1995-1996).
Meulens returned to the Major League as player of Montreal Expos in 1997, then played in seven games for Arizona Diamondbacks in 1998.
Meulens also played in Mexico (2000-2002).
...Hensley Meulens as Manager of the Netherlands Team...
...during a practice session in 2015...
(© Photo: Marco Stoovelaar) |
Hensley Meulens was the Hitting Coach of the Netherlands National Baseball Team during the World Baseball Classic in 2006 and 2009.
He was then the Manager of the Orange-squad during the event in 2013 and 2017.
Both times, Meulens guided the team to the Semi-Final.
As a player, Meulens played for the Netherlands Team in the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney (Australia) and the 2001 World Championship in Taipei (Taiwan), amongst other events.
The 63-year old Dave Jauss also was Bench Coach of the Mets in 2010 and was the coordinator of staff development in 2011.
This year, Jauss was a scout for New York Yankees.
Before that, he was a member of the coaching-staff of Pittsburgh Pirates since October 2012.
He was Pittsburgh's Bench Coach in 2016.
Jauss worked in the Boston Red Sox-organization in 1996-2005, then was the Bench Coach for Los Angeles Dodgers (2006-2007) and Baltimore Orioles (2008-2009).
In recent weeks, there have been several other changes within the Mets-organization.
In September, it was announced that Steven Cohen had purchased the New York Mets from Fred Wilpon and his brother-in-law Saul Katz, who together founded Sterling Equities.
The Wilpon and Katz families have been associated with the club for forty years.
Wilpon was a part-owner since 1980, then became an equal partner in 1986.
Wilpon became sole owner in 2002 with Katz as co-owner.
The sale was approved on October 30 and was completed on November 6.
On that day, several changes were announced in the Baseball Operations Department.
Executive Vice President/General Manager Brodie Van Wagenen, Special Assistant to the General Manager Omar Minaya, Vice President/Assistant General Manager Allard Baird, Assistant General Manager Adam Guttridge and Executive Director for Player Development Jared Banner all left the club.
On December 13, the club announced that Jared Porter was named as its new General Manager, replacing Van Wagenen.
From November 2016 through this year, the 41-year old Porter was the Senior Vice President and Assistant General Manager for Arizona Diamondbacks.
In 2004-2015, Porter worked for Boston Red Sox, which in that span won the World Series three times.
In 2004, Boston won the title for the first time in 86 years.
In 2015-2016, he was the Director of Professional Scouting/Special Assistant for Chicago Cubs.
In 2016, Chicago won the World Series for the first time in 107 years.
(December 16)
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