(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photos by Alfred Cop, Robert Bos & Marco Stoovelaar)
 Former sponsor, administrator and HCAW-icon Ron Jaarsma passed away
Nederlands
 NIEUWEGEIN (Neth.) -
Ron Jaarsma, who with his company Mr. Cocker Lunchrooms has been the longtime sponsor of Bussum-based HCAW and became a club-icon, has passed away on Wednesday-morning (March 6) at the age of 74.
Through the years, Mister Jaarsma has been a colorful person on and off the baseball-fields.
He was very driven and passionate in wanting to realize the best.
Not only for his club, but for baseball in general.
Ronald Dirk (Ron) Jaarsma, who was born on July 15, 1947 in Utrecht, became associated with HCAW in early May of 1985.
Back then, his company Mr. Cocker Lunchrooms became the main-sponsor of both the baseball- and women's softball-team.
Initially, like all other sponsor-agreements, this was for a period of three years.
However, it was the beginning of a record-setting cooperation between the two parties and the entrance of Ron Jaarsma in baseball.
Mr. Cocker (and thus Jaarsma) remained the main-sponsor of the HCAW baseball-team for thirty years!
With that, a record was set, as only Ola, associated with UVV in Utrecht, also had a long sponsor-association with one club for twenty years.
Although Ron Jaarsma initially also was the sponsor of the softball-team, he always said that when the team could get a main-sponsor of its own, he was okay with that.
After Mr. Cocker had been the sponsor of the softball-team for two years, Eurami supported the team in the next three seasons.
When that agreement ended, Jaarsma stepped back in as sponsor and continued to do so for fourteen more years!
,,The softball-team also need to be supported'', he always said.
Right from the start, Ron Jaarsma wanted to have the best possible opportunities and conditions for his players.
He stimulated both the players and the coaches with his enormous enthousiasm.
Ron also led his company with passion and it grew rapidly, became very successful and had lunchrooms on multiple locations.
Ron Jaarsma was more than a sponsor.
He also was the number one fan of the club.
Ron not only wanted to have the best conditions for his players, he also helped when needed.
But he also wanted results and expected that his players and coaches would perform for the full hundred percent.
When something went wrong or when HCAW lost, he gave his honest opinion.
Not only about his own team, but also, when he thought that was needed, about the umpires.
However, those reactions mostly came during or shortly after a game.
When the game was finished, Ron Jaarsma was standing in the sponsorbox with that characteristic big smile on his face.
,,Tomorrow is another day'', he then said having accepted the loss.
That was then mostly followed by ''Do you want to drink something?"
...Ron Jaarsma with one of his...
...cocker spaniels in the sponsorbox...
(© Photo: (Alfred Cop Fotografie) |
It were these honest opinions, his drive, his passion for which he was known for, but what also made him well-respected.
Within HCAW, it earned him the nickname 'The Boss', which refers to famous George M. Steinbrenner, the longtime owner of New York Yankees, who also controlled most activities of his club.
Through the years, Jaarsma realized several improvements on the home-site of HCAW in Bussum, including a new light-installation and a renovated playing field with new dug-outs.
Also one of these additions was the long and spacy sponsor-box on the third base-side.
It was in this sponsorbox that Ron showed that he was a great host.
Not only for guests or other sponsors, but also for officials or representatives of the opposing team or the Dutch Association.
With that, Jaarsma also underlined his attitude: Wanting to have the best for his club, his team and for baseball in general.
'Cosiness, Cocker-time' was the slogan of the Mr. Cocker Coffee, Tea and Lunchrooms and Jaarsma took this attitude also to HCAW and its sponsorbox.
He frequently served his guests himself.
Ron was always present in the sponsorbox, accompanied by his wife Susan and his daughter Jacqueline and of course, the two cocker spaniels, who were the models for the famous Mr. Cocker-logo.
Ron's son Ronald Jaarsma was on the field, as he played for HCAW in the big league in 1999-2008 after having played in two big league-seasons for Neptunus (1997-1998).
Ronald started to play baseball in the early nineties.
In 2009 and 2010, Jaarsma Junior was the 3B Coach of the Bussum-team, assisting Jurjan Koenen (2009) and Bill Froberg (2010), but he also played in some game during these two seasons.
In 2011, he assisted Froberg again and then succeeded him as Head Coach halfway the season.
Froberg passed away in 2020.
From 2013 on, Ronald Jaarsma was the 3B Coach of Amsterdam Pirates in four seasons, then led Curaçao Neptunus as Head Coach in the past five seasons.
This year, he will be the Head Coach of Pirates for the first time.
When seated (or standing) in the sponsorbox or in the stands on other playing sites, Ron Jaarsma closely followed the action on the field.
He could have been in the middle of a talk with, but his eyes saw everything.
And when one of his players made a great action or HCAW scored some runs, he celebrated and included everyone who was in his neighborhood.
,,Did you see that, what an action!'', he then yelled, full of enthousiasm and a proud feeling.
Both inside and outside the sponsorbox, Ron Jaarsma always was approachable for a talk.
And that's something he also could do.
When you talked with Ron, it was not for a few minutes.
Those talks could last some time, but were always animated.
And always about baseball, how to improve the sport, to make it more attractive to sponsors and to attract more spectators.
...The logo and slogan of Mr. Cocker (left, center)...
...At right, the logo of HCAW during the 30-year...
...sponsorship with the cocker spaniel... |
And yes, as said before, during these talks, he had his own opinions and his own ideas.
Through the years, Ron Jaarsma offered some concept-plans to the Dutch Association to change or improve things or its policy for the better of the sport.
During the annual council-meetings of the KNBSB, Jaarsma regularly took the microphone to ask questions or to defend his opinions with well-founded arguments.
He always stuck to his points of view and that suited him.
Not everyone agreed with him, which he accepted, but by telling how he thought about some situations, Ron Jaarsma hoped that something was done.
Again, to improve the sport of baseball, as well as softball.
Through the years, Ron Jaarsma earned a lot of respect for this.
In 1998-2000, Jaarsma was a member of the Committee for Commercial Affairs of the KNBSB, which was chaired by Hans Kranenburg.
Other members included Kenneth Smit and Jacques Reuvers, who then was the President of the Haarlem Baseball Week Organizing Committee.
This Committee's goal was to present both baseball and softball better to sponsors and in the media.
After he had ended his sponsorship at the end of the 2014 season, Ron Jaarsma remained interested in and close to 'his' club HCAW, as he regularly kept attending home-games of the team.
However, since 2013, his son was one of the coaches of Amsterdam Pirates.
Initially, Ron Jaarsma was somewhat reluctant to attending games of Pirates.
Not only because of his long association with HCAW, and therefore having a HCAW-heart, which again underlined how much he felt connected with the Bussum-club.
But there also was another reason, because some players had left HCAW to play for Pirates shortly before the transfer-deadline had expired.
But after a while, these disagreemtents of course were settled.
One of the persons who kept on pursuing Ron to come visit the Pirates-games was Loek Loevendie, 'Mr. Pirates', who passed away last year.
And so, Ron became a regular visitor of home-games of Pirates in Amsterdam.
Thereafter, the Jaarsma-family also traveled regularly to Rotterdam when Ronald was the Head Coach of Neptunus.
...Ron Jaarsma during the honoring and retiring of the...
...uniform-number of former player Jurjan Koenen in 2009...
...Standing at right is his successor Frank Mooijman...
(© Photo: Marco Stoovelaar) |
In the thirty years that Ron Jaarsma was the sponsor of HCAW, the club accomplished a lot and became very successful, winning Dutch Championship-titles and European Cups.
Therefore, the club owes a lot to him.
In this 30-year period (1985-2014), the softball-team of HCAW captured the Dutch Championship-title seven times and also won seven European Cups.
The baseball-team initially was less successful.
In four of the first five seasons, the team ended up in the relegation-pool, but prolonged its stay in the highest league.
From 1990 on, Jaarsma decided to change things.
Veteran coach Cees Herkemij was appointed as new Head Coach and some new players were added.
All with the purpose to climb in the ranking with the goal of winning the Championship-title.
In 1991, led by Herkemij, HCAW first qualified for the Play-Offs and also played in the Holland Series.
From 1994 on, the Bussum-team reached the Play-Offs in eleven consecutive years!
In these years, the team played in nine more Holland Series.
The ultimate goal first came in 1996 when HCAW won the Championship-title, led by Head Coach Craig McGinnis.
In 1998, now led by Brian Farley, HCAW won another title.
In the early 2000s, Ron Jaarsma set up the Topsport Baseball-section at HCAW to create good conditions and set up good teams.
He also was the General Manager of HCAW for three years and worked closely with Adrie Berrevoets, who was the longtime Team Manager and Team Scorer, as well as with Feiko Drost, who handled a lot of administration for the club and Frank Mooijman, who in those years started to do the public relations of the baseball-team.
In 2009, Jaarsma decided to step back some and was succeeded by Mooijman, who went on to handle everything around the team and later also became the Manager of the Baseball Topsport-section.
Due to the successes in 1991 through 2005, the baseball-team of HCAW went on to qualify for participation in eleven European Cup-tournaments.
The team played in six European Cup-tournaments (now Champions Cup), four Cup Winners Cup-tournaments and one CEB Cup-tournament.
During these tournaments, Jaarsma also underscored that he wanted the best for his players, as the team mostly stayed in very good hotels.
And he always accompanied the team himself to arrange everything on location.
It was also during these tournaments, sitting on the terrace near the hotel, that he could have long, but interesting talks.
Always concerned about baseball, how thing could be improved, wanted to know how others think about it.
Something, those talks ended well after midnight.
When finished, he stepped up, had that familiar big smile on his face, and said: ,,It's enough for tonight, let's go to sleep''.
...Ron Jaarsma is honored by Huib Schrijvers...
...during the celebrations of HCAW's 1,750th...
...big league-game in 2016...
(© Photo: Marco Stoovelaar) |
In 1995, HCAW was to participate again in the Cup Winners Cup-tournament in Sweden, but that was cancelled.
Instead, HCAW got the right to participate in what then was the European Cup-3 or CEB Cup-tournament instead.
And so, the team traveled to Brevannes in France and went on to play the Final against Nettuno from Italy.
That not only was a very long game, it also became very memorable for its final score.
On a personal note, during this Final, the webmaster of this site (Marco Stoovelaar) had frequent contact by phone with Ron regarding the status of the game in order to make an article for De Telegraaf-newspaper.
During this hotline phone conversation, Ron sometimes sounded nervous, as the score was going back-and-forth and he of course wanted his team to win.
However, both teams kept on scoring and the game continued and continued.
Although, he would have loved that HCAW would have won the game, towards the final innings, Ron said he wasn't nervous anymore about the outcome, but simply wanted the game to end, as it was well after midnight.
Nettuno won the game with a 25-21 score!
,,But we played a great game and I'm very proud of my team and what we accomplished here'', he said after the game finally had ended.
A big dream of Ron Jaarsma became reality in 2000 in the Italian city of Grosseto.
There, HCAW faced organisor Grosseto in the Final of the Cup Winners Cup-tournament.
At that time, Grosseto was one of the best teams in the Italian league.
The game became a thriller.
Lefthanded pitcher Jurrriaan Lobbezoo had a strong outing, striking out 13 batters in eight-plus innings.
Trailing 1-0, Jurjan Koenen hit a 3-run homerun for HCAW in the sixth inning, but Grosseto came alongside.
In the bottom of the eighth, HCAW had runners on first and third base with two outs and a 2-strike-count on the batter.
Koenen, who was the runner on first base, took off the steal second base and came into a rundown.
At the same time, Jeffrey Cranston took off from third base, beat the throw back to the plate and scored to put HCAW ahead, 4-3.
In the top of the ninth, with two outs and two runners on base, Michiel van Kampen relieved Lobbezoo.
He got the bases loaded, but then closed with a strikeout.
HCAW had won the European Cup and Ron Jaarsma was the proudest man around in the stadium.
...Players, coaches and staff-members pose...
...for the Mr. Cocker Lunchroom in Bussum on...
...Opening Day 1986; Everyone was served coffee...
...by actress Carry Tefsen (standing, 4th from left)... |
Ron Jaarsma loved to promote baseball.
On Opening Day 1986, he invited the group of players, coaches and staff of HCAW to his Mr. Cocker Lunchroom in Bussum.
There, they were served coffee by actress Carry Tefsen, which she did as Mien Dobbelsteeen, the wellknown character she played in comedy-series Zeg 'ns Aaa, which was a successful longrunning series that ran for twelve seasons (212 episodes) in 1981-1993.
With his Mr. Cocker-company, Jaarsma also supported tournaments and several initiatives with sponsoring or advertisements.
He was one of the loyal advertisers of the Baseball Guide, that was compiled by the webmaster of this website, Marco Stoovelaar.
In 2000, Mr. Cocker was the main-sponsor of this Guide.
Amongst Jaarsma's ideas to promote both baseball and softball was to host and organize tournaments on the HCAW-complex.
HCAW got one of the most wellknown tournaments early 1989 when Amstel Tijgers was incorporated in the Bussum-club.
With that, HCAW now only took over the scoreboard of the Amsterdam-based club, but also the rights to organize the annual In Memoriam Charles Urbanus, Sr. Tournament.
In 1990, HCAW hosted the tournament for the first time and it was Ron Jaarsma, who mostly was on the field himself to present the awards to the teams and the best players of the event.
Through the years, it also was Ron Jaarsma, who organized several activities around the games of the main baseball-squad and set up celebrations to honor some players, for instance when their uniform-number was retired.
Of course, he didn't organize these events on his own.
He did it with an active group of people, but Ron often was one of the initiators.
In 2016, Jaarsma was one of the honorary guests himself when HCAW played its 1,750th game in the highest baseball-division since 1967 to become the first club to reach that total of games in the big league.
During the pre-game festivities, Jaarsma was honored for his long association with the club by then-chairman Huib Schrijvers, who sadly passed away last year.
...Ron Jaarsma looks on during the 2018 Holland Series...
...with his son Ronald coaching at right for Neptunus...
(© Photo: Robert Bos) |
Thanks to the support of Jaarsma, HCAW was able to organize several international tournaments, including two European Cup Winners Cup Baseball-tournaments (1992, 2001), the European Championship Women's Softball (1992), the European Championship Men's Softball (1997) and three European Softball Cup-tournaments (1994, 1996, 1999), as well as a game of Major League Alumni (1992) and several exhibition-games of the Netherlands National Teams, including one of the Orange baseball-team against Taiwan and Italy.
In later years, Ron's daughter Jacqueline and son Ronald took over several duties of running the Mr. Cocker Lunchrooms.
In the meantime, as mentioned, Ron kept on visiting games of HCAW, Amsterdam Pirates and Neptunus, where his son Ronald was associated with.
Sometimes, he simply was observing these games on his own.
Other times, he seated with others in the stands.
In 2018, Ron Jaarsma was in attendance when his son guided Curaçao Neptunus to the Championship-title, winning against L&D Amsterdam Pirates, which is his current team.
Unfortunately, due to health problems, Ron was unable to be regularly at baseball-fields in the past few years.
Ron Jaarsma was much-liked and well-respected by many.
Not only from within HCAW, but also outside this club.
He mostly walked around with his characteric broad smile and twinkling eyes, enjoying the success of his team and of his club.
While in his sponsorbox, he enjoyed having a drink and a snack, surrounded by the people he liked and loved.
Ron Jaarsma will be missed by many of us.
The webmaster of Grand Slam * Stats & News offers his condolences to Ron's wife Susan, daughter Jacqueline and son Ronald, grandchildren and other family and friends and wishes them a lot of strength with this huge loss.
(April 7)
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