(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photos by Henk Seppen & Robert Bos)
 Ronald Jaarsma steps down as Head Coach of Amsterdam Pirates; Mervin Gario succeeds
Nederlands
 AMSTERDAM (Neth.) -
Ronald Jaarsma has stepped down as Head Coach of L&D Amsterdam Pirates.
Although there already were some rumors since Pirates was eliminated in the Play-Offs on August 27, Jaarsma's (surprising) decision was officially confirmed by the club on Saturday (September 10).
The same day, it was announced that Mervin Gario succeeds Jaarsma as new Head Coach.
Last week, Gario announced that he had stepped down as Head Coach of Hoofddorp Pioniers.
Jaarsma was in his first season as Head Coach of the Amsterdam-team after he had led Curaçao Neptunus in the previous five seasons (2017-2021).
On Saturday, August 27, Amsterdam Pirates was dethroned as Dutch Champion after losing 3-1 in Game 4 of the best-of-five Play-Offs against HCAW.
But the loss of the Play-Offs and elimination for the Holland Series has nothing to do with Jaarsma's decision to step down.
,,Of course, I'm disappointed that we have lost.
I informed the board of the club a few weeks ago that I had some doubts whether or not I would continue on as a coach'', Jaarsma said.
,,Combining coaching at this level with my busy job was becoming more and more difficult.
Each time, I was travelling for some hour and a half to get from my home to the field.
That was specially tough after practices or games in the evening.
And the next moring, the alarm clock would go off early again.''
In the opener of the Play-Offs, HCAW recorded an extra-inning 5-0 win in eleven innings.
Two days later, Amsterdam Pirates shutout HCAW 4-0 to force at least a fourth game.
The next day, another extra-inning loss followed.
After Pirates had taken an early 2-0 lead, HCAW came alongside in the eighth, then won 4-2 in ten innings.
Last Saturday, Pirates lost 3-1, meaning HCAW won the best-of-five.
By losing the Play-Offs, Amsterdam Pirates was not only eliminated for the Holland Series, but also dethroned as Champion.
HCAW returns to the Championship Final for the time since 2005.
Amsterdam Pirates finished the regular season in first place after winning the Top-4 Pool.
With that, the team qualified for participation in next years European Champions Cup-tournament.
This year, Pirates reached the Final of that event in Bonn (Germany), but then lost 7-6 to Parma (Italy) after having 6-4 after six innings.
In the regular season, Amsterdam Pirates was the most productive of all nine teams in the Dutch big league.
Pirates led the league in Runs Scored (192), Basehits (253), Homeruns (10) and Batting Average (.316).
With that, the team was a sure contender to again advance to the Holland Series and again be successful.
However, in the Play-Offs, the team was far less productive and was unable to move the runners or to score enough runs.
Pirates had the lowest Batting Average (.188) of the four Play-Off teams and scored only seven runs (third place) in four games.
Its total Basehits (25, no homeruns) also was third best.
When Ronald Jaarsma stepped down, it meant that the club had to look for a new Head Coach for the second time in a year.
On October 18 last year, the day after Amsterdam Pirates had won the best-of-seven Holland Series against Curaçao Neptunus to repeat as Dutch Champion, then-Head Coach Michael Duursma stepped down.
That announcement also came by surprise, but Duursma stepped down for the same reason as Jaarsma, as he stated that he was unable to combine coaching in the big league with his job as Coordinator at Baseball Academy Kennemerland Rabbits.
Four days later, Jaarsma and Neptunus separated.
Under Jaarsma's leadership, Neptunus reached the Holland Series annually and faced Amsterdam Pirates in the Final each year.
Neptunus won the Dutch title in both 2017 and 2018 and then also won the European Champions Cup.
In 2019, Neptunus won the first three games of the Holland Series, but Amsterdam Pirates then became the first team in history to win the next four and capture the title.
In 2020, Pirates won the first two games of the Final, which was then halted when new restrictions were announced against the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus.
Last year, Pirates again won the title, beating Neptunus in seven games.
Eight days after Jaarsma and Neptunus separated, he succeeded Duursma as new Head Coach of the Amsterdam-team.
Just over 300 days later, Jaarsma has stepped down himself due to work commitments.
This season, Jaarsma was assisted by Sherwin Cijntje (1B Coach), Allan Hazel (3B Coach), Rob Cordemans (Pitching Coach) and Nick Veltkamp (Assistant Pitching Coach).
...Mervin Gario...
(© Photo: Robert Bos) |
When Jaarsma became Head Coach of Pirates, he returned to the club where he had been the 3B Coach for four seasons (2013-2016).
In 2013, he first was the assistant of then-Head Coach Sidney de Jong.
Jaarsma then stayed on as 3B Coach when Charles Urbanus succeeded De Jong in 2014.
The former outfielder, he played for HCAW and Neptunus, made his coaching debut at HCAW when he was the 3B Coach of Jurjan Koenen (in 2009) and Bill Froberg (in 2010).
During the 2011 season, Jaarsma took over as interim Head Coach of the Bussum-squad in the second half, replacing Froberg.
During the 2013 season, Jaarsma filled in as Head Coach for two games at Pirates when Charles Urbanus was stricken by the flu.
Mervin Gario has been the Head Coach of Hoofddorp Pioniers since 2018 after succeeding Dè Flanegin.
In the first two seasons, Gario was a playing coach and regularly was the third baseman or designated hitter himself.
In 2018, he played in 26 games, in 2019, he played in 24.
But from 2020 on, Gario focused more on coaching, although he kept on playing himself in several games, but far less than in the first two seasons.
This year, he played in five games and was assisted by veteran coach Theo Geerman (3B), Dirk van 't Klooster (Hitting), Tom van Limburg (Pitching) and Kenneth Olivacce (Assistant Coach).
As a player, Mervin Gario made his big league-debut in 2007 with Hoofddorp Pioniers after having played in a lower division for Robur '58 before that.
In his third season with Pioniers (2010), Gario led the team in basehits (41), runs scored (25) and runs batted in (17) and was the second best hitter with a 323 average.
The infielder played for Pioniers through 2011.
Thereafter, Gario played four seasons for Kinheim.
With the Haarlem-club, he also underscored that he not only was a productive hitter, but also reached base frequently.
Gario led the Kinheim-team in runs in 2012 (39), 2014 (35) and 2015 (44).
In 2012 and 2015, Gario was the second-best hitter of the team by hitting .333 and .395 respectively.
After the 2015 season, Gario returned to Hoofddorp Pioniers for whom he played since then.
He remained a productive hitter and led the team again in runs scored in 2017 with 30, while having the second-highest total of basehits (36) and being the team's third best hitter (.330).
In almost all of his seasons since 2010, Gario batted .300 or higher, including seasons in which he didn't play in all games due to injuries, like 2011, 2018 and 2019.
His lone season hitting below .300 since 2010 was 2014.
In that year, he batted .264, but led Kinheim in runs scored (35) and was third in RBI's (25).
(September 10)
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