(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Henk Seppen)
        Didi Gregorius, Andrelton Simmons, Jair Jurrjens in action in Dubai
Nederlands
 DUBAI, Emirate of Dubai (United Arab Emirates) -
Several former Major League-players will participate in the inaugural Baseball United Showcase on Friday and Saturday, November 24-25, a 2-game series that will be played in Dubai, the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, which is one of the seven countries that form the United Arab Emirates.
Both games will be played in the Dubai International Stadium, a multipurpose stadium, which is primarily used for cricket and has a capacity of 25,000 spectators.
Amongst the players who will come into action in the Showcase are Dutch players Didi Gregorius, Jair Jurrjens and Andrelton Simmons.
Other former Major Leaguers who will play in Dubai include 41-year old Robinson Canó, 50-year old Bartolo Colón, 35-year old Alex Liddi and 37-year old Pablo Sandoval.
Dominican second baseman Robinson Canó played in 17 Major League-seasons for five teams and won the World Series in 2009 with New York Yankees.
Dominican righthanded pitcher Bartolo Colón played in 21 Major League-seasons for eleven different teams.
Italian infielder Alex Liddi played in the Major League in 2011-2013 for Seattle Mariners, where he was a teammate of Dutch outfielder Greg Halman, who passed away in 2011.
Liddi, who also has played in the professional league in Taiwan, currently plays in Mexico.
Venezuelan infielder Pablo (Kung Fu Panda) Sandoval played 14 seasons in the Major League for San Francisco Giants, Boston Red Sox and Atlanta Braves.
He won the World Series in 2010, 2012 and 2014 with San Francisco, when Hensley Meulens was the Hitting Coach there.
Curaçao-born Meulens currently is the Hitting Coach of Colorado Rockies and the Manager of the Netherlands during big events, such as the World Baseball Classic.
All will play in the Showcase, a 2-game-series between the United East All Stars and the United West All Stars.
The players will represent the four teams who will play in the inaugural season of Baseball United, which was founded in July 2022 as the United International Baseball League.
It was also announced then that Hall of Famers Mariano Rivera and Barry Larkin were founding stakeholders.
The name was changed into Baseball United in November 2022.
Baseball United will be a new professional league in the Middle East and South Asia.
Four teams will play in the league, representing cities in India (Mumbai), Pakistan (Karachi) and the United Arab Emirates (Abu Dhabi, Dubai).
In May of this year, the first two franchises were announced.
The first was Mumbai Cobras from India with former Major Leaguer Chris Sabo as Manager.
Two weeks later, Karachi Monarchs (Pakistan) followed and former Major Leaguer Miguel Tejeda was named Manager.
In August, Dubai Wolves and Abu Dhabi Falcons were added, representing the UAE.
In October, a draft was held to select players for the four teams.
Gregorius, Jurrjens and Canó were drafted by Dubai Wolves, Simmons for Mumbai Cobras, Liddi and Sandoval for Abu Dhabi Falcons and Colón for Karachi Monarchs.
Also drafted were Curaçao-born players Aldrich de Jongh (Dubai), Juremi Profar (Karachi) and Sint Maarten-born Franklin Van Gurp (also Karachi).
Other players on the Abu Dhabi-roster are Italians Federico Celli and Alberto Mineo and Japanese Shungo Fukunaga, who played in the highest professional league in Japan (NPB).
Also on the Dubai-roster is Lithuanian and former Major Leaguer Dovydas Neverauskas, Australian Todd Van Steensel and German Vincent Ahrens.
Another former NPB-player is Shingo Hirata (Karachi).
Players from 25 different countries are currently listed on the four rosters, including 35 from the USA.
These 25 countries are Australia, Brazil, Cameroon, Canada, Colombia, Cuba, Curaçao, Dominican Republic, Finland, Germany, Italy, Japan, Kuwait, Lithuania, Mexico, Netherlands, Panama, Puerto Rico, Sint Maarten, South Africa, Sweden, United Kingdom, USA, US Virgin Islands and Venezuela.
As of now, only the two exhibition-games are scheduled to be played during the Showcase.
This year, Gregorius played for the Netherlands Team in all three tournaments the team scheduled: World Baseball Classic, Rotterdam Baseball Weekend and European Championship.
Simmons, Profar and Van Gurp also played for the Orange-squad during the Classic.
Profar and Van Gurp also were with the team during the European Championship, where Jurrjens was the Bullpen Coach.
(November 23)
|
