(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photos by Robert Bos & Henk Seppen)
...Jeroen Sluijter's number 5 was retired by...
...Neptunus on Sunday...
...Club-chairman Mark Herbold presents...
...the former infielder with a shirt...
(© Photo: Robert Bos) |
 Uniform-number Jeroen Sluijter retired by Neptunus
Nederlands
 ROTTERDAM (Neth.) -
Curaçao Neptunus retired Jeroen Sluijter's uniform-number 5 on Sunday-afternoon (June 9) during a ceremony before the home-game against reigning champion Amsterdam Pirates.
It marked the sixth time that Neptunus retired a number of a former player or coach.
On September 3 last year, the Rotterdam-club retired the numbers of former infielder Benjamin Dille (#11) and longtime coach and former catcher Jan Collins (#21).
In the past, Neptunus already had retired the numbers of pitcher Harry Koster (#14), second baseman Bob van Aalen (#22) and coach Robert Eenhoorn (#16), who also had been a short stop in a few seasons.
Sluijter's number is the 35th that was retired by one of the current eight big league-teams.
The most numbers are currently retired by Hoofddorp Pioniers, which has seven.
The combination of DSS/Kinheim has retired six (five by Kinheim, one by DSS) and both Amsterdam Pirates and HCAW have retired four uniform-numbers.
UVV (three), Oosterhout Twins, Quick Amersfoort (both two) and RCH-Pinguïns (one) also have retired numbers.
Some other former big league-clubs also have retired numbers.
It marks the second time that uniform-number 5 is retired.
The first time was in 1994 when Amsterdam Pirates retired number 5 to honor longtime catcher Ronald Stoovelaar.
...Jeroen Sluijter playing for Neptunus in 2010...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
Jeroen Sluijter started his career with Neptunus, but made his big league-debut somewhere else.
After having played for Zwijndrecht at a lower level in 1991 and 1992, the infielder played for Twins Oosterhout in the second highest league in 1993.
It was as player of Twins that Sluijter made his big league-debut in 1994.
He also played for Twins in the highest league in 1995, then for ADO in 1996.
Since 1997, Sluijter played in the big league for Neptunus as third baseman and short stop.
He retired after the 2010 season.
In his fourteen seasons with Neptunus, Sluijter played in 561 regular season-games.
In that span, Neptunus captured nine Championship-titles.
In 2013, Sluijter was the 3B Coach of Neptunus in the staff of then-Head Coach Evert-Jan 't Hoen.
Sluijter played in the Netherlands Baseball Team in 1997, 2002-2004, 2008 and 2010.
As player of the Orange-squad, Sluijter participated in the 2008 Olympic Games.
He also participated in one World Championship, one Intercontinental Cup, one Olympic Qualifier, two European Championhips, four Haarlem Baseball Weeks and two World Port Tournaments.
(June 9)
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