(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
IN MEMORIAM
...Hermen Daalder....
(1930 - 2024)
(© Private Photo) |
 Former Amstel Tijgers-chairman Hermen Daalder passed away
Nederlands
 BENNEBROEK (Neth.) -
Hermen Daalder, who was the chairman in the final seasons of Amsterdam-based club Amstel Tijgers, has passed away on Tuesday, August 6 at age 93.
He led the club for four years, including the difficult final two years.
As such, Hermen Daalder was part of a renowned club that existed only twelve years (1977-1988), but had a successful history, as can be read below.
The memorial service of Hermen Daalder was held on Wednesday, August 14 in Haarlem.
Hermen Daalder was born on November 5, 1930 in Amsterdam.
Amsterdam-based OVVO had a long and historic stay in the highest Dutch league in the fifties, sixties and seventies.
But following the 1976 season, the main-squad separated from the club and continued as the independent club Amstel Tijgers, named after the river Amstel, which runs through Amsterdam.
It was former OVVO-player Han Urbanus, who came up with the proposal to form a new club.
In the fifties and sixties, the legendary Urbanus was one of the star-pitchers in Dutch baseball.
Once the new club was founded, Urbanus and Aart Kruijs led it as the prime board-members.
Urbanus was the club's first chairman.
In these years, OVVO had several players who played for the Netherlands National Team, such as Charles Urbanus (son of Han), Paul Smit, Don Wedman and Jan Hijzelendoorn, but also Bob Pels.
They moved with the team to the new Amstel Tijgers.
According to the league-rules, it was not possible to immediately play in the highest league.
So, Amstel Tijgers had to play in the First Division in its first season (1977), then captured the title and promoted to the big league.
The idea of creating a new club was to field a team compiled of homegrown, strong (National Team)players without the addition of foreign players, who in these years mostly came from the USA.
And also without large reimbursements for players and without sponsoring to show that a team can be a contender despite this all.
Amstel Tijgers also had the goal to develop young players via its youth-program.
Shortly after the club was founded, an extra baseball-team was added, followed by a youth-section and a softball-section.
In 1978, the team made its debut in the highest division and joining the team were Harm Horeman, Jim Sieval and Arnold Smith.
In later years, players as Hans van Renselaar, Robert Knol, Bill Groot, Frank Koot and a young Michael Crouwel also went on to play for the team.
Despite its brief history, Amstel Tijgers has played an important role in Dutch baseball.
From the beginning, the team was successful and captured the Dutch Championship-title three times (1979, 1980, 1986).
Even though the club stuck to its policy of not adding foreign players, the big league-squad was led by American coaches Harvey Shapiro in 1979 and 1980 and Ted Conner in 1981.
However, in its final two seasons (1987-1988), the club did add an American player.
In 1980, Amstel Tijgers captured its second consecutive Championship-title with a team full of experienced players.
Some young and talented players also were given some playing-time to gain experience and to prepare them for future big league-seasons.
Amongst these players were Ed Kruijs, Jaap Land, Peter Heuwekemeijer and Menno Daalder.
In early 1985, Hermen Daalder (the father of Menno) became the new chairman of the club, while Ed Renkema became the new secretary.
Daalder led Amstel Tijgers in the difficult final few years of its existence.
In these years, several veteran players retired and some other players transfered to other clubs.
Besides that, there was less income and the club had regular arguments with the municipal office that looked over sports-accomodations.
Amstel Tijgers played its home-games on Sportpark Sloten.
Although the home-site was a nice facility, it took a long walk from the parking lot to get there, as everyone of us knows who have been there regularly.
In 1986, Amstel Tijgers waived its policy to play without a sponsor.
As it was needed financially, the club signed a three-year agreement with Cleo Trading.
Hermen Daalder and Ed Renkema wanted a new direction for the club and welcomed the sponsor.
In a newspaper-story in De Volkskrant on May 10, 1986, Renkema underscored the discussions it had with the municipality regarding the playing site.
,,You have to walk a long way to get to the field'', Ed Renkema said.
,,There is a second entrance more closer, but to use that, a small bridge has to be constructed and costs money.
Older people will not come to visit our games.
Besides, there is almost no public transport and there are no traffic lights at a dangerous crossing.
That all means, less (new) members, less income and thus financial shortage.
We have to pay for field rent, which continuously rises, electrical power, equipment''.
,,And we also have to pay for the maintenance of the field'', Hermen Daalder added in the interview.
,,I'm very happy with the sponsor, which we found after a long search.
Players received no compensation.
Only now for the first time in 1986 they receive a travel allowance, two pennies per kilometer.
Without a sponsor this is not possible and we would not have been able to have a training camp.
We never brought in players from America.
That was not our policy.
An exception was Shapiro as coach.''
1986 is a successful season, as Amstel Tijgers captured its third Championship-title.
To do so, the team had to win three games in two days, halfway September.
On Saturday, Amstel Tijgers recorded a convincing 14-5 win against Neptunus.
On Sunday, the team first had to complete an earlier game against Giants Diemen, which was halted after Giants-player Dave Bisceglia had been hit in the face by a pitch from Jan Hijzelendoorn.
Thanks to a homerun by Paul Smit, Amstel Tijgers wins 5-3.
In the regular game, the Amsterdam-team takes an early 4-0 lead in the first inning thanks to doubles by Harm Horeman and Charles Urbanus, a homerun by Bill Groot and basehit by Hans van Renselaar.
Giants comes alongside in the second inning via a homerun by Ron van Zuilichem and a 3-run homerun by Roland Maria.
But Amstel Tijgers re-takes the lead and wins 6-4 to seal the title.
Roel Klaassen (Tijgers) and Craig McGinnis (Giants) both throw a complete game after they also had thrown the remaining two innings of the preceeding game.
...Hermen Daalder (left) and Ed Renkema at the site of...
...Amstel Tijgers on Sportpark Sloten in Amsterdam...
...on a photo that accompanied an interview in...
...De Volkskrant-newspaper in 1986... |
After the season, Horeman, Urbanus and Smit all retired.
Some new players came, but to remain competitive, for the first time, the board of Amstel Tijgers decided to add an American player.
And so, infielder Johnson Wood played for the team in 1987 and 1988.
In 1987, Hennie Jenken was the Head Coach in his third and final season.
In that year, now former player Menno Daalder was his assistant.
Menno had also played for Kinheim.
In recent years, he has been very active for Hoofddorp Pioniers.
The 1988 season was the least successful season, as the team lost more games than it won for the first time.
After the season, several players like National Team-players Hans van Renselaar, Frank Koot and Robert Knol left to play elsewhere.
As a result, Boudewijn Maat, who was to be the new Head Coach in 1989, withdraw.
In November 1988, a special meeting for club-members was scheduled to talk about the future.
In an interview in De Volkskrant newspaper in October 1988, chairman Hermen Daalder stated:
,,Tijgers is a more renowned club.
That means to play good ball or no ball''.
Daalder clearly wanted and hoped to continue with the club, as were several other club-members.
In the Algemeen Dagblad-newspaper in late October 1988, Daalder said:
,,The general mood was to continue.
As a board, we have been instructed to investigate whether there is a club somewhere in the region to collaborate with or merge with.''
But it also had become clear that Amstel Tijgers would be unable to field a representative team in 1989.
Bussum-based HCAW, which relegated in 1988, showed interest to take over the vacant spot in case Amstel Tijgers should withdraw.
HCAW is also mentioned as a possible merger-candidate, but also a possible reunion with OVVO is an option.
Another option is to continue as a recreational club instead of top-level.
In a follow-up newspaper-interview early November 1988 in De Volkskrant, written by Gijs van den Heuvel, Daalder mentions the exodus of players after the season and a decrease of income.
Daalder added:
,,No club can absorb such a loss.
The decline is due to the increasingly higher compensation given to players.
And that is something Amstel Tijgers never wanted to participate in.
For me, Amstel Tijgers has always remained a sports club.
I can understand that a player with talent wants to earn some extra money.
They put enough time into it.
I am not against payments in principle.
If the ship with money comes in tomorrow, I will join in too.''
Despite the efforts to continue, it proves not possible to compile a representative team.
In January of 1989, the boards of Amstel Tijgers and HCAW finalize a merger.
As a result, Amstel Tijgers will be dissolved.
The new club went on to play at HCAW's home-site in Bussum under the name HCAW-Tijgers.
No players moved from Amsterdam to Bussum.
What did move to Bussum was the scoreboard of Amstel Tijgers (which is still in use nowadays) and the annual In Memoriam Charles Urbanus Sr. Tournament.
This was first organized by the Amsterdam-club in 1981 after the passing of Charles Urbanus Sr., the brother of Han and uncle of Charles Jr..
In the early years, Charles Sr, who had been a longtime coach at OVVO, had been a coaching instructor at Amstel Tijgers.
For his longtime activities in his work, but also in sports, Hermen Daalder received a Royal Decoration in the early nineties.
In the late nineties, Hermen and his wife Jenny moved to Portugal, where they lived for fifteen years.
They returned to the Netherlands some ten years ago.
The webmaster of Grand Slam * Stats & News offers his condolences to Hermen's wife Jenny, sons Menno and Hermen, other family and friends and wishes them a lot of strength with this big loss.
(August 16)
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