(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photos by Marco Stoovelaar, Inside/Peter Elenbaas, CEB, ESF, Rob Jelsma, Linda Steijger, Henk Seppen & Glenn Gervot)
IN MEMORIAM
...Jan Esselman...
(1943 - 2024)
(© Photo: Marco Stoovelaar) |
 Former KNBSB-administrator, Technical Commissioner and CEB-President Jan Esselman passed away
Nederlands
 HAARLEM (Neth.) -
Jan Esselman, who was a longtime baseball-administrator since the eighties and led the former European Baseball Confederation (CEB) as President for four years, unexpectedly passed away early Monday-morning, October 28 at age 81.
The memorial service for Jan Esselman will be held on Monday, November 4 at 9:30 AM in the Aula of Crematorium Sterrenheuvel, located at the Vergierdeweg 458 in Haarlem.
After the memorial service, it is possible to offer condolences to the family in the lounge of the crematorium.
Jan Esselman was born on June 24, 1943 in Beemster.
From there, the Esselman-family moved to Amsterdam.
Jan later went on to live in Haarlem with his wife Joke.
It was in Haarlem that Jan Esselman became closely involved with baseball- and softball-club Haarlem Nicols.
There, he was a boardmember in 1985-1989, including being the club's vice-chairman, secretary and treasurer.
His son Jan, Jr. also played for the Haarlem-based club.
From October 1989 through August 1996, Jan Esselman was a member of the board of the Royal Netherlands Baseball and Softball Federation (KNBSB), being responsible for competition affairs for the baseball-section.
From April 1991 on, the KNBSB-board of which Esselman was a member of was chaired by Henk den Duijn, who unexpectedly passed away on September 16 at age 78.
For twenty years, Jan had been involved with the Technical Commission of the European Baseball Confederation (CEB).
In February 1993, he became a member of this Commission and later in that year secretary, then was its chairman since March 2005, when he succeeded Italian Riccardo Fraccari, who is the President of the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) since May 2014.
In 1994, Jan Esselman joined the Tournament Commission of the International BAseball Federation (IBAF), the predecessor the WBSC.
In his long assocation with these Commissions, Jan was active during many international tournaments worldwide, including the Olympic Games in 2000, 2004 and 2008, the World Baseball Classic in 2006, 2009 and 2013, plus several European Championships and World Championships.
Esselman left the Technical Commission in February 2013 when he was elected President of the CEB, succeeding Czech Petr Ditrich, who had been the interim-President since the year before after German Martin Miller had stepped down.
In February 2018, Jan Esselman received the CEB Xavier Mateu Award for Excellence for his many contributions to and developments of the sport of baseball in Europe and worldwide.
Besides his many (international) activities in baseball, Jan Esselman had another big passion, which was checkers.
He began playing that sport at a young age and participated in tournaments for more than sixty years since the late fifties.
...Jan Esselman (left) during a board-meeting of...
...Haarlem Nicols in 1985 where Ton Smit (right)...
...stepped down as chairman...
(© Photo: Inside/Peter Elenbaas) |
In the years that Jan Esselman was active at Haarlem Nicols, the club was the most successful in the Dutch baseball big league.
In his years as member of the board (1985-1989), Nicols captured the Championship-title three times (1985, 1988, 1989).
In 1985, Nicols captured what then was its fourth consecutive title, all of them won when the team was led by Jan Dick Leurs, who had been the Head Coach since 1981.
After the 1985 season, Leurs stepped down to become the Head Coach of Amsterdam Pirates in 1986.
At Nicols, Leurs was succeeded by Bill Froberg, who led the team in 1986 and 1987.
However, Leurs returned to the club again in August 1987 as Technical Director.
He returned as Head Coach for the 1988 season and immediately, Nicols captured another title.
A year earlier (1987), the Holland Series was re-introduced.
Back then, there were no Play-Offs.
Instead, the regular season was split in two halves, with the two winners qualifying for the Final.
In the first Holland Series, Amsterdam Pirates defeated Neptunus.
In 1988, the Holland Series was scrubbed, as Haarlem Nicols won both the first and second half and therefore was the champion.
In 1989, Cees Herkemij was named Technical Director of Nicols.
Initially, he also was to head the coaching-staff, but instead Jan Dick Leurs was the Head Coach again with Herkemij as coordinator.
In 1989, a Play-Off Round was introduced and added to the postseason.
Via the Play-Offs, Nicols advanced to the Holland Series and won a thrilling 7-game Final against Neptunus.
For Haarlem Nicols, this was its sixth title in eight years (and twelfth overall), all of them led by Jan Dick Leurs, who is the most successful club-coach.
Unfortunately, the 1989 title also would be the last, as the team withdrew from the big league shortly before the start of the 1994 season due to financial problems.
And so, the eighties not only were very successful for the team (which also produced several National Team-players), but of course also for the board, which was headed by chairman Piet Jägers, who had succeeded Ton Smit after completion of the 1985 season.
That also was a tumultuous year for the club, as there was a crisis within the board and during the European Cup-tournament in Parma (Italy), Haarlem Nicols even threatened to withdraw after two players were ejected for 'unclear reasons' by an Italian umpire in a game against Antwerp Eagles from Belgium.
KNBSB-boardmember Jules de Pierre and KNBSB-chairman Guus van der Heijden (who flew to Italy) intervened.
The team stayed in the tournament, but was unable to win the Cup.
From October 1985 on, Jan Esselman was the vice-chairman, but in 1986, he also was the secretary and from 1987 on, he was the treasurer.
In 1987 and 1988, Greet van der Laan was the club's secretary.
From June 1985 through somewhere in 1986, there also briefly was a Foundation Topsport Haarlem Nicols with former boardmembers Ton Smit, Dré Kraak and Ab Scholten as members.
Other active administrators of Nicols, either as boardmember or in another way, in those years included Theo Ederveen, Ron Voetelink, Elly Voetelink, Ab Schatorjé, Hans van Ekeris, Han Mars, Nico Boon and André Schrijber.
...Jan Esselman with Frans van Aalen in 1992 during...
...the Haarlem Baseball Week in Haarlem (Netherlands)...
...At that time, both were boardmembers of the KNBSB...
(© Photo: Marco Stoovelaar) |
In four of Esselman's five years as boardmember of Nicols, Leo Naaktgeboren was the Assistant Coach of the main-squad.
Ted Arnold (1985) and Herman Beidschat (1987) also were Assistant Coach.
Members of the supporting staff in those years included Co Leurs (Jan Dick's father, who was masseur), Hakkie Nieuwveen (masseur), Albert Jansma (physical therapist), Gerlach Halderman, Sr. (physical therapist), Willem van Geijlswijk (equipment manager, team manager, scorer), Frans van den Berg (equipment manager, scorer) and Dick Hoff (team manager).
Amongst the players in these five Esselman-years (1985-1989) were Frank Bos, Michael Crouwel, Peter van Dalen, Dave Daniels, Jamie Doughty, Robert Eenhoorn, Mark Giroldi, Ron Giroldi, Jan van Gorkum, Bill Groot, John Guggiana, Gerlach Halderman, Martin Helmig, Jan Hijzelendoorn, Marcel Joost, Frank Koks, Richard Kranenburg, Hans Lemmink, Edsel Martis, Craig McGinnis, Bob Pels, Han Prinsen, Elliott Rivera (who is the current treasurer of the KNBSB-board), Danny Scheer, Jim Sieval, Maurice Verdaasdonk, Thijs Vervaat, Haitze de Vries and Byron Ward.
In 1986-1989, Jan Esselman also was an alternate representative for Rayon Haarlem for the KNBSB council-meeting.
Other Haarlem-representatives in these years included Aat Akkerman, Jan ten Bosch, Dick Cuvelier, Jan Drost, Jacco van Ekeris, Aad Harmsen, Cyril Hillaert, Gé Hoff, Winnie Jansen, Saskia de Jong, Frans Klozen and Ria Landsaat.
Jan Esselman's qualities as administrator were quickly noted in these years.
And so, he eventually ended up in the board of the Royal Netherlands Baseball and Softball Federation (KNBSB).
In August 1989, several boardmembers of the KNBSB stepped down after a new multi-year plan is announced (and approved), which also includes a new set-up of the board.
A month later, an interim-board is formed, headed by Peter Laanen, who already had been the board's chairman since March 1987.
Laanen announced he would step down during an extra-ordinary council-meeting in Ocober 1989 to enable a new chairman to work with the policy-plans.
Jules de Pierre and Dick Bliek, two other boardmembers at that moment, also were part of the interim-board.
These three were joined by Paul Moerman and Ton Smit, as respectively secretary/vice-chairman and treasurer.
Smit had been the chairman, when Jan Esselman joined the board at Haarlem Nicols in 1985.
In October 1989, Moerman and Smit were elected as chairman and treasurer, while De Pierre and Bliek returned (again) in their roles to oversee baseball- and softball-affairs, respectively.
Ben de Brouwer, who then was the director of the KNBSB Head Office, became the secretary, while Wil Koet became the vice-chairman for organization.
Moerman, Smit, De Pierre, Bliek and Koet formed the so-called core-governance.
They were joined by seven members, who all became responsible for a specific field.
Amongst them was Jan Esselman, who would oversee the competition-affairs for baseball.
Rob Kruijk would do the same for softball.
Also elected then were Frans van Aalen (technical affairs baseball), Truus Ruiter (technical affairs softball), Paul Bokern (umpire affairs), Bert Groenink (recreational sports) and Josephine Hofsté (public relations).
Smit stepped down two month later and was succeeded by Rolf Moll.
...Jan Esselman (right) with Henk den Duijn, then-chairman of the...
...KNBSB, and Jules de Pierre, then boardmember of the KNBSB...
...and 1st Vice-President of CEB, during the European...
...Championship 1993 in Stockholm (Sweden)...
...Standing at left is Jan's wife Joke...
(© Photo: Marco Stoovelaar) |
In 1990, plans to reorganize and re-align the nine then-existing Rayons into four Districts per 1992 are worked out in a taske force, led by Wil Koet.
In order to ease the transition into four Districts, four Rayon-chairmen are added to the KNBSB-board, being Ed Klokkers, Jan Lensselink, Jan Prins and Cees Rietveld.
They are the intended chairmen to lead the new Districts in 1992.
In early September 1990, Paul Moerman suddenly steps down as chairman due to personal reasons.
Jules de Pierre, who is vice-chairman for baseball-affairs, is named interim-chairman.
Henk den Duijn is added to the board as vice-chairman without portfolio and will be presented as candidate for the chairman-position during the following council meeting in April 1991.
During that KNBSB council meeting in April 1991, Den Duijn was officially elected as new chairman and De Pierre returned to his post of vice-chairman for baseball-affairs.
The position for public relations is not filled in, meaning Rob van Tuyl doesn't return.
He was named in an interim-role in May of the previous year, after Josephine Hofsté had stepped down.
Unfortunately, we also had to say goodbye recently to Henk den Duijn, who unexpectedly passed away on September 16, less than two weeks after he had turned 78.
As written in the In Memoriam of Henk den Duijn, a relatively stable period of the KNBSB-board began when he became chairman, as there were not many changes in the almost eight years he headed the board.
Jan Esselman would remain a member of the board through August 1996.
Jules de Pierre and Paul Bokern also would be boardmember this entire period.
Another longtime member in these years was Jos Gieskens, as were District-chairmen Ed Klokkers, Jan Lensselink and Jan Prins.
Less than two weeks after the council-meeting in April 1991, Rolf Moll stepped down as treasurer for health reasons and was later succeeded by Wil Kitslaar.
Halfway the year, Peter Foppen succeeded Cees Rietveld.
Wijnand Agterberg became the new vice-chairman for organization in 1992 and Harry Meijers was then added to the board to handle recreation sports.
In late 1992, some boardmembers had to step down due to lack of time because of their regular job.
In October 1992, Frans van Aalen stepped down and was succeeded by Thijs Vervaat.
However, the former National Team-player had to withdraw shortly thereafter due to his work and was replaced by Cees Herkemij.
A month later, Egbert van der Sluis (who already was an interim-boardmember) succeeded Truus Ruiter and Jos Gieskens succeeded Rob Kruijk.
Ruiter had stepped down earlier in the year due to having less available time because of a change in her regular job, while Kruijk had not re-electable.
Gieskens also succeeded Dick Bliek as vice-chairman for softball-afffairs.
Late December, Ben de Brouwer stopped as secretary, as well as director of the Head Office, as he was named Manager Topsport of the KNBSB.
...Jan Esselman at the 2001 World Championship in Taipei (Taiwan)...
...with fellow Technical Commissioners Gaston Panaye (left) and...
...Osvaldo Gil Bosch (seated, tournament director)...
(© Photo: Marco Stoovelaar) |
After a stable 1993, the next change in the board comes in March 1994 when Willem Wolters succeeds Wijnand Agterberg in the new post of vice-chairman for youth affairs and development.
Early May, there is a conflict regarding sponsor-affairs between Wil Kitslaar and Jules de Pierre.
Kitslaar steps down and Dries de Zwaan takes over as interim-treasurer.
During the council-meeting in March 1995, Peter Foppen is elected as new secretary (which was vacant) and is succeeded by Samuel de Leeuw as chairman of District West.
In May 1995, Cees Herkemij steps down as boardmember for technical affairs baseball and Jules de Pierre takes over.
However, also in 1995, De Pierre announced that he would retire during the upcoming council-meeting.
And indeed, in March 1996, De Pierre, who had been a boardmember since March 1974, steps down and is succeeded by Peter van 't Klooster.
During the council-meeting in March 1996, Ruud van Zetten succeeds Ed Klokkers as chairman of District East.
In Esselman's years as KNBSB-administrator, the board suffers two major blows.
In August 1994, the very active Egbert van der Sluis passed away unexpectedly.
He was succeeded by Olga Lablans.
And in June 1996, Ben de Brouwer, who then is the Manager Topsport, passed away in a car-accident on his way home.
In August 1996, Jan Esselman steps down from the board.
Peter van 't Klooster, who had joined the board five months earlier, takes over his position.
In his years in the KNBSB-board, Esselman is responsible for all competition-affairs of the baseball-section.
As such, he also is the league-commissioner, overseeing scheduling and league-alignments, as well as determining the rules for championships, promotions and relegations.
In this position, Esselman heads the competition-affairs.
The implementation of these matters is carried out by employees of the KNBSB Head Office.
Amongst the employees who are handling competition-affairs are Rinus Paardekooper, Marco Stoovelaar and André Prins.
From 1992 on, Jan Esselman was a member of the board of the Foundation International Baseball/Softball Events In The Municipality Haarlem for more than ten years.
Other members of what was nicknamed 'Foundation with the long name' included Wim van der Ster, Jules de Pierre, Herman Moné, Peter Jager and Ab van Schooten.
This Foundation was involved in the organization of the Haarlem Baseball Week and the Haarlem Softball Week, but also when European Championships or a World Championship were held in Haarlem.
While being member of the KNBSB-board, Jan Esselman proved that he was very knowledgeable in constructing league set-ups, including scheduling.
And so, in February 1993, he is elected for a position in the Technical Commission of the European Baseball Confederation (CEB), which then is chaired by Spaniard Miquel Ortín, while Italian Riccardo Fraccari (who was a former baseball-umpire) is the secretary.
At that moment, Italian Aldo Notari is the President of the CEB-Board (since January 1987).
In 1993, Notari also would become President of the International BAseball Federation (IBAF).
Notari would lead the CEB through early 2005 and the IBAF until his passing in July 2006.
For Jan, this was the beginning of a long association with the CEB and a successful international career, that lasted 25 years.
Not only with the CEB, but also with the International BAseball Federation (IBAF).
...Jan (on behalf of TC IBAF) inspects the site...
...of Amsterdam Pirates in 2002 ahead of the...
...2005 World Championship in the Netherlands...
...with Frans van Aalen (Treasurer IBAF, left)...
...and Miquel Ortín (Executive Director IBAF)...
(© Photo: Marco Stoovelaar) |
Later in 1993, Esselman becomes the secretary when Fraccari succeeds Ortín, who steps down after he had become the Executive Director of IBAF earlier in the year.
Ortín would head the IBAF through early June 2007 when he had to resign due to health reasons.
In 2005, Esselman is named chairman of the Technical Commission and succeeds Fraccari, who then became First Vice-President of the CEB.
Fraccari would become a wellknown and successful international administrator, which he still is.
In 2001, he already had succeeded Aldo Notari as President of the Italian Baseball Softball Federation (FIBS), which he would lead through 2016.
In December 2009, Fraccari is elected President of the IBAF and in May 2014, he becomes the first President of the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) after the merger between the IBAF and the International Softball Federation (ISF).
Fraccari still heads the global baseball and softball governing body after being re-elected in 2022.
Also in 1993, after having been a member of the Youth Commission in the previous year, Jan Esselman joined the Tournament Commission of the International BAseball Federation (IBAF), the predecessor the WBSC.
And in 2001, he became a member of the Technical Commission of the IBAF.
Esselman was part of the CEB Technical Commission for 20 years.
He stepped down as chairman of the Commission in February 2013 when he was elected President of the CEB.
Jan then also resigned from the IBAF Technical Commission of which he had been a member for more than twelve years.
His last assignment for the IBAF-Commission was in March 2013 during the World Baseball Classic.
In his 20 years as Technical Commissioner for either the CEB or IBAF, Jan Esselman took part in numerous tournaments, not only in Europe, but worldwide.
He debuted in 1993 during the European Championship in Sweden.
Since then, he was active in two or three events per year, but since 2000, he annually was assigned to an average of five-six tournaments, with a career-high of nine in 2006 (in seven different countries).
...Jan Esselman with Cheng-Hao (Tom) Peng (left), longtime...
...administrator of the Chinese Taipei Baseball Association...
...(CTBA), and Ruud van Zetten, then-chairman of the KNBSB,...
...during the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing (China)...
...Peng was CTBA-President (1998-2006) and President of...
...WBSC Asia (2013-2022); since 2017, Peng is...
...Vice-President of WBSC...
(© Photo: Marco Stoovelaar) |
Through the years, Jan traveled to tournaments in Australia, Belarus, Belgium, China, Cuba, Czechia, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, Panama, San Marino, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, United States of America, and of course in the Netherlands, and attended numerous Congresses of both the CEB and IBAF.
At many of these trips, Jan was accompanied by his wife Joke.
Amongst the tournaments Jan Esselman was involved with were the Olympic Games in 2000 (Sydney, Australia), 2004 (Athens, Greece) and 2008 (Beijing, China).
He also was a member of the Technical Commission during all seven World Championships from 1998 through 2011, which was the final tournament in this format.
This edition was won by the Netherlands.
Jan also was in function during the first three editions of the World Baseball Classic (2006, 2009, 2013).
In all three Classics, Jan was assigned to the Rounds that were played in the USA, including the Final Round in 2006.
Since 1993, Jan was part of the Technical Commission (or chairman) during all ten European Championships through 2012.
Furthermore, he was also active during several Intercontinental Cup-tournaments, Olympic Qualifiers, World Championships Juniors, European Championships in different age groups (Juveniles, Cadets, Juniors, Under-21), Haarlem Baseball Weeks and World Port Tournaments, plus many European Cup-tournaments.
Amongst the Commissioners who were assigned as Delegate or (local) Commissioner and with whom Jan Esselman closely worked together in the 20 years that he was with the Technical Commission of CEB were Roderick Balk, Edwin van den Berk, Bohumil Bilek, Paul Bokern, Pavel Brychta, Frantisek Bunta, Mark Cole, Emmanuel Dubaut, Olvier Dubaut, Jürgen Elsishans, Mario Falaschi, Angelo Fanara, Riccardo Fraccari, Fred van Groningen Schinkel, Giuseppe Guilizzoni, Sim Hardies, Roland Hoffmann, Rainer Krankl, Jan Kuipers, Mikhail Larkin, Martin Masopust, Xavier Mateu, Jean Marie Meurant, Jaroslav Mika, Miquel Ortín, Rinus Paardekooper, Gaston Panaye, Kristian Palvia, Jean Luc Paturel, Ludo Peeters, Giampaolo Reiter, André Schrijber, Paul Sel, Christian Sengeleitner, Peter Ström, Jesús Vera and Joop van Wendel de Joode.
Several of these European Commissioners also were assigned for global tournaments, organized by the IBAF.
Other non-European Commissioner-colleagues in Jan's IBAF-years included Humberto Arrieta, Jim Baba, Angel Bonilla, Enrique Burgos, Peter Caliendo, Osvaldo Gil Bosch, Pedro Medina, Rodolfo Puente, George Santiago and Darin Van Tassell.
On Saturday, February 16, 2013, both the European Baseball Confederation (CEB) and European Softball Federation (ESF) have elections during their annual Congress, which were held jointly in the Slovenian city of Bled.
On this day, Jan Esselman is elected President of the CEB.
He succeeds Petr Ditrich (Czechia), who was the Acting President after Martin Miller (Germany) had stepped down in February 2012.
Earlier in the day, André van Overbeek, also from the Netherlands, was re-elected as President of the ESF.
Esselman was one of two candidates for the postion, the other being Vojco Korošec (Slovenia).
In the voting, Esselman got 15 votes, while Korošec got seven and six votes were blank.
Since the founding of the CEB in April 1953, Jan Esselman became only the second Dutchman to preside over the CEB.
The first was Guus van der Heijden, who was elected CEB-President in March 1985.
Van der Heijden passed away unexpectedly in January 1987 and then was succeeded by Italian Aldo Notari.
...The new Executive Board of the CEB after being elected in 2013...
...Left to right: Petr Ditrich, Didier Seminet, Michael Manning (back),...
...Valentinas Bobulis, Xavier Mateu, Mats Fransson (back),...
...Jan Esselman, Peter Kurz (back), Jürgen Elsishans,...
...Monique Schmidt (back) and René Laforce...
(© Photo: European Baseball Confederation) |
Also elected to the CEB-Board alongside Esselman were Peter Kurz (Israel) as 1st Vice-President and Jürgen Elsishans (Germany) as 2nd Vice-President.
Earlier in the day, Elsishans also was a candidate for the vice-presidency of the ESF, but he withdrew for that position.
Petr Ditrich (Czechia) was named 3rd Vice-President.
René Laforce (Belgium) was confirmed to continue as Treasurer, as he was the lone candidate.
Xavier Mateu Sendra (Spain) was elected as the new Secretary-General.
Elected as so-called Members-at-Large in the new Board were Mats Fransson (Sweden), Michael Manning (Ireland), Didier Seminet (France), Monique Schmidt (Switzerland) and Valentinas Bobulis (Lithuania).
When Jan Esselman was elected, he stated that the competitions (such as the European Cup-tournaments), the development of European baseball and the training of game officials were the most important activities for the new CEB Executive Board.
But the new Board also had to look ahead and faced two important international moments.
The first was the upcoming merger of the IBAF and the ISF into the WBSC two months later (April 14).
And the second was that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) would decide in the coming years on the return of baseball (for men) and softball (for women) on the Olympic Program for the 2020 Olympic Games in Japan.
During the 128th IOC Session in July/August 2015 in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), it was announced that baseball/softball were on the shortlist (as of June 22, 2015) of eight sports for the 2020 Olympics.
A year later, during the 129th IOC Session in August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), the IOC approved the final shortlist of five sports, which included baseball/softball.
And so, baseball and softball returned to the Olympic Games in Japan, which were held in 2021 instead of 2020 due to the worldwide COVID-19 coronavirus-pandemic.
Other decisive upcoming moments, which also would be of influence for the CEB and thus European baseball in general, were discussions regarding the future format of the qualifications for the World Baseball Classic, which at that moment had had two successful editions (2006, 2009) and the third one was coming up in March 2013.
Another discussion was whether or not the World Baseball Classic would be the replacement of the World Cup/World Championship.
That event was last held in 2011 in Panama and then was won by the Netherlands.
In the meantime, the IBAF had announced the organization of the first edition of the Premier12 in 2015, which also was to a global tournament.
Decisions regarding the format of that event were going on.
Although the global baseball (IBAF) and softball (ISF) governance bodies would emerge, this was not yet on the table in 2013 for the European bodies CEB and ESF.
But in an interview with the author of this In Memoriam, Jan Esselman did confirm that there would be more cooperation between CEB and ESF.
...CEB-President Jan Esselman and ESF-President...
...André van Overbeek sign an agreement in Barcelona...
...(Spain) in November 2015 to closely work together...
(© Photo: European Softball Federation) |
A few months after being installed, the CEB Executive Board had to deal with a huge blow.
In his home-town Barcelona (Spain), during the European Champions Cup Final Four Qualifier, Secretary-General Xavier Mateu Sendra was struck by a heart attack on Thursday-morning June 6 and passed away at age 50.
Mateu also was the Technical Director Baseball for the Real Federación Espańola de Béisbol y Sófbol and at the tournament, he represented the Spanish Federation, but also the CEB.
Jan Esselman was in the Barcelona-area when the news broke.
As CEB-President, he was on his way to be at the final of the tournament on Sunday, June 9.
Esselman attended the funeral of Mateu on Saturday, June 8.
When contacted back then by the author, Esselman said: ,,This is a big loss.
I spoke to Xavier on Wednesday.
We had an appointment for Saturday, then would be at the final together on Sunday''.
In the remainder of the tournament in Barcelona, but also in Regensburg (Germany), where the other European Champions Cup Qualifier was played, flags were flown at halfmast in honor of Mateu.
Both tournaments were dedicated to Xavier Mateu's memory.
Later, Mateu was succeeded by Krunoslav Karin (Croatia).
As stated when he became President in 2013, Jan Esselman wanted a good working relationship with the ESF, which also was the intention of André van Overbeek.
And so, on November 5, 2015, the two Presidents signed an agreement in Barcelona (Spain) to come to a closer cooperation, which eventually could lead to a merger, like the IBAF and ISF.
In 2016, Jan Esselman announced a change in the format of European club-competitions.
In 2008, the European Champions Cup was introduced.
From 2008 through 2012, there were two Qualifying Tournaments of which the two best teams advanced to the Final Four.
From 2013 through 2015, only the two winners advanced to a best-of-three Final.
In 2016, the format returned to the set-up as it was in 2007 when there were three separate tournaments.
Until 2007, that were the European Cup, European Cup Winners Cup and CEB Cup.
From 2016, it were the European Champions Cup, CEB Cup and Federations Cup.
On February 4, 2017, during the joint CEB/ESF Congress in Belgrade (Serbia), Jan Esselman was succeeded as CEB-President by Didier Seminet (France), who is elected unanimously.
Prior to the elections, Esselman withdrew his candidacy for a second term and was given a standing ovation.
Besides Seminet (who was Member-at-Large), also returning in the Board were Petr Ditrich (as 1st Vice-President), Jürgen Elsishans (as 2nd Vice-President), René Laforce (as Treasurer) and Krunoslav Karin (as Secretary-General).
Newly elected Boardmembers were Rainer Husty (Austria, 3rd Vice-President), Roderick Balk (Netherlands, Member-at-Large), Oleg Boyko (Ukraine, Member-at-Large) and Marco Mannucci (Italy, Member-at-Large).
On the same day, André van Overbeek was succeeded by Gabriel Waage (Czechia).
As Van Overbeek had served two 4-year terms, he was, according to the regulations, not eligible for re-election.
André van Overbeek unexpectedly passed away in May 2021 at the age of 71.
...As President of the CEB, Jan Esselman hands out...
...the European Champions Cup in 2016 to Michael...
...Duursma, team-captain of tournament-winner...
...Amsterdam Pirates in Rimini (Italy)...
(© Photo: Rob Jelsma) |
On February 10, 2018, there is a historic moment during the CEB/ESF Congress in Val d'Europe (France).
On this day, delegates of 38 baseball, softball and combined National Federations unanimously approve the merger of the CEB and the ESF to become the Regional Baseball Softball Confederation for Europe (WBSC Europe), which officially was established.
For several years, the two Federations already had been working together in various matters, which included several joint committees that were created in 2015 when Jan Esselman and André van Overbeek were heading the CEB and ESF.
Since the Congress in 2017, representatives of the CEB and ESF, including CEB-President Didier Seminet and ESF-President Gabriel Waage, had been intensively working together on the creation of the new Continental Federation.
Also during the 2018 Congress, Jan Esselman is decorated with the CEB Xavier Mateu Award for Excellence for his many contributions to and developments of the sport of baseball in Europe and worldwide.
Esselman was the fourth recipient of the Award that was introduced in 2014.
As mentioned, besides his many (international) activities in baseball, Jan Esselman also had another big passion, which was checkers.
He began playing that sport at a young age and participated in tournaments for more than sixty years.
When he lived in Amsterdam, a young Jan already participated in youth-championships in the late fifties and early sixties.
In those years, Jan was a member of Amsterdam-based checkers-club GS, which was the abbreviation of Gezellig Samenzijn (which can be translated as Cozy Get-together).
In 1964, Jan Esselman, who then is 21, wins the championship in the First Division.
Wellknown Dutch checkers with whom Jan has played or has faced as opponents in (club, friendly or competitive) tournaments include Rob Clerc, Ton Sijbrands and Harm Wiersma.
Like Esselman, Sijbrands was a member of GS in the sixties.
Jan Esselman played checkers until at least 2021 on a competitive level.
During his tenure in the CEB-Board as President, but also in his long career in the Technical Commissions, as well as in the KNBSB-board, Jan Esselman not only underscored that he was a very capable administrator, he also was much-liked and was well-respected.
Jan was always reachable and available to talk to.
Through the years, the author of this In Memoriam have spoken numerous times with Jan, either by phone or in person during games or at tournaments on many different locations around the world.
He could clearly account for or provide an additional explanation about decisions taken or the status of baseball in Europe.
Jan also was very modest, but also has been a mentor and could stimulate umpires during international tournaments.
Jan always was very friendly and was able to bring people together.
He truly was an ambassador for the sport of baseball and will be missed by many of us.
The webmaster of Grand Slam * Stats & News offers his condolences to Jan's wife Joke, sons Danny and Jan Jr., daughters-in-law, grandchildren, other family and friends and wishes them a lot of strength with this big loss.
(October 31)
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