(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photos by Henk Seppen & Louise Lenten)
IN MEMORIAM
...Loet van Schellebeek...
(1946 - 2025)
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
 Former sports-journalist and Netherlands Baseball Team Media Officer Loet van Schellebeek passed away
Nederlands
 GOUDA (Neth.) -
Loet van Schellebeek, who had a long career as sports-journalist, including covering baseball, passed away on Sunday, May 11 at the age of 78 in his home-town Gouda.
Van Schellebeek also has been the Media Officer of the Netherlands Baseball Team for some years.
He also served as Press Officer during an edition of the biennial World Port Tournament in Rotterdam (Netherlands).
The memorial service for Loet van Schellebeek will be held on Monday, May 19 at 3:15 PM in Crematorium IJsselhof, located at the Goejanverwelledijk 6 in Gouda.
After the memorial service, it is possible to offer condolences to the family.
Louwrens Stephanus (Loet) van Schellebeek was born on October 17, 1946 in Schiedam, but he went on to live for many years in Gouda.
He was interested in sports and journalism from a young age.
In October 1964, a few days before turning 18, Loet joined the editorial staff of the sports-section of Het Vrije Volk-newspaper.
This newspaper was first published in March 1945 as the post-war continuation of Het Volk, which was founded in 1900.
Het Vrije Volk (which translates as The Free People) became a nationally distributed newspaper and even was the biggest one in the Netherlands for a brief period around 1956.
Due to a decline in the subscriber base, in 1970 the newspaper transformed from a national newspaper into a regional newspaper in the Rotterdam- and Arnhem-region.
In 1971, the Arnhem-section was sold to the eastern-based newspaper De Gelderlander.
From then on, Het Vrije Volk was a Rotterdam-newspaper.
Again due to a decline in subscriptions, the final edition of Het Vrije Volk was published on March 30, 1991 and the newspaper merged with the Rotterdams Nieuwsblad to become the Rotterdams Dagblad.
In 2005, this newspaper was taken over by the Algemeen Dagblad.
As mentioned, Loet van Schellebeek worked for Het Vrije Volk since late 1964.
He stayed with the newspaper when it merged in 1991, then continued working for the Rotterdams Dagblad through July 2005.
Loet then retired after having worked for the newspaper for more than 40 years.
Being one of senior writers, Loet wrote more than 5,000 articles, many of them about boxing, soccer and baseball.
But he also covered other sports.
Loet also made articles for the former press-agency Gemeenschappelijke Pers Dienst (GPD) in the nineties.
When Loet started working for Het Vrije Volk, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper was Thijs van Veen.
When he stepped down in 1968, Eduard Messer led the newspaper for three years.
In 1970, Herman Wigbold became the new editor-in-chief and he would lead the newspaper for 18 years, the most of any since 1945.
Wigbold also was a wellknown television-program-maker, working for the VARA, where he was the editor-in-chief of news-show Achter het Nieuws.
The sports-section also was led by a wellknown editor-in-chief in the seventies, Jen Vlietstra, while Jan D. Swart also was a wellknown sports-reporter.
...Loet van Schellebeek with boxer ...
...Rudi Koopmans in 2015 during the...
...preview of Andere Tijden Sport...
(© Photo (via Facebook): Louise Lenten) |
From the beginning, Loet's prime sports were soccer and boxing.
For many years, he was a very knowledgable and respected reporter on boxing-events, covering many fights on home-soil and abroad of wellknown Dutch boxing-legends like Rudi Lubbers, Rudi Koopmans, Alex Blanchard, Regilio Tuur, Pedro van Raamsdonk and Arnold Vanderlyde.
Loet also interviewed several athletes, as well as legendary former boxer turned referee/judge Ben Bril and wellknown soccer-referee Lau van Ravens.
One of the fights he covered was the famous 'Fight of the Century' for the European light heavyweight-title between (winner) Rudi Koopmans and Alex Blanchard on November 15, 1982 in Rotterdam-Ahoy', which was sold out.
In 2015, a documentary about this ffight was made by Andere Tijden Sport (NOS), which had a preview during the Sportfilmfestival Rotterdam in April of that year.
Besides writing extensively about boxing, Loet also covered soccer, both the professional league and the amateurs in his long career.
He covered many games of Rotterdam-based clubs Feyenoord, Sparta and Excelsior.
One of the most famous games he covered was played on May 6, 1970 when Feyenoord played against Celtic (Scotland) in Stadio San Siro (officially Stadio Giuseppe Meazza) in Milan (Italy) in the Final of the European Cup I (since 1992 UEFA Champions League).
Feyenoord, led by legendary coach Ernst Happel, won 2-1 and became the first Dutch club to win the European Cup.
Feyenoord trailed 1-0, but Rinus Israël accounted for the tying goal.
In overtime, Feyenoord won thanks to a goal by Ove Kindvall.
In his early years woking for Het Vrije Volk, Loet mainly covered boxing and soccer.
But towards the end of the sixties, Loet had also made articles, interviews or game/tournament-recaps of baseball, cycling, basketball, table tennis, judo and swimming.
In 1992, he covered the judo-tournament during the Olympic Games in Barcelona (Spain).
...Newspaper-headers of articles written by Loet...
...for Het Vrije Volk in 1972, 1974 and 1982... |
Ton Verheul covered baseball for Het Vrije Volk, but Loet also wrote articles about Sparta and Neptunus and other Rotterdam-clubs.
In the eighties, Loet began covering baseball regularly.
Not only about the Rotterdam-based clubs in the Dutch big league, but also covering the Netherlands Baseball Team.
When Het Vrije Volk merged with the Rotterdams Nieuwsblad in 1991, Loet became a colleague of Donald Bax and Chris Mast, who were the baseball-writers of that newspaper.
All three covered the sport for the newly created Rotterdams Dagblad and they frequently attended the Haarlem Baseball Week in Haarlem and the World Port Tournament in Rotterdam together.
In 2011, Loet was the Press Officer of the latter event and he also contributed regularly to the daily tournament-magazines of the WPT, together with Bax and Mast.
When Loet wrote about baseball regularly, he belonged to a group of baseball-reporters, many of whom followed the sport for many years.
They covered baseball for newspapers and in later years for baseball-oriented websites.
Many of them were always attending the before-mentioned international tournaments in the Netherlands, following the games of the Orange-squad from a crowded press-gallery.
The 'members' of this group included (in alphabetical order) Donald Bax (Rotterdams Nieuwsblad/Dagblad), André Bisschop (Trouw), Pauline Blom (Haarlems Dagblad), Jaap Bonkenburg (Haarlems Dagblad), Paul van den Bosch (Algemeen Dagblad), Hans Botman (Algemeen Dagblad), Ad Brevet (De Telegraaf), Peter Bruin (De Volkskrant), Johan Carbo (Het Parool), Richard Dubbeld (Algemeen Dagblad), Jan van Ewijk (Het Parool), Frank van de Gevel (Algemeen Dagblad), Ido de Groot (Noord-Hollands Dagblad), Gijs van den Heuvel (De Volkskrant), Cees Hiele (Utrechts Nieuwsblad), Cor Jonker (De Volkskrant), Jaap Kerkman (Zandvoortse Courant), Joop Köhler (NRC Handelsblad), Chris Mast (Rotterdams Nieuwsblad/Dagblad), Guus Mater (ANP), Charles van der Meijs (BN De Stem), Robert Misset (Het Parool), Ben Muller (ANP), Jan van der Nat (Haarlems Dagblad), Pim van Nes (TuttoBaseball, Baseball.it), Paul Onkenhout (Haarlems Dagblad), Theo Plasschaert (Haarlems Dagblad), Monne Reitsma (Noord-Hollands Dagblad), Peter Rollof (Het Parool), Ab Schreijnders (De Volkskrant), Dick Sintenie (Haarlems Dagblad), Frank Snoeks (Haarlems Dagblad), Marco Stoovelaar (De Courant Nieuws van de Dag/De Telegraaf/Grand Slam * Stats & News), Ferry van Straelen (Het Parool), Fred Troost (Trouw), Rogier van Zon (Honkbalsite) and Dries de Zwaan (Haarlems Dagblad).
Covering regular season-games for the radio in those years included Bas den Breejen (NCRV), Margriet Zegers (TROS), Hans Doeleman, Rob van der Gaast, Andy Houtkamp (all NOS Langs de Lijn) and Theo Plasschaert (local radio Haarlem/Radio Noord-Holland) and providing commentary for (live) television-broadcasts were Hugo Walker, Theo Reitsma, Mart Smeets, Jan Stekelenburg, Frank Snoeks, Ronald Boot (all NOS Studio Sport) and Andy Houtkamp (RTL4/NOS Studio Sport).
Unfortunately, from this group, Johan Carbo (May 3 at age 73) and Jan van der Nat (July 19 at age 72) passed away last year.
Several of these reporters regularly contributed to 'Inside', which was the official magazine of the Royal Netherlands Baseball and Softball Federation (KNBSB), which was published in 1971-1988 under the leadership of editor-in-chief Joop Köhler.
Loet was not part of the main editorial staff, but he did contribute by writing some articles.
Later, Loet closely worked together with Joop Köhler on the compilation of two anniversary books.
In 2010, a book was compiled about the 25 Haarlem Baseball Weeks that had been organized since 1961, titled 'One big party' ('Een groot feest').
In 2012, a book was released about the 100-year plus history of baseball in the Netherlands, titled 'A century with golden shine' ('Een eeuw met gouden glans'), when the KNBSB celebrated its 100th anniversary.
Many of the editors who wrote for Inside also contributed to these two books, which became collector's items.
Loet was the editor-in-chief for both books.
|
...Cover of Loet's book... |
In 2006, Loet wrote a book about the S.S. Rotterdam, titled 'De Rotterdam - Boegbeeld van de vooruitgang' (The Rotterdam - Figurehead of progress).
In the book, Loet writes stories and anecdotes about and by passengers and crew of the steamship De Rotterdam, the former flagship of the Holland-Amerika Line and the largest passenger ship ever built in the Netherlands.
Henk Hofland wrote the introduction and Simon B. Kool provided an explanation of the photo-material.
For three years, and part of a fourth, Loet was the Media Officer of the Netherlands Baseball Team.
In March 2006, Loet served in this role during the first World Baseball Classic when the Netherlands played its game in Puerto Rico.
During the event, Loet took care of the role instead of Duco Abspoel, who was unavailable for the trip, due to work-commitments.
Back then, Robert Eenhoorn was the Manager of the Orange-squad.
He led a coaching-stafff that consisted of Jack Hubbard, Steve Matthew, Hensley Meulens, Ben Thijssen and Bob Welch.
Besides Loet, the other members of the supporting staff were Rob Tamminga (Physical Therapist), Frans Bergman (Equipment Manager), Kees Sleegers (Business Manager) and Gijs Langevoort (Head of Delegation).
The Netherlands Team was eliminated for the Second Round, but also wrote history, as Shairon Martis threw a No-Hitter against Panama.
This still is the lone No-Hitter in WBC-history.
After the tournament, Duco Abspoel returned as Media Officer.
...Loet as Media Officer of the...
...Netherlands Baseball Team...
...during the 2010 European...
...Baseball Championship...
...in Stuttgart (Germany)...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
Loet again replaced Abspoel as Media Officer in early 2009 and this time, he would handle the press-affairs for three years.
During the 2009 World Baseball Classic, the team was led by American Rod Delmonico as Manager, while Bert Blyleven, Bill Froberg, Wim Martinus, Hensley Meulens, Jim Stoeckel and Ben Thijssen were the coaches.
Tamminga, Bergman and Sleegers again formed the supporting staff, while Eenhoon this time was the Head of Delegation.
The team again played in Puerto Rico and advanced to the Second Round in Miami (USA), but then was eliminated for the Final Round.
Later in 2009, the Netherlands participated in the World Port Tournament in Rotterdam (Netherlands), European Baseball Series against <Italy and the World Championship in the Netherlands and Italy.
In the WPT, the team finished in second place, in the World Championship in sixth place.
During these tournaments, the coaching-staff was the same, except for Blyleven, Meulens and Thijssen.
In the supporting staff, Martijn van Berkel assisted Rob Tamminga as Physical Therapist, while Ton Hofstede had succeeded Sleegers.
Joining the staff duing the European Series as new Equipment Manager was Ton Meiresonne.
In 2010, Loet also was the Media Officer of the Orange Team, which in this year was led by Jim Stoeckel.
He was assisted by Martinus, Thijssen, Steve Janssen and Tjerk Smeets.
Tamminga, Van Berkel, Sleegers and Meiresonne forrmed the supporting staff.
In 2010, the Netherlands finished second in the Haarlem Baseball Week in Haarlem (Netherlands) and also ended up in second place in the European Championship in Germany and the Intercontinental Cup in Taiwan.
In 2011, Brian Farley was the new Manager, while Janssen, Martinus, Smeets and Thijssen again were the coaches.
Tamminga and Meiresonne also returned to the supporting staff, while Pepijn van Ingen was added as Physical Therapist.
Smeets also acted as the new Business Manager.
In 2011, the Netherlands finished third in the World Port Tournament in Rotterdam (Netherlands), but in October of that year, the team captured the title in the World Championship in Panama.
Duco Abspoel returned again as Media Officer in 2012.
In his long journalistic career, Loet was recognized as a very knowledgeable writer of boxing, soccer, judo and baseball.
He was also known for writing long articles, full of correct facts.
And Loet always wrote very readable stories.
Through the years, Loet was a frequent visitor of games of Neptunus.
Initially as a reporter, but after his retirement, also as a spectator.
Loet was a pleasant and well-respected colleague.
Always friendly and relaxed.
And he always listened to what someone had to tell.
Loet will surely be missed on the (Rotterdam) sports-fields.
The webmaster of Grand Slam * Stats & News offers his condolences to Loet's daughter Bianca, grandson Nathan, other family and friends and wishes them a lot of strength with this big loss.
(May 17)
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