IN MEMORIAM ...Monne Reitsma... (1970 - 2026) (© Photo: Marco Stoovelaar)

Dutch sports-journalist and Rooswijk club-icon Monne Reitsma passed away
Nederlands

BEVERWIJK (Neth.) - Monne Reitsma, who was a driven sports-journalist for over 30 years and was a passionate contributor and player of Rooswijk, has passed away on Saturday, January 17 at the much too young age of 55 in his home-town Beverwijk.

The memorial-ceremony for Monne Reitsma will be held on Thursday, January 22 at 10:30 AM in the aula of Cemetery Duinrust, located at 174 Bankenlaan in Beverwijk.

Unfortunately, this marks the fourth time in twelve days that the Dutch baseball-world has to say goodbye to a wellknown member of its community.
On Wednesday, January 7, Netherlands Team-coach and former player Sidney de Jong unexpectedly passed away at the much too young age of 46. On Thursday, January 8, baseball-legend Hamilton Richardson passed away at age 85. And on Sunday, January 11, Carlos van Heyningen, a legendary player from the 70s/80s-era, passed away at age 75.

Monne Reitsma was born on July 28, 1970 in Haarlem and followed in the footsteps of his wellknown father Theo Reitsma, not only in journalism, but also as a passionate contributor at Baseball- and Softball-club Rooswijk, located in Velsen-Noord.

At Rooswijk, Theo started playing baseball at age 14 and always remained active for the club, which celebrated its 80th anniversary in 2025. Theo led Rooswijk as chairman for some 20 years and is a Honorary Member of the club. In 1999-2003, Theo was president of the Royal Netherlands Baseball and Softball Federation (KNBSB).

At age seven, Monne also began playing baseball at Rooswijk. He kept on playing for many years, but in the meantime, he also quickly became closely involved in all kinds of club-activities. Monne not only was a player, he also was a coach, contributed in organizing tournaments and other events at site of Rooswijk, oversaw the club's equipment and set up the club-archive. Both Monne and Theo also contributed to the club-magazine and became club-icons.

On the Facebook-page of Rooswijk, the following was published:
,,It was with deep sorrow and shock that we learned of the passing of Monne Reitsma. Our Monne Reitsma. Monne was a living monument. He was involved in the club's well-being until the very end, and even from the hospital, he 'interfered' with the 'oliebollen' tournament. Goodbye, dear Monne, thank you for everything you did for Rooswijk and its members.''

In journalism, Theo Reitsma went on to cover sports for local newspapers Dagblad Kennemerland and Haarlems Dagblad. But of course, Theo became more known as a commentator for TV-show NOS Studio Sport, for whom he covered baseball, softball, soccer, track & field and boxing since the late sixties through around 2006.

...Monne Reitsma (newspaper Haarlem Dagblad, press agency GPD) with his colleagues... ...Marco Stoovelaar (newspaper De Telegraaf, website Grand Sam), Tim Senden... ...(press agency ANP), Ronald Boot (radio-show NOS Langs de Lijn) and Roger Huys... ...(website De Honkbalsite), who were the five journalists, who covered the 2007... ...European Baseball Championship in Barcelona (Spain), which also served as... ...Qualifier for the 2008 Olympic Games... (© Photo: Marco Stoovelaar)

Like his father, Monne also became a sports-journalist. Somewhere in the nineties, he started working for the Haarlems Dagblad-newspaper where he went on to become a senior editor. Later, Monne became a leading editor at the regional newspaper Noord-Hollands Dagblad. Through the years, when his father did the commentary during live baseball or track & field events, Monne frequently assisted him with some administative duties.

As was common until some years ago, (almost) all national, regional and local newspapers had a section reserved in the Monday-editions for coverage and recaps of baseball-games played in the weekend. The Haarlems Dagblad always has been a leader in this coverage. Unfortunately, less newspapers has regular coverage of our sports, but the Haarlems Dagblad still is one of the few local newspapers that covers baseball and softball in articles on Monday.

For the Haarlems Dagblad, Monne covered baseball for many years. Not only the regular season in the highest (national) leagues, but also lower (regional) leagues. And he covered the Netherlands National Team and of course, the Haarlem Baseball Week and World Port Tournament and sometimes traveled abroad to cover an European Championship. Although Dries de Zwaan was the lead softball-editor of the newspaper for many years, Monne sometimes also covered softball, while Theo Plasschaert also covered baseball. Monne also covered soccer, mostly Telstar, and several other sports. A year ago, Monne left the sport-journalism and became a reporter for regional affairs.

In October 1987, the final edition of Inside was published. For seventeen years, Inside had been the official publication of the KNBSB. In fifteen of these years, the editor-in-chief was Joop Köhler, who had been a member of the editorial staff in the first two years. From halfway the eighties through halfway the nineties, some independent magazines were published, like Double Play (led by Craig Montvidas) and Swing. Another magazine in these years was PlayOff / American Sports Magazine, which covered the four major American sports: baseball/softball, basketball, American football and hockey. Jan van der Nat was the editor-in-chief of the baseball/softball-section. Van der Nat, who passed away in July 2024 at age 72, then also was a sports-writer for the Haarlems Dagblad. For a few years PlayOff published official messages of the KNBSB.

...Monne hitting for Rooswijk... (© Photo: Rooswijk Baseball & Softball Club)

From 1994 on, the KNBSB published its own official magazine again, called Baseball & Softball News. In 1994-1996, the editorial staff was formed by Monne and Marco Stoovelaar with Monne acting as the editor-in-chief of the 66 editions that were published in these three years. The main contributors in these years were Nando Boers, Pim van Nes and Theo Reitsma, while Bastiaan Heus and Lars van den Brink were the photographers. In 1995, Charles van der Meijs (in April) and Rogier van Zon (in June) joined as contributor. Like Monne, Van Zon (and his twin-brother Egon) also was active for Rooswijk.

In 1997, Bert de Bonte, Jeroen Mantel and Gerard Pedroli formed the editorial staff. Monne and Marco Stoovelaar continued as contributor. They were joined by Barbara Peeters and Samuel de Leeuw. After a few publications, Mantel and Pedroli left in May 1997 and Monne returned as editor, while Van Zon became a contributor again. At the end of 1997, the publication ended, as it proved to be too costly.

However, in July 1998, the magazine returned under a new name: Baseball & Softball Magazine. Monne Reitsma and Marco Stoovelaar returned in the editorial staff with Samuel de Leeuw, who acted as editor-in-chief. Barbara Peeters was a contributor again, while Charles van der Meijs and Pim van Nes returned as contributors after not being involved with the magazine in 1997. In September 1998, Monne stepped down and was succeeded by Van der Meijs, while Jan van der Sande joined as contributor. After ten more editions in 1999, the publication of this magazine also ended.

Through the years, Monne closely followed Major League Baseball and had a lot knowledge of what was going on in the American pro-world. He regularly visited the USA to watch some games. In March 1998, Monne Reitsma, Marco Stoovelaar and Barbara Peeters traveled to Florida. As three musketeers, they went from one Major League Spring Training-site to another, where they met and talked with players and managers like Tom Lasorda, Bobby Cox, Bobby Valentine, Eddie Murray, Mookie Wilson, Dennis Martínez, Andruw Jones and Randall Simon.

Monne was well-respected and liked by his media-colleagues. He always was calm and somewhat modest, but at the same time, he was very enthusiastically and driven in what he did. In writing his stories and articles, in obtaining Major League-information and maybe mostly in all his activities for Rooswijk. Monne will be missed by many of us.

The webmaster of Grand Slam * Stats & News offers his condolences to Monne's wife Annemiek, son Paddy, daughter Moira, father Theo and his wife Anja, other family and friends and wishes them a lot of strength with this huge loss.

(January 19)