IN MEMORIAM ...Rob Schuurman... (1962 - 2026) (© Photo: Marco Stoovelaar)

Official Scorer and HCAW club-icon Rob Schuurman passed away
Nederlands

ZEIST (Neth.) - Rob Schuurman, who was a trusted and well-respected Official Scorer in the Dutch baseball and softball big league for eight years, has passed away on Monday, February 16, at the much too young age of 63 in Zeist. Moreover, Rob was an avid follower of and contributor of HCAW, becoming one of the icons of the Bussum-based club. Unfortunately, Rob battled some health-issues for sometime. While undergoing new treatments in January, Rob announced he had decided to retire as Official Scorer.

An informal farewell will be held for Rob Schuurman on Tuesday, February 24, at 5:30 PM in the reception room of Crematorium Laren, located at Weg over Anna's Hoeve 1 in Laren (NH). The cremation will take place afterwards in private.

Rob Schuurman was born on April 10, 1962 in Hilversum, but he became closely involved in baseball- and softball-club HCAW in nearby Bussum. It was there, that he found a passion in scoring. Rob became a driven club-contributor and a HCAW-member in heart and soul.

Whenever possible, Rob was on the HCAW-complex to watch and cheer his beloved baseball-team. He often also traveled to away-games of the big league-team. When HCAW won, Rob of course was joyful. When HCAW lost, Rob could be disappointed, especially when it happened in a close game. At the same time in a loss-situation, he could be realistic, stating 'they should have played better'.

But whatever the outcome, Rob always kept on supporting the HCAW-team. Also in less successful seasons. A few years ago, HCAW climbed again in the ranking. In 2017, for the first time since 2005, HCAW qualified again for the Top-4. Before 2017, the team finished in the cellar several times and a few times came close to a relegation-spot. On those game-days, Rob really could be nervous, hoping 'his' HCAW would avoid relegation and hoping on better times. However, Rob would always be behind his team and of course, he would be very relieved when HCAW succeeded in prolonging its stay in the highest league.

So, one can imagine that when HCAW clinched a spot in the Top-4 in 2017, it was party-time in Bussum. Since then, HCAW annually played in the Championship Round or Play-Offs. The next highlight came in 2022 when HCAW dethroned reigning champion Amsterdam Pirates in the Play-Offs to advance to the Holland Series for the first time in 17 years. In this best-of-seven Final, HCAW then swept Neptunus, winning four close games, to capture its first Championship-title since 1998. HCAW also reached the Holland Series in 2024 and 2025, but then lost to Neptunus both times.

As Rob was on the HCAW-site frequently and also was very active through the years, he became one of the club-icons. When he attended games of HCAW, Rob almost always was accompanied by his parents. His father Henk, who passed away in December 2019, also was a HCAW-contributor for some time, including being treasurer for two years.

...Rob with his scoring-mentor Adrie Berrevoets,... ...watching a game of HCAW in Bussum in 2022... (© Photo: Janneke Louisa-van der Ploeg)

At HCAW, Rob always had shown an interest in scoring. For several seasons, he was the Team Scorer for HCAW's second baseball-team. His mentors at the club were Adrie Berrevoets and Dieks Bannink. Adrie was the longtime Team Scorer of HCAW's main-squad and Dieks was the longtime Public Address Announcer at HCAW's home-games. Dieks also was an Official Scorer for 29 years and retired after the 2023 season.

In 2008, Adrie announced his intentions to take it somewhat easier and plans to stop. Rob was asked to take over. He accepted and so, Adrie and Rob shared scoring-duties at HCAW in 2009-2011. From 2012 on, Rob was HCAW's lone Dug-Out Scorer as the successor of Adrie, who passed away in March 2023.

Rob was with the team for six seasons, through 2017. With that, he experienced the comeback of HCAW in the rankings first hand and was with the team when it reached the Play-Offs for the first time in twelve years.

In Rob's nine seasons overall as Dug-Out Scorer, HCAW had eight different Head Coaches, being Jurjan Koenen, Bill Froberg, Ronald Jaarsma, Rudy Dirksen, Ivan Rodriguez, Ralph Milliard, Roy Berrevoets and Roeland Henrique. The latter led HCAW to the Play-Offs in 2017.

While being HCAW's Dug-Out Scorer, Rob showed interest in becoming an Official Scorer and also was stimulated to become one. Rob started to follow courses and in March 2016, he successfully passed the so-called Level-3 exams, alongside two other club-members, Han Monsees and Bernie Elfrink. But it took two more years for Rob to make his debut as Official Scorer.

In 2018, Rob was one of three debuting Official Scorers, together with Brigitte Brands and Melanie Dijkhuizen. On April 28, 2018, Rob was assigned to his first game in the baseball big league. On that day, he was the Official Scorer at the game between Amsterdam Pirates and DSS in Amsterdam. As always, rookie-scorers are accompanied by experienced scorers throughout their first season. In his first game, Rob was accompanied by veteran Official Scorer Marco Stoovelaar.

Two weeks earlier, on April 14, Rob was assigned to his first big league softball-games. He then was the Official Scorer in the double-header between Roef! and Olympia Haarlem in Moergestel. In those games, Rob was accompanied by Alex van den Berg.

...After successfully passing their scoring-exam in... ...March 2016, Rob, Han Monsees (left) and Bernie Elfrink... ...(right) pose with Scoring Examiner (and current... ...Scoring Commissioner) Linda Steijger... (© Photo: Linda Steijger)

In his eight seasons as Official Scorer, Rob almost always was available for games. Through 2025, Rob was appointed for 184 regular season baseball-games. In 2021 and 2025, he led all active Official Scorers in most games scored, respectively 27 and 24. In 2025, he shared the lead with Sten Wessel.

In the same eight-year span, Rob was Official Scorer in 118 regular season softball-games. He shared the lead for most games scored twice. In 2022, Rob scored 22 games, just as Dieks Bannink, Ben Goorts and Huub Nelissen. In 2023, Rob shared the lead with Ben Goorts, both 27.

In 2023, Rob was assigned to his first Holland Series Baseball. He then handled the Play-by-Play in Game 5 of the Series between Amsterdam Pirates and Neptunus in Rotterdam with Sten Wessel as Official Scorer. Rob also got assignments for the Holland Series Baseball in 2024 and 2025. In 2024, he was the Play-by-Play Scorer in Game 2 between Neptunus and HCAW, again sharing the scorebox with Sten Wessel, this time in Bussum. This was to be his lone assignment, but he then filled in as Play-by-Play Scorer in Game 3 in Rotterdam, taking over for Marco Stoovelaar, who had to withdraw from that game due to family-circumstances. Rob's colleague in this game was Stefan Slinger. In 2025, Rob got two assignments for the Holland Series Baseball, which also featured Neptunus and HCAW. Just as in 2023 and 2024, Rob was the Play-by-Play Scorer. In Game 1, in Rotterdam, he coincidentally shared the assignment with Sten Wessel. In Game 2, the two teams met in Bussum, where Rob handled the game with Dennis Duin. This game would be Rob's final game, as he announced his retirement in January. It's only fittingly that his final game was at the site of HCAW, where he had began his scoring-career.

In the eight seasons that Rob was an Official Scorer in the highest Baseball and Softball League his colleagues were current Official Scorers Lo Bonafasia, Peggy De Roover, Sven Dobbe, Feiko Drost, Jeanette van Drunen, Dennis Duin, Ben Goorts, Tineke Has, Maaike Houtkamp, Janneke Kalff, Ronald van Langen, Denise Milo, Ingrid Ooms, Norbert van Oosterhout, Vinze Otten, Karin Pieneman, Stefan Slinger, Linda Steijger, Marco Stoovelaar, Caroline Theunissen, Colinda de Vries, Muriel van de Wateringen and Sten Wessel and former Official Scorers Dieks Bannink, Alex van den Berg, Brigitte Brands, Leo van den Brun, Brendy De Smet, Melanie Dijkhuizen, Rienette Hamers, Remko Helms, Huub Nelissen, Francis Speters, Suus Tanke, Harumi Ueda and Brigitta Zaal.

...Rob in 2011 in Camp Nou, the famous home-stadium... ...of soccer-club FC Barcelona in Barcelona (Spain)... (© Photo: Private Photo)

In his nine seasons as Dug-Out Scorer of HCAW, Rob Schuurman of course also was with the team when it participated in the In Memoriam Charles Urbanus Sr. Tournament, which is organized annually by the club in the weekend preceeding the opening of the regular season. From 2018 on, when he had become an Official Scorer, Rob still remained involved in the pre-season tournament. Instead of following the games of the event from the dug-out, he now sat in the scorebox. In his new function, Rob scored games during the tournament in 2018, 2020, 2023 and 2025. He also scored games during the Ringvaart Tournament, organized in 2023 and 2024 by RCH-Pinguïns in Heemstede.

When Rob stopped as Dug-Out Scorer after the 2017 season, he was one of the last Dug-Out Scorers in the league. And in his nine seasons in that position, he was one of the best, making sure that all replacements and defensive changes were communicated correctly with the Official Scorers, often coming to the scorebox himself to announce the substitutions.

Even in later years, from 2018 on, he regularly informed the Official Scorers of changes when he attended a game of HCAW, making sure that his club did the right thing. Rob also wore a HCAW-cap when he had a day off as Official Scorer and attended a home-game of his beloved club. On many such days, he often came to the scorebox to check whether Scorers wanted to drink or eat something. Rob was a great host.

Rob very much liked sports and also liked international soccer. One of Rob's hobbies was visiting different soccer-stadiums in Europe with his good friends Frank Mooijman, the former longtime General Manager of HCAW and Han Monsees, who also covers the HCAW-games for local newspaper 'De Gooi- en Eemlander'. The three made several trips together, visiting soccer-stadiums in countries such as Germany, Belgium, England, Scotland, France, Italy and Spain.

Rob also he liked Major League Baseball, being a fan of New York Yankees. In 2019, he traveled to London with Han Monsees for the first edition of the MLB London Series, which in that year was a 2-game series between rivals New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox. He also attended the Haarlem Baseball Week and World Port Tournament, the annual international tournaments in the Dutch cities of Haarlem and Rotterdam, also in the company of Mooijman and Monsees. They also traveled to some European Championships abroad.

In 2023, Rob traveled to the USA together with scoring-colleague Jeanette van Drunen (who was a close friend) and her partner Roy. In New York, the trio went to see Major League-games of New York Yankees and New York Mets in respectively Yankee Stadium and Citi Field. And of course to to look around as tourists.

...Rob was a proud member of HCAW... (© Photo: Private Photo)

Another thing he sometimes did was attending the taping of a TV-show. Rob lived in Hilversum, which is the TV-city of the Netherlands, as it locates many TV-studios. Amongst the shows he attended were talkshow 'Vandaag Inside' and the quizshow 'De Slimste Mens'.

Rob Schuurman was one of the most driven Official Scorers. He was always eager to learn more by frequently asking questions to fellow scorers or members of the Scoring Committee. Or discuss about situations he had encountered during his games or had seen while watching a game. In his early years as an Official Scorer, Rob sometimes could be insecure, doubting himself whether or not he had made the right decision or had written the scoring symbols correctly on the scorecard or in the right order. In those situations, he always listened carefully to explanations and advices of other, more experienced, scorers. Rob not only was a good listener, but also a quick learner.

In following seasons, he gained more experience, became more secure, developed into a well-respected Official Scorer and got a good knowledge of the scoring-rules. Rob even sometimes checked the live-stream images to check he had made the correct notifications.

Rob could be modest, but also had his own opinions, also in the field of scoring. And you never had to say something negative about HCAW. Although he would always defend his club, he also could see reality when things didn't went well with the Bussum-club. He was very disappointed concerning HCAW's situation after completion of last season, which led to the departure of almost all players.

Before, during and after a game, but also when he was off-duty visiting a game, Rob always was friendly with good fun and interested in others. As mentioned, he regularly attended games of the Haarlem Baseball Week and World Port Tournament, but also when a baseball-/softball European Championship or European Cup Tournament was organized in the Netherlands. Whenever Rob attended such a game, whether regular season or a tournament, afterwards he almost always would come up to the scorebox to have a chat with his scoring colleagues or ask questions about certain situations. Rob was very much loved in the scoring-corps and will be missed by many. And he will surely be missed by us, his scoring-colleagues.

The webmaster of Grand Slam * Stats & News offers his condolences to Rob's Sister Irma, other family and friends and wishes them a lot of strength with this huge loss.

(February 19)