(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photos by Henk Seppen)
 Who is playing where? Rosters Baseball Big League & Softball Golden League 2020
Nederlands
          AMERSFOORT / AMSTERDAM / BUSSUM / THE HAGUE / ENSCHEDE / HAARLEM / HOOFDDORP / MOERGESTEL / OOSTERHOUT / ROTTERDAM (Neth.) -
On April 16, it was to be Opening Night of the regular season in the Dutch Major League Baseball, on April 18, it was to be Opening Day in the Golden League Softball.
However, due to the measures taken against the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, all baseball- and softball-competitions in the Netherlands are currently on hold.
...Veteran pitchers Rob Cordemans (L&D Amsterdam Pirates) and...
...Rebecca Soumeru (Sparks Haarlem) are back on the 2020 rosters...
(© Photos: Henk Seppen) |
Since March 12, there have been several updates by the Dutch Government regarding the measures.
On Wednesday (May 6), in the latest update regarding the measures, a little more freedom was announced.
However, it was then also announced that official games and competitions remain not possible through September 1.
On Tuesday (May 12), the Royal Netherlands Baseball and Softball Association (KNBSB) announced that it has annuled all official regular season games in all baseball/softball leagues through Tuesday, June 30.
The KNBSB is in talks with the NOC*NSF (Netherlands Olympic Committee/Netherlands Sports Federations) regarding options how to continue, as it still hopes a new season can be played this year.
When the competitions would have opened on April 16 and 18, sixteen teams (eight in both baseball and softball) would have played the first games of the 2020 regular season in the highest leagues.
These sixteen teams represent ten cities.
Four teams are playing in Haarlem, being the baseball-team of DSS/Kinheim and the softball-teams of Olympia Haarlem, Sparks Haarlem and Terrasvogels.
The latter officially is based in nearby Santpoort-Zuid, but plays its home-game this season in Haarlem at the site of Onze Gezellen.
Three clubs have a team this season in both the baseball big league and the softball Golden League: Amsterdam Pirates, Hoofddorp Pioniers and Quick Amersfoort.
When there is a season this year, the softball-team of Amsterdam Pirates will make its comeback at the highest level, while Herder Autoschade Quick Amersfoort will make its debut in the Golden League.
In baseball, 2020 will be the first season of the team that is the result of the cooperation between DSS and Kinheim.
L&D Amsterdam Pirates is the reigning baseball-champion, while Roef! is the softball-champion.
Both dethroned the champion last year in the Holland Series.
Amsterdam Pirates lost the first three games of the best-of-seven against Curaçao Neptunus, then became the first team in history to win the next four games to capture the title.
Roef! also came from behind in the best-of-three against Olympia Haarlem.
After having lost the first game, Roef! won the next two games to win the Championship.
To play a game and a season, a team of coruse needs players and game-officials are also needed.
While it is not possible to play at the moment, the sixteen teams of course have team-rosters for this season.
In previous years, Grand Slam * Stats & News always published these rosters shortly before Opening Day.
Unfortunately, we didn't have an Opening Day so far this season.
But to see who is playing where, here are the current 2020 Team Rosters, as well as the listing of Umpires, Official Scorers and Technical Commissioners:
We don't know when, but baseball and softball of course also will be back in the Netherlands!
Of course only when it is safe to do so for everyone involved.
Until then, take care and stay safe!
And have a look at the Team Rosters to check out who is playing where this season.
(May 17)
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