(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
 No Baseball & Softball Champions in 2020
Nederlands
 NIEUWEGEIN (Neth.) -
The Board of the Royal Netherlands Baseball and Softball Association (KNBSB) has decided that there will be no National Champions in the highest baseball- and softbal-leagues this season, as was announced on Friday (September 17).
It marks the first time in the long history of both sports in the Netherlands that there will be no National Champion since regular competitions were organized.
In 1922, the first baseball-champion was crowned, the first softball-champion was in 1952.
It also means that L&D Amsterdam Pirates (baseball) and Roef! (softball) next year again will be the defending reigning champions when the new seasons get underway.
On Tuesday-evening (October 13), during a press conference, the Dutch Government announced stricter measures against the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19).
These new measures are necessary and needed to be taken to stop the raise of the amount of contaminations and to let it drop drastically.
One of the announced measures was that all amateur team-sports age 18 and older will end effective Wednesday, October 14, 10 PM, to reduced traffice movements and contacts.
That meant that all remaining (make-up) games in the baseball- and softball-competitions were cancelled the next day.
For the highest leagues, it meant that the best-of-seven Holland Series (baseball) for the National Championship was halted after two games.
Defending champion L&D Amsterdam Pirates won these two games.
It also meant that the competition in the Golden League (softball) was halted.
In this league, two make-up games were played on Tuesday-evening, which were to be the final games of the 2020 season.
All remaining regular scheduled (8) and make-up games (15) were cancelled.
In the highest softball-league, the season would not have been followed by Play-Offs and Holland Series.
The winner of the season would have been the Dutch champion.
After Tuesday's games, defending champion Roef! and Sparks Haarlem shared first place.
In the second highest leagues, the KNBSB announced two Champions.
The baseball-champion of the 'Overgangsklasse' captured the title within the scheduled series of games.
But the champion in the softball Silver League was the team that was in first place when the season was halted prematurely.
On Sunday, October 4, RCH-Pinguïns lost 2-1 at home against Omron Pioniers in the 'Overgangsklasse' (baseball).
With a win, RCH-Pinguïns would have win the title in the second highest league.
The team now had to wait for the result of the game between Amsterdam Pirates 2 and second-placed Onze Gezellen, which went into extra innings.
The game ended with a 8-8 tie after 12 innings, meaning RCH-Pinguïns could celebrate the championship.
On Tuesday, October 13, two make-up games were played in the Silver League (softball), one of them between league-leaders Neptunus and Onze Gezellen, who at that moment were tied for first place.
In Haarlem, Neptunus won the game with an 8-2 score to move into first place, two points ahead of Onze Gezellen.
The next make-up game between the two teams was scheduled for Thursday, but on Wednesday, the season was halted.
Earlier in the season, Neptunus had also won the first two games against Onze Gezellen.
On Friday, Neptunus was declared champion of the Silver League by the KNBSB.
During the press conference on Tuesday, it was announced that in sports an exception applies only to top-athletes with a status and professional soccer ('Eredivisie' and 'Eerste divisie').
The next day, the women's Eredivisie soccer was also added.
As a reaction to this, the governing sports body NOC*NSF (representing several sports federations) sent a letter to Sports Minister Tamara van Ark to also let other top sports competitions continue playing.
In the letter, the NOC*NSF states that ''Now that the exception in soccer has been expanded with women's soccer, we assume that this also will soon be possible for other top competitions''.
However, the request was rejected.
The Royal Netherlands Baseball and Softball Association (KNBSB) issued the following statement on Friday regarding the National Championships:
,,After it became final on Friday that the door was closed for a resumption of the baseball and softball season in the top leagues, the board of the KNBSB today made the decision not to declare champions for the Baseball big league for the 2020 season and the Fastpitch Golden League.
In the Dutch big league, L&D Amsterdam took a 2-0 lead in the Holland Series after two games.
The board of the KNBSB does not consider this lead to be sufficient to appoint a champion for this season.
Although it is a nice lead, the team from Amsterdam proved themselves right a year earlier that a team can come back from a beaten position and still can win the best-of-seven.
L&D Amsterdam won the title in 2019 by turning a 3-0 deficit in the series into a 4-3 victory.
For the softball-teams in the Golden League, there was no Holland Series scheduled this year.
In consultation with the participating clubs, it was decided to only play a regular competition in this season that was shortened by corona.
The team that would be on top afterwards would be declared the champion.
When the competition was cut short this week, Roef! and Sparks Haarlem led with 34 points after having played 22 games each.
According to the regulations of the KNBSB, a tie-breaker game would have to be played to determine a champion, but because this game cannot be played now, the board of the KNBSB has decided not to declare a champion in this league either.
In the Silver League, Neptunus was in first place and the Rotterdam-squad was therefore declared champion.
In the Overgangsklasse (baseball), RCH Pinguïns became champion two weeks ago.''
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(October 17)
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