(Story & Photos by Marco Stoovelaar; Additional Photos by Terrasvogels & DSS)
IN MEMORIAM
...Bert Daniels...
(1945 - 2024)
(© Photo: Marco Stoovelaar) |
 Longtime Announcer, Committee-member and Club-contributor Bert Daniels passed away
Nederlands
 HAARLEM (Neth.) -
Bert Daniels, who has been a Public Address Announcer for over 50 years, passed away on Sunday, April 7 at age 78 after a brief illness.
Although it was known that Bert had some health problems, his passing came unexpectedly.
Bert's wife Tineke passed away in January last year at age 76.
Besides being a longtime announcer in both baseball and softball, Bert has been a member of the Scoring Committee for more than 30 years and was a well-respected club-contributor.
In the past at Terrasvogels, EDO and Onze Gezellen and in more recent years at DSS and DSS/Kinheim.
Bert currently was the secretary at DSS, a position he held since 1996.
The memorial and cremation-ceremony for Bert Daniels will take place on Monday, April 16 at 9:30 AM at Crematorium Sterrenheuvel at the Vergierdeweg 458 in Haarlem.
Albertus Wilhelmus Everhardus (Bert) Daniels was born on August 18, 1945 in Haarlem.
Since the early seventies, Bert was closely involved with Terrasvogels, especially with the softball-section of the Santpoort-based club.
For many years, the main-squad of Terrasvogels was one of the most successful softball-teams in both the Netherlands and in Europe.
The team played in a record 32 Play-Offs, a record 22 Holland Series and captured a record 15 Dutch Championship-titles.
Besides that, Terrasvogels also won several European Cup Tournaments and had many players playing for the Netherlands Softball Team.
A few years ago, Terrasvogels merged with Onze Gezellen.
In the early seventies, future big league-umpire Roel Meijering was the secretary of Terrasvogels, which also had several other wellknown personalities, such as Teun van den Berg, Bram van der Werf, his wife Lenie van der Werf, Joop Maurer, Jan Vergnes, Jan Steenmeijer, Frits Heeremans, Henk Treuren, Cees Goedhart, Aad Akkerman, Guus van Dee, Willem Hurkmans, Heddy van Mourik and Jules de Pierre, to name a few.
In 1974, Bert Daniels became the team scorer of the women's softball-team and also succeeded Roel Meijering as Public Address Announcer.
From that moment on, Bert also handled the game-administration of the softball-section.
And so, from 1974 on, Bert was 'the voice of Terrasvogels'.
But he did much more, as he also did the announcing at the home-games of the softball-teams of EDO and Onze Gezellen and sometimes filled in at DSS.
Amongst the wellknown group of softball-players in the seventies and early eighties when Bert was involved with the Terrasvogels-team were Ineke Akkerman, Renée van den Berg, Ria Disselköter, Ria Duyn, Jet Jonker, Els Koks, Ludy van Mourik, Gerjanne Treuren, Marjan de Vries, Hanneke van der Werf and Elly Zweers.
In many of these seasons, the team was led by veteran coaches Teun van den Berg and Bram van der Werf.
Playing for EDO in these years were wellknown players such as Marian van Ginhoven, Suze van Breukelen and Truus Ruiter.
In 1976, Bert succeeded Roel Meijering and would be the club's secretary through 1981.
Also in 1976, Bert came up with the idea to make some kind of booklet for the spectators.
,,Not only to provide the spectators with information, but also fun to collect some data'', Bert said in 2015 in an interview for the Terrasvogels-bulletin with the author of this In Memoriam, who back then compiled the booklets.
Bert: ,,For example, I published batting averages.
People liked that, because it couldn't be found anywhere else.
Back then you didn't have play-by-play''.
...The Championship-team of Terrasvogels in 1979...
...Bert Daniels is the team's scorekeeper and stands third from left...
...Standing at left is Head Coach Teun van den Berg, standing at right is...
...Assistant Coach and Pitching Coach Bram van der Werf...
...Amongst the players are standing Gerjanne Treuren (2nd from left),...
...Ludy van Mourik (4th from left), Renée van den Berg (3rd from right)...
...and seated Marit Kreischer (2nd from left), Els Koks (3rd from left),...
...Ineke Akkerman (3rd from right) and Marjan de Vries (2nd from right)...
(© Photo: Terrasvogels-archive) |
From that year on, Bert compiled very informative bulletins for the home-games of the Terrasvogels softball-team, which included regular statistical lists, interviews, recaps and news from Dutch softball.
When Official Scorers were first assigned for softball-games in 1977, Bert would contact for game-information to include in his bulletin.
Amongst that first group of scorers were Feiko Drost, Ben Goorts and Marco Stoovelaar, who all are still active this season.
When he started compiling the booklets, Bert was assisted initially by Anneke Treuren, the sister of player Gerjanne Treuren.
Later, Bert was the sole compiler.
,,We made it on stencils.
And they sometimes tore, problems with ink, etc.
That was a bit different than it is today'', Bert looked back in the 2015 interview.
,,Later, it got a bit better via off-set and such.
The booklets then also became thicker''.
By the way, collecting these kind of game-booklets became Bert's big hobby.
Bert compiled the booklets through 1982 when he briefly left the club.
In that year, he was succeeded as secretary by Aad Akkerman.
After some years, Bert returned to Terrasvogels and became active active again for club, handling the publicity with Frans Cleeren.
The two stepped down in 1992.
,,There was some disagreement'', Bert said in the 2015 interview.
,,But nothing bad about Terrasvogels.
That's all been put aside again, because after that I did several more things for the club.''
In the years that followed, Bert spent more time attending soccer-games of his son Niels.
Bert had a very recognizable and pleasant voice.
While doing his announcing, he never rushed, but always did it calmly so that the spectators would understand what happened on the field.
Because of this, Bert Daniels became one of the announcers during the Haarlem Baseball Week in 1978.
He also was behind the microphone during the editions in 1980, 1982 and 1984.
Other announcers then were Henk Bouwman, Henk Knol, Maarten Evertse, Karin Kort and Elly Visser.
In 1986, Bert was one of the announcers during the World Championship Baseball, which then was held for the first time in the Netherlands.
Bert also was one of the announcers during some of the ten editions of the Haarlem Softball Week, which were organized between 1980 and 1991, including the first three together with Karin Kort.
And through the years, he was a announcers during European Championships Softball when organized in Haarlem and at European Cup Tournaments at the sites of Terrasvogels, HHC and Sparks Haarlem.
Some thirty years ago, Bert became more involved with DSS, where his daughter Annemiek played softball and his son Niels played both baseball and softball.
He was then asked to join the club's board and in 1996, Bert became the secretary.
Since then, he closely worked together with Peter Vink and Hélène Angermann, the two club-icons who have been administrators for many, many years.
Around 2002, Bert became the announcer for both the softball-team and baseball-team.
And since 2009, he again compiled booklets for every home-game of the baseball- and softball-team of DSS.
By the way, in 2015, Bert also returned behind the microphone at Terrasvogels, sharing the duties with Wouter Hoos.
A highlight for DSS came when the baseball-team promoted to the big league.
In the first two seasons (2015-2016), Bert shared the microphone with Peter van Deursen.
In 2017, wellknown longtime announcers Yvonne de Vries and Wouter Hoos acted as back-ups of Bert.
Yvonne had retired the year before as announcer of Kinheim, but when Bert could not be at all games in 2017 (as he also announced the softball-games of DSS), she filled in on some days, as did Wouter, who was the regular announcer of Sparks Haarlem-softball.
In 2018, Bert and Yvonne again shared the duties.
Bert did the home-games on Saturday, Yvonne on Sunday.
The following year (2019), Josefien van Dusschoten was Bert's back-up.
From 2020 on, DSS and Kinheim had a working-agreement together and played under DSS/Kinheim in the highest baseball-league.
The team played its home-games in the Pim Mulier Stadium, opposite the DSS-site.
Since then, Bert was one of the announcers of the home-games of DSS/Kinheim, alongside Yvonne Campfens, Carla Cornelisse, Kitty van Gilst and Renate Vork.
Bert continued to do so through last season.
...Bert Daniels as announcer during a home-game of...
...the softball-team of DSS against Terrasvogels in 2017...
...Seated at right is Official Scorer Ben Goorts...
(© Photo: Marco Stoovelaar) |
Bert also remained active for DSS, as the announcer for the softball-team, as well as the second baseball-team of DSS/Kinheim.
And for the baseball-games of DSS and DSS/Kinheim, Bert continued compiling informative booklets, which were handed out free at every home-game.
He mostly brought them himself to the stadium to be distributed.
Bert Daniels was in his 29th year as secretary of the board of DSS, which was chaired by Peter Vink (interim), the longtime administrator of the Haarlem-club in all kind of functions.
Other current boardmembers are Hans Kaart (treasurer), Jan Huntelaar, Erik Jan Klesser, Justin Selier and Tippy Vink.
In July of last year, the softball-field of DSS was named after longtime administrator Hélène Angermann, who passed away in 2021.
Of course, during the festivities, the dedication, as well as the special game by former players, Bert was behind the microphone.
Besides all his club-activities, Bert also had been a longtime committee-member.
In 1984, because of his knowledge of softball, scorekeeping and statistics, he was asked to chair what then was the softball-section of the Scoring Committee of the Royal Netherlands Baseball and Softball Federations (KNBSB).
Back then, Theo Vleeshhouwer chaired the baseball-section of the committee, which also included Marion van Groningen Schinkel (secretary), Piet de Goede, Henk Knol, Maartje Nierop Groot, Wim van Sorge and Janke Nijdam.
In 1985, Gert Snel succeeded both Vleeshhouwer and Daniels and was the sole chairman for one year.
The following year, Aart Wedemeijer became the new chairman, while Snel succeeded Knol.
Bert Daniels returned in the committee as the successor of Janke Nijdam.
From that moment on, in 1986, Bert would be associated with the committee through 2019!
Through the years, there were not that many changes in the Scoring Committee, which therefore always has guaranteed a good continuity, as well as good working relationship with the group of official scorers.
In 1987, Jan van der Sande joined the committee as the successor of Gert Snel.
And in 1988, Marco Stoovelaar succeeded Maartje Nierop Groot in the committee, which remained unchanged through 1990.
In 1991, Huub Nelissen became the new chairman and in 1992, Anja Fokke became the new secretary, while Harry Wedemeijer was added as new member.
There were no new changes until 1995.
In that year, Bert took over the secretarial duties of Anja Fokke, who left the committee at the end of that year.
In the eighties, Bert also was a regular member of the Examination Committee for scorers, alongside Wim van Sorge, Marco Stoovelaar, Feiko Drost and Jan van Toorn.
In the nineties Huub Nelissen also would be part of this group.
In 1996-2000, Nelissen (chairman), Daniels (secretary), De Goede, Van der Sande, Van Sorge, Stoovelaar and Wedemeijer formed the Scoring Committee.
By then, Piet de Goede had an advisory role and didn't attend the regular meetings of the committee anymore.
...Bert Daniels as announcer during the renaming of the...
...softball-field of DSS into Hélène Angermann Field last year...
(© Photo: DSS) |
The next change came in July 2001, when Huub Nelissen stepped down as chairman (a position which was re-named in commissioner in 1998) and was succeeded by Linda Steijger.
Towards the end of 2001, Nelissen returned as committee-member as the successor of Piet de Goede.
Again, there were no changes in the following years.
Except in 2004 when Wim van Sorge unexpectedly passed away.
Van Sorge, who was not replaced, had been a committee-member for more than 33 years.
At the end of the 2007 season, Huub Nelissen, Jan van der Sande and Harry Wedemeijer left the committee.
Linda Steijger and Marco Stoovelaar continued as committee-members and were joined by Dennis Duin.
In 2008 through 2014, these three were the members of the committee and took the necessary decisions.
In those years, Bert Daniels also was still involved as a valuable member, but not in the decision-making.
Bert did some of the administration as secretary and compiled the minutes during the annual pre-season meetings of the official scorers.
In 2015, Huub Nelissen returned as commisssioner and succeeded Linda Steijger, while Stefan Slinger and Fred van der Kade became new committee-members.
And so, in 2015 and 2016, the committee consisted of Nelissen, Daniels, Duin, Slinger and Van der Kade.
In 2017, Linda Steijger returned as the successor of the latter and in 2018, Alex van den Berg succeeded Nelissen as commissioner.
Van den Berg led the committee for two years.
Bert Daniels stepped down at the end of 2019 after been associated with the Scoring Committee for 35 years.
In 2020, Linda Steijger became commissioner again and Marco Stoovelaar returned in the committee.
Since then, the Scoring Committee, or Scoring Work Group (which is the new name), consists of Steijger, Stoovelaar, Dennis Duin and Stefan Slinger.
As mentioned, the Scoring Committee experienced few changes through the years.
As such, in his 35 years as committee-member, Bert Daniels shared a position with several other longtime committee-members for many years, including four of them for 20 or more years.
Since 1984, Bert worked together in the Scoring Committee with Marco Stoovelaar for 27 years, Jan van der Sande for 21 years and Huub Nelissen and Wim van Sorge for 20 years.
Other longtime committee-colleagues were Piet de Goede, Linda Steijger (both 17 years), Harry Wedemeijer (15 years) and Dennis Duin (12 years).
For over fifty years, Bert Daniels was one of those (many) club-contributors, who were always there.
Whether it was at Terrasvogels, EDO, DSS, Kinheim or the DSS/Kinheim-combination.
Or being one of those many loyal volunteers at the Haarlem Baseball Week and Haarlem Softball Week.
He was one of those contributors who did what what they had to do, never complained and never were up front.
Bert always was very polite and remained modest.
With that, Bert has been one of those very valuable forces a club needs to exist.
He will be missed by many.
The webmaster of Grand Slam * Stats & News offers his condolences to Bert's daughter Annemiek, son Niels, grandchildren, other family and friends and wishes them a lot of strength with this big loss.
(April 11)
|
