(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photos by Roger Mäkel & Kees van Vegten)
 Royal Decorations for Frans Mäkel and Ger Lange
Nederlands
  UITHOORN / AMSTERDAM (Neth.) -
On Thursday, April 27, King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands will celebrate his 50th birthday.
Traditionally, surrounding 'King's Day', Royal Decorations are handed out.
In the past, that was around April 30, which was the birthday of Queen Juliana.
The tradition of handing out these Decorations around 'Queen's Day' on this date continued under her successor Queen Beatrix, who herself celebrated her birthday in January.
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| ...Frans Mäkel was decorated by mayor Dagmar Oudshoorn...
(© Photo: Roger Mäkel) |
The Order of Orange-Nassau is a civil and military Dutch order of chivalry founded in 1892 bu Queen-regent Emma on behalf of her then under-age daughter Queen Wilhelmina.
The Order is open to 'everyone who has earned special merits for society'.
These are people who deserve appreciation and recognition from society for the special way in which they have carried out their activities.
Most of these Decorations are handed out to persons who do voluntary work in all kinds of fields, but also to persons who are active professionally.
There are six classes in the Order.
On Wednesday (April 26), two persons with a long career in baseball and softball were amongst the 2,815 persons who received a Royal Decoration in their respective Municipality, mostly handed out by the mayor.
These two are Frans Mäkel and Ger Lange.
Frans Mäkel was decorated on Wednesday by Dagmar Oudshoorn, the mayor of Uithoorn, and was named Knight in the Order of Orange-Nassau.
In 1961, Frans Mäkel was one of the founders of baseball- and softball-club Thamen in Uithoorn.
There, he was not only active as a player and coach in both baseball and softball, but also served many years as administrator, including leading the club as its chairman.
While being the coach of the men softball-team of Thamen, he led the squad to the National Championship-title in 2000 and 2002.
In following years, the Thamen men softball-squad also captured the European Cup (2001, 2005) and European Cup Winners Cup (2004).
He also was active in the then-Amsterdam Region, including being a member of its youth commission.
Frans Mäkel later became a member of the board of the Royal Netherlands Baseball and Softball Association for softball affairs.
In this period, the Netherlands National Men Softball Team captured the European title in 2003.
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| ...Ger Lange listens when he is addressed by...
...Amsterdam-mayor Eberhard van der Laan...
(© Photo: Kees van Vegten) |
Some years ago, Frans Mäkel also was a member of the board of Amsterdam Pirates as its treasurer.
Ger Lange also was decorated on Wednesday and was named Member in the Order of Orange-Nassau.
At the Nieuwe Kerk, Amsterdam-mayor Eberhard van der Laan handed out the Royal Decorations.
Ger Lange is a longtime volunteer at Amsterdam Pirates, where he has been active for over thirty years.
He first was a member of the editorial trio (the others were Kees van Vegten and Marco Stoovelaar), who compiled the weekly magazine of the club for many years.
The three also compiled a yearbook at the end of the season.
Lange was an editor for twenty years.
But Ger Lange did many more activities at the club, including readying the playing fields, administration and working at the clubhouse, where he also coordinated the bar services (amongst other things).
For some twenty years, he was the team manager and team scorer of several women softball-teams of the club, including its main squad that played in the highest league.
Through the years, he transported many players (and others) with his car to and from fields.
In more recent years, he assists Loek Loevendie (Mr. Pirates) at his baseball and softball memorabilia museum in the clubhouse.
The webmaster of Grand Slam * Stats & News congratulates Frans and Ger with their well-deserved Decoration.
(April 26)
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