(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
IN MEMORIAM
...Inger van der Graaf...
(1968 - 2017) |
 Former big league-player Inger van der Graaf passed away
Nederlands
 HILVERSUM (Neth.) -
Former softball-player Inger van der Graaf has passed away on Saturday, January 7.
Inger was only 48 years old.
The memorial and cremation service will be held on Monday, January 16 at Crematorium Den en Rust at the Frans Halslaan 27 in Bilthoven, starting at 3:30 PM.
In the eighthies, Inger became a talented softball-player, while playing in youth-teams at HCAW in Bussum.
In 1984, at age 16, she made her debut in the main softball-team of the club, which then played in the Dutch big league.
During these early years, Inger was selected for the Netherlands Junior Team.
In 1985, she became a regular in the squad of HCAW and kept on playing for the team through 1989.
In 1992, she returned to the big league, this time as a player of Amsterdam Pirates.
There, she also played in 1993, before ending her career at the big league-level.
Defensively, Inger van der Graaf was a solid middle-infielder, mostly playing as short stop.
Offensively, she was frequently used in the lead-off spot.
She was contact-hitter, who put runners in scoring position.
...The softball-team of HCAW after winning the Silver Medal...
...at the European Cup Tournament 1986 in Oosterhout (Netherlands)...
...Inger van der Graaf is standing in the back, fifth from right...
(© Photo: Marco Stoovelaar) |
With HCAW, Inger played in what was a very successful period for the softball-team.
In the years Inger played for the team, it was led by Head Coach Craig Montvidas and had several National Team-players on its roster.
It was Montvidas, who gave Inger a chance to make her debut in the team.
With HCAW, Inger won the European Cup in 1988 when the event was held in Antwerp (Belgium).
Two years earlier, in Oosterhout (Netherlands), she won the Silver Medal with HCAW during the European Cup Tournament, which then was won by Terrasvogels.
In this period, she celebrated the Dutch Championship-title in 1985, 1987 and 1988 with HCAW.
At Amsterdam Pirates, Inger played for another well-respected softball-coach, as the team was led by Nol Houtkamp.
Inger comes from a family that has a long associaton with baseball- and softball-club HCAW.
Her brother Sven van der Graaf also was a longtime player of the main baseball-squad of the club.
He also made his debut at a young age and played for many years with HCAW in the big league.
Sven also played in the Netherlands National Baseball Team.
Their father Henk van der Graaf was a longtime dug-out scorer of the baseball-team of HCAW and also had been a member of the Technical Commiittee of the club.
Inger's son Kaj Timmermans is one of the current pitchers in the main baseball-squad of HCAW.
The webmaster of Grand Slam * Stats & News offers his condolences to the family of Inger and wishes them a lot of strength with this huge loss.
(January 14)
(photo of Inger published with permission of the Van der Graaf-family)
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