(Story & Photos by Marco Stoovelaar)
IN MEMORIAM
...Jan van Toorn...
(1941 - 2022)
(© Photo: Marco Stoovelaar) |
 Former Haarlem-commissioner, Official Scorer Jan van Toorn (Honorary Member KNBSB) passed away
Nederlands
 HAARLEM (Neth.) -
Jan van Toorn, who was a longtime administrator in the former Rayon Haarlem and was an Official Scorer for almost thirty years, passed away on Monday (February 28), one month after having turned 81.
For his many activities, Jan van Toorn was named Member of Merit of the Royal Netherlands Baseball and Softball Association (KNBSB) in 1995.
Ten years later (2005), he was named Honorary Member.
Evert Jan van Toorn was born on January 27, 1941 and was known mostly by his middle name Jan.
Through the years, Jan van Toorn became closely involved in multisports-club BSM in Bennebroek, where he lived since 1984.
Jan's wife Tonny Lunstroot (who passed away in 2012) was the longtime game-secretary of BSM of which she was a Member of Merit.
At BSM, Jan also has been active for the baseball- and softball-section and played softball himself.
Since 1975, Jan did a lot of administrative work and held several positions within the former Rayon Haarlem for some thirty years.
After being a member of the Competition Commission Baseball, together with Ron Voetelink in 1975, Jan van Toorn became a member of the Board of Rayon Haarlem in 1976.
From that year on, he remained a member of the Board for sixteen years (through 1991), handling competition affairs until the Rayons were dissolved and four new Districts were created.
Van Toorn continued as Board-member of the new District West in 1992 through 1997.
With that, he has been a Board-member for 22 years.
When Jan first joined the Haarlem-Board in 1976, it was chaired by Wim Beukenkamp, who led the Rayon through 1985.
Hereafter, André Schrijber and Jan Drost served as chairman.
Other longtime members in Jan's years in the Haarlem-Board were Hennie de Wilde-de Hoog (secretary), Karel Grandia (treasurer), Henk Treuren (member), Suze van Breukelen (member) and Tonny Lunstroot (member).
When Jan was a member of the Board of District West, it was chaired by Peter Foppen and Samuel de Leeuw, while Pierre Wesselink was the longtime secretary.
Other boardmembers included Anton Koehorst, Joop Kölker, Cees Rietveld, Peter Hollander, Robert Bos, Ed Rieff and Ton Bouma.
Besides being a longtime member of the Board, Jan van Toorn was mostly known for another position.
For 29 years, he served as the commissioner for all baseball and softball leagues in Haarlem.
In 1976-1991, Jan oversaw all competitions for both baseball and softball in Rayon Haarlem.
He then did the same for baseball (1992-1995) and softball (1992-2000) for the Haarlem-region in District West.
After the four Districts were realigned in three Regions, Jan kept on leading the baseball and softball leagues in Haarlem from 2001 through 2004.
To set up the competitions for the hundreds of teams per season, Jan annually organized a get-together for all clubs in the Haarlem-region.
During these meetings, leagues were aligned, competitions were set up, home and away-games and preferred playings days were agreed upon and everything was discussed to avoid logistical problems.
And that all happened in a relaxed atmosphere.
Looking back to these meetings some years ago, Jan said: ,,On such a day, everyone could say whatever they wanted and what wishes they had.
Instead of compiling a competition, sending it around to the clubs, getting reactions back and then start puzzling again for several days to set up a new schedule, everything was arranged on that day.
When it was not possible for a team to play on a specific day, the two clubs concerned could arrange a new day during the meeting.
And so, everything was settled in one day.
No one could say afterwards that something was wrong in a schedule, as they all had a chance to be there and do their saying during that club-meeting''.
Regularly, the name of Jan van Toorn is mentioned as being one of the best league-commissioners ever.
Besides managing the leagues for almost thirty years, Jan also was the person to whom clubs had to call in to record the final score of their games.
He did this for thirteen years (1992-2004).
Jan also served in two commissions in Haarlem in the seventies and eighties.
First, he was a member of the Protest Commission in Haarlem in 1977 and 1978, together with Henk Treuren.
Hereafter, Jan was a member of the Umpiring Commission in Haarlem in 1980-1988 with André Schrijber and Jan Pauwels.
In 1995-2000, Jan was a member of the commission for competition affairs in Haarlem of what was then District West, being the chairman in 1998.
Other members were Pierre Wesselink and Robert Bos.
Jan also was a member of a national commission of the KNBSB.
For four years (1985-1988), he was a member of the Game Commission Softball with Rob Kruijk being the chairman.
In 1985 and 1986, Jan was the secretary, while Jannie Koot was a member and also was the competition-manager of the national softball-leagues.
In 1987-1988, Jan took over this position from Jannie Koot and Wil ten Bosch succeeded him as secretary.
Jan's daughters Ilse and Krista both played softball.
Ilse played over 300 games in the Dutch softball big league and was a very talented middle infielder, as well as a speedy baserunner.
Ilse played for EDO and HHC in 1982-1992 and played one more game for Sparks in 1998.
She also played for the Netherlands National Women's Softball Team.
Sadly, in August 2007, Ilse passed away at age 41 due to a severe illness.
Krista played several seasons in the second team of HHC/Sparks.
In 1978, Jan became one of the many volunteers that contributed to the Haarlem Baseball Week.
During the editions in 1978 and 1980, Jan led the enthousiastic group of bat-boys, something he did together with John Dekker.
In 1982, Jan served as the liaison officer for the Netherlands National Team.
In the early eighties, his daughters Ilse and Krista were members of the famous group that prepared and distributed the info-magazine Leesvoer, which in those years had a new edition for each individual game.
...Jan van Toorn spotted at a game of Sparks Haarlem...
(© Photo: Marco Stoovelaar) |
In 1977, Jan van Toorn became an Official Scorer, another activity he loved to do and did for almost thirty years.
In that year, he belonged to he first group of Official Scorers that was assigned to the highest softball-league.
In the years before, there were no Official Scorers in the softball big league.
Also making their debut in 1977 were Wies Meijers, Tiny van der Poel, Feiko Drost, Ben Goorts and Marco Stoovelaar.
Drost, Goorts and Stoovelaar are still active and will begin their 46th season as Official Scorer in April.
They joined the group of scorers that already was active in baseball for several seasons, which included Cees Boer Jr., Jan de Boer, Kees Bol, Joop van Bolhuis, Gerard Bronner, Piet de Goede, Rob Jacobs and Maartje Nierop Groot.
Joining the group in 1978 and also becoming longtime scorers were Herma Hodde, Jan Sluimer, Marion van Groningen Schinkel, Joop Hartman, Gert Snel and Harry Wedemeijer.
In following years, several other scorers were added with some of them being active for many seasons.
Amongst the newcomers in the eighties were Gerrie Jansen, Sonja Schellekens, Nicolien Wolf, Anja Fokke, Wim Kwekkeboom, Fiet Aussen, Leo Geesink, Karel Dingelhoff, Joop Nordsiek and Pim Balk.
Amongst the longtime scorers that became a colleague of Jan in the early nineties were Ger van Dongen, Carolien van Hoek, Huub Nelissen, Henk Wolffenbuttel, Emmy van Drunick, Maaike Houtkamp, Rieke Dirks, Olga Lablans, Margriet Stolp, Brigitta Zaal and Fred van der Kade.
Joining the scorers-corps from 1996 and later were Dieks Bannink, Pieter van der Ploeg, Linda Steijger, Leo van den Brun, Carolien van Dongen, Francis Speters and Dries de Zwaan.
Besides Drost, Goorts and Stoovelaar, some others of the above mentioned scorers are also still active, being Nelissen (33rd season), Houtkamp (31st), Zaal (31st), Bannink (28th), Steijger (25th) and Van den Brun (24th).
In the eighties, Jan also regularly served as a member of the Examination Commission for scorers together with Bert Daniels, Wim van Sorge, Marco Stoovelaar, Feiko Drost and Ben Goorts.
Joining them in the nineties was Huub Nelissen.
Jan always has been an Official Scorer for softball-games, although he did fill in for a few baseball-games in his first two seasons.
He also prefered to be assigned to games in the Haarlem-area, where he lived.
Jan loved to go to his games on a bicycle and stated that there were enough clubs in the area where could go to.
He was right, as there have been eight women's softball-teams and three men's softball-teams in the Haarlem-area through the years.
These clubs were DSS, EDO, HHC/Sparks, Kinheim, TYBB (all Haarlem), Bloemendaal (Bloemendaal), RCH (Heemstede) and Terrasvogels (Santpoort) in the women's big league and EHS, SC Haarlem and Kennemerland (all Haarlem) in the men's big league.
Jan always said: ''I don't mind going to the fields in Haarlem each time, there are enough clubs and games here to be assigned to.
Other scorers might want to change locations, but I don't care''.
But when needed, he sometimes did travel to other cities, as he did score some games in Amsterdam (at Amsterdam Pirates) and Bussum (at HCAW).
Jan became (and was) one of the most experienced scorers in softball and was active through 2005.
Unfortunately, after having been active as an Official Scorer for 29 seasons, Jan had to retire due to an eye-illness.
When scoring a game, whether it was a regular season-game or an international game, Jan was always relaxed.
During a game, he took his decisions resolutely, even when some thought differently.
,,I think it was a basehit, that's how I saw it, thus that is what I score'', he sometimes said.
That was also his opinion when he scored an error.
,,Hey, this is the big league, so I rule that an error'', he then stated.
However, when a game was finished, he sometimes did change his mind, saying (with a smile) ''Okay, maybe I was a bit too strict on that call''.
In his scoring career, Jan van Toorn was assigned to several international softball-tournaments that were organized in the Netherlands.
But only when those events took place on sites in the Haarlem-area.
Jan was an Official Scorer during three Haarlem Softball Weeks at the site of HHC (now Sparks).
Jan's final international assignment came in 2001.
In that year, both the A-Pool and B-Pool of the European Cup (now Premiere Cup) were organized at the sites of Terrasvogels and Sparks Haarlem.
For these events, Jan belonged to a group of eight Official Scorers.
Back then, only one scorer was assigned for regular season-games, which initially also was the case for international events.
But later, two scorers were assigned for a game in international tournaments.
At those moments, Jan always had a good working relation with his scoring colleague, as well as with the announcer.
Jan was a pleasant and respected scoring colleague and it was nice to work with him.
Although he could look very seriously sometimes, he always smiled, but above all, he simply remained himself with a warm personality and taking care of others.
Despite his many activities in Haarlem, Jan was almost always available to score or fill in when needed.
After he had retired as an Official Scorer, Jan remained a regular visitor of softball-games at the site of Sparks Haarlem until some years ago.
When you met him during those moments, he was still the same, smiling, full of humor and always ready for a talk.
The webmaster of Grand Slam * Stats & News offers his condolences to Jan's son Paul, daughter Krista, grandchildren, family and friends and wishes them a lot of strength with this huge loss.
(March 8)
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