There was definitely no shortage of offense in the game I was umpiring today between Zwijndrecht and RCH/Pinguïns. I didn’t get the total number of hits, but it must have been at least forty. Zwijndrecht slugged five homeruns, and RCH/Pinguïns sent another three balls over the fence. Two of the Zwijndrecht longballs came on back-to-back pitches, and the two starting pitchers each hit a homerun.

The game was tied at 14-14 going into the eight inning. The visiting RCH/Pinguïns seemed to strike the decisive blow in their next two turns at bat, climbing out to 16-14 in the eight and to 19-14 in the top of the ninth. They had every chance to keep the lead, but a couple of defensive miscues and the eight homerun of the day allowed the home team to come back to 19-19. But the Zwijndrecht rally didn’t end there—with one out and runners on first and second, their next better sent a grounder up the middle for a walk-off single. Final score: 20-19. That’s not one you see every week.

There are certain eternal truths in baseball. Third out ends the inning, third strike is an out, and third time is a charm. After rain spoiled my debut in the Rookie League/First Division on Sunday and Wednesday, the skies remained clear tonight and I got to work my first Rookie League game. And a charm it was, even if I do say so myself. I had half a dozen or so close calls on the bases, but I was in the right position each time to see the play and make the right decision. My calls were loud and clear, and only resulted in some minor chirping, if that. Given how close some of the plays were, I’ll take that as a good sign that I came across looking as if I knew what I was doing.

In one of the early innings, I made a call at third base that got the base coach going a bit—but it turned out to be a very short discussion. With one out and a runner on third, the batter hit a hot shot right at the third baseman. He caught it on the fly for the second out, than dove to tag the bag to double up the runner. The coach immediately started yelling that the fielder had only tagged the base, and not the runner. He was right about that, but of course it didn’t matter. Runners have to return to their base when a batted ball is caught, and they’re out if the base is tagged before they return. A gentle reminder that this was a catch was all it took for the coach to quickly retreat to his dugout.

Wednesday’s game has been rescheduled for next week and I’m still assigned to work the bases. Let’s see if my First Division debut goes as smoothly as today’s game.

For about three years now, I’ve been umpiring baseball games in the Dutch leagues. So far this has been in the Third and Second Divisions, as well as the top level of the 16-18 age group. People generally tell me I’m doing a good job, and my efforts were rewarded last week with an assignment to work a game in the Rookie League. This league is sort of what AAA is to MLB in the States. It consists of the rookie teams from the eight Hoofdklasse (the Dutch Major League) clubs. It’s a springboard for players in their late teens or early twenties to get to the highest level. In many ways, it serves the same purpose for young umpires.

My excitement over being assigned my first Rookie League game last until a few hours before game time on Sunday, when it became clear the weather was going to be a problem. I did make my way to the field, but I might as well have stayed at home. My Rookie League debut turned into a rain-out. By the time the skies cleared, the field looked like a swimming pool. No way we could play the game that night.

But not to worry… I had another debut pending. Tonight, I was supposed to work my first game in the First Division. The level of play there is similar to that in the Rookie League, being only one step below the Hoofdklasse, but it consists of teams from clubs that don’t play at the highest level. For umpires, it serves much the same purpose as the Rookie League: it’s an important step on the way to the top.

Well, the “supposed” from the previous paragraph already gave it away: my First Division debut also became a rain-out. The weather and the field conditions were as bad as on Sunday, except they were even worse tonight.

I’ve got another Rookie League assignment on Friday. It looks like it’s going to be a bit drier by then, but there’s still a fifty percent chance of rain for the day. I sure hope we’ll stay on the dry side of that 50/50 prediction, because I don’t want to go 3-for-3 in rained-out debuts.

On the plus side, I’m completely error-free so far in the Rookie League and the First Division.

[Update: The First Division game has been rescheduled for next week, and I'm again assigned as base umpire. Good weather that day would be much appreciated.]

The Netherlands’ amazing run at the World Baseball Classic has come to an end. We gave Venezuela a hard time in yesterday’s first game in round two, eventually losing 3-1. Interestingly, we outhit them 6-3; in the first round, the Dominican Republic got more hits than we did, but lost twice. In case of Venezuela, it did of course help that their hits were a triple and two homeruns.

The US lost their first second-round game against Puerto Rico, so they met us today in the losers bracket. The winner would get another chance to reach the semi-finals, while the loser would head home. We did what we could, not even giving up down 8-0 in the seventh inning, but it wasn’t enough. Team USA overpowered us early on and kept that lead with some solid pitching. Nevertheless, we still produced twelve hits—by far our most offensive game yet. The US also got twelve hits, but that total included more extra base hits.

There was a curious moment in the top of the eighth. Brian Engelhardt hammered the first pitch from reliever Matt Lindstrom for the first Dutch homerun of the tournament. Lindstrom threw his next pitch behind the batter, bringing some of our players out of the dugout. Not even the American commentators understood why Lindstrom did that.

Order was restored and the game finished without any further incidents. Congratulations to the US on a good game and good luck the rest of the way.

[Update: Lindstrom admitted he intentionally threw behind Vince Rooi, because he felt Engelhardt spent too much time admiring his homerun before starting around the bases. Lindstrom is catching a lot of heat from American fans for that message pitch. Readers commenting on MLB.com's article call him arrogant, classless, a loser, a cry baby, and more. They also note Adam Dunn stood much longer admiring his homer than Engelhardt did. Tom Verducci, of Sports Illustrated, also severely questions what Lindstrom did. Additionally, he takes a stance against Team USA manager Davey Johnson for trying to cover for Lindstrom by saying the pitch got away from him, and against home plate umpire Bruce Dreckman for not ejecting Lindstrom. I'll just say it feels good to have pretty much the entire US on our side in this matter.]

While the Dutch are surprising the baseball world in Puerto Rico and Florida, spring training is picking up pace back home. I had my first umpire assignment on Saturday, working the plate for a junioren game (ages 16-18) between Euro Stars and Bixie Baseball. It was a messy game in at least two aspects. Rain had turned the dirt circle around home plate into something of a mud pit, so my brand new plate shoes and freshly pressed pants quickly lost their clean looks. The other messy aspect was the lack of control on both sides. Hardly surprising, considering it was their first real game this year, but it did result in an awful lot of balls. I’ve never seen so many pitches hit the dirt. Of course, all this bouncing was accompanied by numerous mini-fountains of wet gravel, lavishly splashing all over the catchers, the batters and myself.

The game was a good exercise for myself in getting comfortable again with the strike zone after a five-month hiatus. I was reasonably consistent on the inside and outside corners, but the top and bottom of the zone definitely fluctuated too much. That gives me something to work on in the remaining four weeks before the season starts.

In between all the bouncing pitches and mud showers, the game also brought something I hadn’t encountered before: a runner colliding with a fielder trying to field a batted ball. With no outs and runners on second and third, the batter hit a ground ball to the short stop. As he was about to glove the ball, the runner from second ran straight into him for a clear-cut example of interference. I was pleasantly surprised by my immediately calling it, and by the lack of questions from both dugouts. Usually when something rare like this happens, you’ll have at least one manager come out wondering what just happened, but this time both of them seemed to know the rules. Let’s take that as a good sign for the upcoming season.

On Saturday, the Netherlands shocked the baseball world by beating the Dominican Republic 3-2 in the opening game of Pool D at the World Baseball Classic. At that point, it may have been a fluke. The Dominicans were upset they didn’t just shut us out, but they had no reason to worry yet. The double elimination format ensured they’d get their chance for revenge.

Saturday’s win set us up for Monday’s game against Pool D’s other powerhouse: Puerto Rico. We nearly pulled another stunt as we long defended a 1-0 lead. It wasn’t until the eighth inning that Yadier Molina sealed our fate with a two-run double. Puerto Rico would score one more run to make it 3-1. They’d won, but by a much narrower margin than anyone had thought possible.

The rematch against the Dominican Republic took place yesterday. It was do-or-die for both sides: the winner would go to round two, while the loser would be eliminated. It seemed certain the Dominicans would beat us easily this time, taking their sweet revenge, but we managed to hold them off inning after inning. It looked like every Dominican player was trying for a homerun with every swing, instead of stringing together a couple of basehits and manufacture some runs the old-fashioned way. It proved to be their biggest mistake, as all their frantic efforts only resulted in outs. Meanwhile, Dominican starter Ubaldo Jimenez was nearly untouchable, striking out ten over four innings. The relievers that followed didn’t quite keep up that pace, but were still very effective at keeping us off the bases.

Contrary to every sane person’s expectations, the game was still tied at zero after nine innings. It came down to the eleventh inning for the first run to score. Dutch rightfielder Eugene Kingsale misjudged a shallow José Bautista fly ball, allowing Jose Reyes to score all the way from first. The Dominicans celebrated—surely, this would be sufficient for the win.

Not so fast. In the bottom of the eleventh, pinch hitter Sidney de Jong connected for a double off the left-centerfield wall. An infield ground-out by Curth Smith sent him on to third and brought Kingsale to the plate with a chance to redeem himself. And redeem he did, looping a single into rightfield to tie the game. The Dominicans were getting really nervous by now, as evidenced by a pick-off throw that sailed way past the first baseman. Kingsale got to third base on that error, leaving him only ninety feet shy of winning the game. Sharlon Schoop couldn’t get it done and struck out. Our number-three batter, Randal Simon, didn’t get a chance, because he was intentionally walked. Enter Yurendell de Caster, with a whopping two major-league career at-bats, both of which ended in a strike-out. He worked the count full before sending a sharp grounder just inside of the bag at first. First baseman Willy Aybar couldn’t glove it and suddenly, amazingly, we had won. The tiny Netherlands beat the mighty Dominican Republic—not once, but twice.

With a flair for the dramatic, the American commentators called it one of the biggest upsets of all time in any sport. That may be a bit of an exaggeration—but not by much.

The Netherlands just pulled off what may turn out to the biggest stunt of the 2009 World Baseball Classic: a 3-2 win over the Dominican Republic. Thanks to the Dominican starting pitcher struggling with his control and his field making two errors in the first inning, we took a quick 3-0 lead. A strong outing from Sidney Ponson, combined with solid relief pitching and some outstanding defense, ensured that was all the scoring we needed. This one’s right there with our victory over Cuba at the 2000 Summer Olympics as one of our biggest wins ever. Excellent work, guys!

My final baseball weekend of 2008 had two games of very different tones. The first one was with my own team, hosting Storks from The Hague in a battle for the second-to-last place in the lowest division of Dutch baseball. They went in with a 3-9-1 win-loss-tie record, while we carried a 2-10-1 record. It was the final game of the season for both of us, so the best we could hope for was to win and not end up in last place all alone. We did just that, taking away a 10-7 victory after coming back from a 5-7 gap. Not that it would have mattered, really. Our goal for this year was simply to have fun and not worry about winning or losing. Still, it was nice to win this one.

Our regular starter was feeling the effects of pitching most of our games, so I took the mound and managed to get my first complete game of the year. Except for one five- or six-run inning against, that went very well. I also got to contribute offensively, going 2-for-4 with a two-RBI single, a double and two runs scored.

Yesterday’s afternoon game was the last one for our club’s other men’s team, who are playing two divisions up from my team. They’ve been doing very well this year; in fact, they were ahead in the standings by a game and a half. It just so happened they were playing the number two team, Terrasvogels from Santpoort, yesterday, so a win would clinch the championship. If Terrasvogels won this one, they could win the division in their final game next week. At this level, it’s common for games to be umpired by people from the home club. As plate umpire, I was determined to call as fair a game as possible and I hoped the players wouldn’t put me in a situation where my call on a close play would decide the game either way.

There was quite a crowd, the weather was good, and the game started off with a couple of scoreless and easy-to-call innings. Terrasvogels took a 1-0 lead in the fourth and extended that to 4-0 in the sixth. As the home team found themselves unable to regain control, they became ever more irritated and started to blame my partner and me for their own mistakes. The negative atmosphere in the home dugout intensified as the game proceeded into the late innings and things turned ugly at the end of the eight.

My partner called a home team runner out on a close play at second (correct call, as far as I could tell) for the final out of the inning. The runner disagreed and became vocal enough about this that my partner ejected him. This sent a couple of players running out of the dugout, but order was restored without any further incidents.

The ninth inning remained scoreless to give the visitors a 5-2 win, and that’s when the situation really ran out of control. The final batter for the home team charged my partner and pushed him, taunting, “What do you want to do now, eh?” My partner ejected him (as is indeed still possible at that time) and the player was quickly restrained by his teammates, but he still managed to throw his helmet against my partner. He tried to attack us again when we left the field and his teammates had to intervene once again. It’s a shame the season had to end on such a sad note. For the player in question, next year will start on a sad note, too, as he’ll probably be suspended for at least six games.

I congratulate Terrasvogels on their deserved win. They were the better team yesterday and also the more pleasant to interact with as an umpire. Nevertheless, I would have preferred the home team to win; despite the negative attitude yesterday, we are part of the same club and I can get along quite well with most of them. I wish them best of luck for next year.

GAME FACTS OF THE DAY: Team Cuba at Team Netherlands, Game 14 of the Haarlemse Honkbalweek. Team Cuba won 4-1 in 9 innings.

MY ROLE OF THE DAY: Spectator, front-row seats, some 20 meters beyond third base.

SHOW STOPPER OF THE DAY: The rain again. We were at the ball park at 1pm to see the 2pm game between the US and Chinese Taipei. The start of that game was pushed back, then pushed back some more, and then got postponed to the next day altogether. At least it stayed dry throughout the 7pm Netherlands-Cuba game.

POOR FORECASTING OF THE DAY: At a few minutes to two, the announcer said they’d checked the weather forecasts and it would stop raining by 2.15. It was still raining at 2.15. The announcer said they’d checked again, and now it would really stop within half an hour. It was still raining at 2.45, and at 3 o’clock, and at 3.15. By that time, the game had already been cancelled.

UNLUCKY SHOTS OF THE DAY: Dutch right fielder Dirk van ‘t Klooster, usually very able to produce hits, must have been in ill favour with the baseball gods. He caused five outs in three at-bats: a 4-3 double play, a 4-6-3 double play, and a low line-out to third. The last one might have been a double play if the third baseman had let the ball bounce before gloving it.

DESIGNATED NON-HITTER OF THE DAY: Dutch DH Wesley Connor went 0-for-3 with three strikeouts, despite a sixth-best .348 batting average in the Dutch regular season so far. He batted seventh against Cuba, which is a bit of a weird spot to put your DH. The Seattle Mariners were the only team on Opening Day this year with a DH batting that far down in the line-up, and look where it got them: the worst win-loss record in the American League. No wonder we lost against Cuba. Connor would have gone 3-for-3 if he’d batted in a proper DH spot.

FAN CATCH OF THE DAY: A guy above us and to our left attempted to catch a high foul ball, but seemed to forget he was holding a bag of popcorn. The ball came down right smack in the middle of the bag, sending a shower of popcorn across three rows of seats. Too bad none of the cameras caught it, for it was worth seeing a couple more times.

I’m trying out a new format for my baseball posts, inspired by the Cynics Corner Star Trek reviews. It’ll probably take a few posts before I’m comfortable with it, or I may decide to go back to the old way. We’ll see, time will tell, and such.