GAME FACTS OF THE DAY: Keytown Hitters 2 at Orioles 3, regular-season sixth-division game. Orioles won 14-9 in 5.5 innings.

MY ROLE OF THE DAY: Starting pitcher and hitting second in the line-up.

UNEXPECTED PERFORMANCE OF THE DAY: Our regular starting pitcher had to attend his parents’ wedding anniversary, so it was my turn today to lead our defense. Considering that I hadn’t pitched more than three innings in a game so far this year and had struggled quite badly pitching in relief in the last two games, and considering that we were playing a very experienced team today, success was hardly guaranteed. Nevertheless, we were still in the lead after four innings. In fact, the fourth inning was my best: three up, three down. However, …

A BRIDGE TOO FAR OF THE DAY: … things broke down in the fifth. The home team got a better handle on whatever I threw and managed to build quite a two-out rally. Without that frame, or with a bit more luck on our part, we would have had a good chance at victory.

PITCHERS DON’T HIT OF THE DAY: I had my second-worst game at the plate, going 0-for-3 with a walk. My average is now down to .333, and my on-base percentage is down to .600.

POOR SPORTSMANSHIP OF THE DAY: All throughout the first four innings, while they were behind in the score, the Orioles were being a bit of a nuisance. They kept picking on the umpire, on us and on each other. It wasn’t really adversarial, but not all that classy either. At the other end, we were still enjoying ourselves when we lost our lead in the fifth.

GAME FACTS OF THE DAY: Dutch Carribean Team at Team Netherlands, Game 4 of the Haarlemse Honkbalweek. Team Netherlands won 5-1 in 8.5 innings.

MY ROLE OF THE DAY: Spectator, front-row seats, not too far beyond first base.

BACKGROUND OF THE DAY: The Haarlemse Honkbalweek (Haarlem Baseball Week; HHW) is a biannual baseball tournament in Haarlem, one of the two major baseball cities in the Netherlands. This year, it features the national teams of the Netherlands and Cuba, college all-star teams from the US, Taiwan (Chinese Taipei) and Japan, and a combined team from the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba (the “Dutch Carribean”).

SHOW STOPPER OF THE DAY: The rain. A steady drizzle turned into a serious downpour in the top of the fifth, killing the Dutch Carribean Team’s would-be rally. The players from the Antilles, Aruba and St. Maarten had just scored their first run and had runners on first and second with one out when the umpires halted play. When play resumed 25 minutes later, a double play ended the visitors’ only real threat of the day.

ENOUGH’S ENOUGH OF THE DAY: The third rain delay. Already wet and cold from the fifth-inning showers, we held out through an 11-minute rain break in the top of the seventh before calling it a day after the bottom of that frame. With the Netherlands comfortably leading 5-1 and the skies not showing any sign of drying up soon, we didn’t want to risk pneumonia just to see the final two innings. Besides, my supposedly water-proof Eastpak was proving not to be. Play resumed at 10:47pm after a 58-minute break and the score didn’t change anymore.

FAN FAVOURITE OF THE DAY: The stands behind us were filled with kids and their parents from the Flags ball club in the nearby town of Lisse. They were loudly cheering for first-base umpire Jan Kuipers, who must be a well-known figure in that club. Every out at first was met with enthusiastic screaming from the Flags folks–directed not at the defense, but at the umpire making the call.

FAN FAVOURITE OF THE DAY RUNNER-UP: Ryoji Nakata, the Japanese DH from the afternoon game, looks like a wider and shorter version of Prince Fielder. If he was a bit bigger, he’d make a fine sumo wrestler. The man can hit the ball hard, and that seems to be about all that he’s good at. Running just doesn’t work for him, having to carry that weight on those short legs. The crowd went wild every time he came up to the plate.

UNEXPLAINED WARDROBE CHANGE OF THE DAY: The base umpires were wearing jackets when the game started. When they came back from the first rain delay, they had left them in the dressing room. Would they rather get with in their normal shirt?

OVERDRESSING OF THE DAY: One of the Carribean bench players wore a balaclava with only his eyes exposed–even before it actually turned cold.

YOU’RE ONLY AS OLD AS YOU FEEL OF THE DAY: Our part of the stands was separated from the field by a walkway. The bottom of the stands stood about a meter from the ground, with a double railing making sure no one would accidentally fall off. Before the game, an elderly man, walking with a rollator, approached on the walkway and asked whether the seat next to me was still available. I said yes and expected the man to go around the back of the stands to find the stairway up. Instead, the man put aside his rollator and tried to do what many of the younger spectators did: climb over the railing. He hoisted himself up onto the ledge extending underneath the railing. He couldn’t swing his leg over the top bar, so he tried to fold through the gap between the two bars. People all around us were scared he would fall and break something. Well, he didn’t fall, but he also didn’t get through the railing. He climbed back down to the walkway, went around the back of the stands, and found the stairway up.

STUPIDITY OF THE DAY: I understand the benefits of an umbrella when it’s raining, but when someone in front of you holds one up, it pretty much blocks your view of the field. Those umbrellas are also dangerous. I was waiting for someone to get poked in the eye…

The third-division game I was umpiring had some weird managing antics and a very dramatic ninth inning. The visiting team manager surprised everyone–including his own players–with his substitutions. In the second inning, their first batter drew a walk and was replaced at first by a pinch runner. They sent up another pinch runner in the sixth inning, replacing a guy who had only come into the game the inning before. That guy was not amused.

Down a couple of runs in the seventh inning, the manager pulled a new rabbit out of his hat. He put himself into the line-up, batting for his catcher. He took two pitches before asking a time-out to give signs to his runners at first and second. They attempted a double steal on the next pitch–not quite surprising, but they made it nonetheless. The player-manager then hit an RBI single and allowed the other runner to score by getting himself in a rundown.

The eight inning finished with the home team up 6-4. They kept their starting pitcher on the mound to close out the game. They got two outs, but also allowed runners on second and third. The next batter got two strikes. Down to the visitors’ final strike, the batter swung at the next pitch–one down and away–and slapped it into right field for a game-tying triple. The visitors rallied for six (!) more runs before the home team finally retired them.

Of course, the home team wasn’t just going to give up, despite the unexpected six-run gap. A couple of hits and errors brought the score up to 12-10. That was the cue for the visiting manager to pull off his final stunt. Apparently having lost all confidence in his players, he put himself on the mound and let loose with a series of curve balls to try and close out the game. He might have succeeded if he’d hit the strike zone some more. A lot of his pitches sailed wide; indeed, another run scored on a wild pitch. That set the stage for the home team to cap their dramatic come-back with a two-out, game-tying single. The pitcher-manager then finally struck out the next batter to send the game into extra innings…

… except that it was 10:53pm at that time, and no new inning may be started anymore after 10:50pm. Dutch rules allow for a tie game in such cases, so that’s exactly what we got: a 12-12 tie. Who would have thought that 34 minutes earlier, when we started the ninth inning at 6-4?

That’s what my left side looks like right now, courtesy of today’s starting pitcher for the Maassluis Gophers. His 1-2 pitch in my first at-bat went way inside and hit me square above the hip. It’s one of the more painful hit-by-pitches I’ve had in my baseball life.

The same pitcher proceeded to hit our right fielder in his thigh in the second inning. In the third, he hit our left fielder (a new guy, in his first ever at-bat) on his wrist, deflecting against his cheek. The pitcher got pulled after that frame, only to have the reliever hit our catcher in his foot in the fourth.

It got us a couple of base runners, but we couldn’t really come through at the plate otherwise. (In fact, we might have had more hit batsmen than base hits.) We had a lousy day on defense as well, resulting in a 21-2 loss. The good news: we had fun. We’ve had a couple of big losses this year, but we’re having fun each time. We’re not playing to win this year, but to have a good time.

In between the having fun, I’m also swinging the bat quite well. I have a five-game hitting streak going, getting my average up to .412. Thanks to eight walks and three HBPs in 28 plate appearances, my on-base percentage is .643.

I was back to the second spot in the line-up today, after hitting lead-off for the previous two games. I was 3-for-3 in those games (a double to start each game and a single in the first game) with three walks, so I kind of wonder why our coach put me back in my old spot. I still got a hit today: a roller that only got halfway to third base. Not a chance for either the third baseman or the pitcher to throw me out on that one. My third at-bat almost resulted in a sacrifice fly. I hit a one-out fly ball to right field deep enough for the runner from third to score, but the runner from first went too far from his base and he was put out before the other guy crossed the plate. Instead of a sac fly, it was an inning-ending double play.

After starting as short stop, I got to pitch the final 1.2 innings. We were already far behind when I took the mount, so I treated it pretty much as a practice session. My best pitch was the one that ended the last inning. I was throwing fastballs all the time, because I didn’t really have control on my change-up. With the bases empty and two out, I got the batter on one ball and two strikes. I thought I’d try another change-up and this one worked beautifully. It went through the middle of the zone, but the batter swung way too early. Strike three.

Meanwhile, my old team continues to play well. After winning the championship in the 5th Division last year, they’ve led the standing in the 4th Division all year so far. (The lower the number of a Division, the higher the level of play.) I don’t have any numbers on this, but I’m sure it doesn’t happen often that a team wins one Division one year and a higher Division the next year. With nine out of sixteen games played, my old team has an 8-1 win-loss record. The number two team is 5-3, followed by two 5-4 teams and two 4-4 teams. My old team won’t play the number two team until late August. If they win that game, the championship is pretty much theirs.

I don’t like soccer.

It’s a boring game. After watching twenty-two men chasing a ball for ninety minutes, you’d be lucky if they scored thrice. In 306 games in the Dutch Eredivisie this year, the average was 3.12 goals per game. That’s roughly one goal every half hour, or less if you include the half-time break. Major League Baseball teams managed 9.60 runs per game in the 2007 regular season. Granted, baseball games take longer, but not more than three times as long.

Normally, it’s quite possible to avoid soccer, but every other summer there’s a European Championship or a World Championship. During those three or four weeks, it’s as if there’s nothing but soccer. It’s on every tv channel, in every newspaper, on every website. Homes and bars and stores turn orange. Even people turn orange, and Planet Earth might as well be a giant soccer ball.

Most annoyingly, nobody seems to be allowed not to like soccer for the duration of the tournament. The soccer craze is forced upon you, whether you like it or not. You have to watch the games and talk about them the next day. That’s society’s fault, though, not the game’s.

Indeed, it’s no different this time. The European Championship started last week and it’s everywhere. Just two more weeks, and I’ll be free again until June 11th, 2010.

Still…

I watched the Netherlands’ first game on Monday, against reigning World Champs Italy, and I have to confess I enjoyed it. The score was certainly pleasing enough: 3-0 in our favour. Beforehand, a draw was considered an optimistic prediction. Our squad played their best game in years, Italy their worst. And yes, I watched it in its entirety, and I wasn’t bored. (Well, perhaps a little bit at some point during the second half. I continued to watch with one eye, while reading a magazine with the other.)

Of course, I didn’t have much else to do that night. I was visiting my thesis advisor in Garching this week. That’s a nice little German town. Nice, and very quiet. I thought I might as well watch the game for a while.

Yesterday, during supper, Croatia were beating Germany. That was fun as well, if for a different reason. The German commentator was so terribly desperate that I almost felt sorry for him. It’s only a game!

The Netherlands’ second game is on right now, against France. It’s two thirds through the first half and, much to my surprise, we’ve got a 1-0 lead. Perhaps I should turn on my television. I might enjoy it
again…

[Update: We beat France 4-1 to secure first place in Group C, the "Group of Death" with World Champions Italy and WC runners-up France, and we haven't even played the third and final game yet. Group of Death indeed! It'll be the death of Italy or France, or both if we let Romania win on Tuesday.]

The New York Times had a nice piece yesterday on baseball in the Netherlands, talking about how the sport gained popularity here during and after World War II, the recent influx of Dutch pitchers in the US, the dominance of soccer, and more.

Asked what Dutch youngsters like about baseball, Mr. Eenhoorn [the coach of the Dutch national baseball team] said: “It’s American; it’s a summer sport, filling the gap left by soccer in spring and early summer. You know, we did research and found that kids like baseball, they like hitting the ball with the bat, they like the clothing. I don’t think it’s peaked.”

Most Dutch baseball teams were in fact started by soccer clubs in search of a sport for the months between soccer seasons. Johan Cruyff, the king of Dutch soccer, began his career as a catcher for Amsterdam Ajax’s nine, before he ever kicked a soccer ball.

The article comes back to the topic of soccer a bit further on:

Still, for the Dutch, Mr. Eenhoorn said, soccer remains the principal sport.

Tim Roodenburg, a 19-year-old pitcher with Sparta Feyenoord who got a tryout with the Yankees last year at a camp in the Dominican Republic, tends to agree. A former basketball player, he gave it up to focus on baseball, and now teaches city kids to play baseball and softball.

“I’ve seen it on the street,” he said. “Kids will take a softball, drop it on the ground, then kick it.”

The entire piece is available for free here.

We won our first competition game this year, but that result has been scratched from the books. The opposing team in question pulled out of the competition, so all games they played so far had to be nullified. That left us with two losses and one tie.

Today, we put the ’1′ back in our win column by defeating Red Lions from The Hague by 12 to 8. Red Lions is in the unfortunate situation that they do not have a baseball field of their own. The club does have a softball field, but they have to play their baseball games at the field of the nearby Celeritas club. Oddly enough, Celeritas only has a softball field, too. Its outfield is much bigger, though, so the league deems it suitable for baseball games. I disagree, because the bases are somewhere out on the grass, there’s no pitcher’s mound and the backstop is way too close. You can play a baseball game there, but it’s not a baseball field.

Anyway, we played, and we played pretty well. The Red Lions team consists of a bunch of guys of at most 23 years old, plus one playing coach of 30-something. They have the potential to be a good team in a few years, but right now they’re not going to win a lot of games. We took an early lead and didn’t have too much trouble keeping that safe.

I got to play shortstop again for the entire game and had my share in an overall pretty solid defensive game on our part. We were hitting quite well, too, and I was happy to get my second hit of the season and my first two RBIs. Meanwhile, we were getting spoiled by all kinds of snacks and thingies brought along to celebrate Mother’s Day. A clear sky and a temperature of 25 °C (77 °F) were further contributing to a very enjoyable game.

We were supposed to play today’s game in Delft against Machos. However, a miscommunication somewhere had led to the Machos field being double-booked. Our own field was available, so we played this road game at home. (Too bad we only learned of the double booking when we got to the field. It would have saved us the drive there and back.)

The lead changed hands several times and the game remained exciting until the final out. We started with a 3-0 lead after two innings, but Machos started hitting the ball better and pulled even. We soon came back on top, 4-3, but Machos struck another blow and took a 6-4 lead. With the two-hour mark approaching, we went to bat and took the score to 6-6.

Machos was still the home team, so the final at-bat was theirs. I took over pitching from our starter with the task of keeping the 6-6 tie. I walked the first batter (number eight in their line-up) on five pitches and started with three balls to the next guy. The next two pitches were strikes. The next one would have been ball four, except that the batter swung through it for the first out. The third batter (number one in their line-up) took two strikes before ripping one hard to third. Our third baseman was right on it and threw to first for the second out. With the runner on third by now, the next batter swung at the second pitch and hit a slow roller back at me. My throw to first was a bit low, but still good for the third out and a save of the 6-6 tie. Mission accomplished!

As solid as my performance was on the mound, so poor was it at the plate today. Apart from one very long foul ball (had the distance to hit the left-field wall, but it sailed foul by a large distance), I didn’t really hit anything. I grounded out to third in the first inning and struck out three times throughout the rest of the game. That’s four plate appearances to forget as soon as possible.

In my seven plate appearances over the first two games this year, I got on base six times. Not too bad, eh? Strangely enough, only one of those six was on a hit. The others are three walks and two free passes after getting hit by a pitch.

More notable stats: in these seven appearances, I either got a full count or I got hit by a pitch. It’s not that I don’t want to hit. I do, but I’m not quite hitting the ball the right way yet. I’ve got ten foul balls to go with my one fair ball. And if I keep fouling off pitches, there’s a good chance the pitcher will miss a few strikes and give me a walk. Unless he hits me, of course.

Anyway, walking is better than striking out, so I’ll take my 1-for-2 batting average with three walks and two HBPs. Who doesn’t want a .857 on-base percentage?

Oh, and today’s score? A 22-3 loss. The Gophers came over from Maassluis to teach us a few baseball lessons. They outpitched us, outran us, outfielded us and outthrew us. If they continue playing like this, my money’s on them for the championship.

Despite the lopsided score, I did enjoy the game and made the best of it. I pitched the last two innings, not in any effort to get us back on top, but simply to get in some practice in case our regular starter is unavailable one day. I was all over the place (without hitting any batters, though) and gave up a large number of walks. When I threw strikes, the Gophers would usually connect for a hit or a reached-on-error. I threw three strike-outs in the second inning, but I must have faced well over ten batters to get there. Still, it showed that I can get something done from the mound. I just have to get rid of all the balls and easy-to-hit strikes.

The Unusual Play of the Week came in the junioren game (ages 16-21) that I was umpiring after my own game. A batter for the visiting team hit one deep to left field and came safely into third for an apparent triple. The bases were empty, so I did what I should do as an umpire in that case: watch if the batter actually touches the bases on his way by. If he fails to touch one, he is out if the defense properly appeals.

Indeed, I saw the batter miss first base and I was kind of hoping someone on the home team had noticed as well and would try an appeal. After all, I’ve never had a missed-base appeal so far. Lo and behold, one of the home-team supporters saw the infraction and alerted the first baseman. He didn’t have a clue as to how to do a proper appeal, and neither did any of the other players. Fortunately, the coach was more knowledgeable. Without calling time, he talked his players through the procedure, and I got to call the batter out.

Needless to say, the guy wasn’t too happy with this, and he let me know in no uncertain terms. The coach quickly sent his player to the dugout (probably saving him from an ejection) and came over to me to plead on his player’s behalf. The argument was short and conducted in a gentlemanly fashion. I don’t think I convinced the coach, but he accepted my judgment. There was some aggressive language from the visitors’ bench for the remainder of the inning, but they behaved fair enough for the rest of the game. If only all disputes were handled this peacefully!