A Dutch State of Play, Part IV: Island Strength
By Jason Daniels.
The Dutch have a way with athletics – and their culture at large: they get a deep squeeze out of their talents, cherish consensus, and maximize precious resources. Such is life in a pint-sized nation fraught with chronic flooding and threatening climates. In baseball, we see a game that tells the distinct Dutch story – from the people, processes, and progressive actions that fuel Dutch ingenuity and sustain its culture.
“Curaçao is getting better. As you can see, starting with Little League, they’re going to the World Series a lot, so it shows the talent we have coming up.” – Didi Gregorius
Curaçao has a remarkable lineage of MLB talent: Kenley Jansen, Ozzie Albies, Andrelton Simmons, Jurickson Profar, and Didi Gregorius, to name a few. In the 1990s a young, savvy outfielder for the Atlanta Braves named Andruw Jones galvanized a generation. Young boys in Curaçao saw Jones starring in America’s major leagues, lighting a baseball frenzy on the island. Soon after, Curaçao became a staple at the Little League World Series and routinely sent professional players to the U.S.
One place in particular — Marchena Little League — underscores the density of Curaçao’s talent; on that field, Gregorius grew up turning double plays with Simmons before Profar soon followed. Gregorius comes from Dutch baseball royalty as a third-generation professional. He was also knighted by the Kingdom in 2011, following the Netherlands’ triumph at the Baseball World Cup. We spoke at the 2023 Euros in the team dugout after the Netherlands’ third-place victory. “It was fun playing with guys I grew up with,” he shared. “The goal was to come together and play. So, for me, that’s the best thing.”
Several factors make Curaçao’s ballplayers successful. For one, many play with a passion for the game and do so year-round. They grow up on rough dirt fields where footwork, reflexes, and resilience are required to deal with bad hops (note that many of their pros are infielders). Finally, they are well-educated and multi-lingual. A benefit of Dutch cooperation is state-funded education and emphasis on language skills. Dutch, English, and Papiamento (the island’s most spoken language, influenced by Spanish and Portuguese) are official languages. Many players also speak Spanish. So, when young ballplayers travel abroad to begin their professional careers, they are well-equipped to communicate and adapt to new cultures.
As a young boy, Gregorius moved from his native Amsterdam to Curaçao. His mother played for the Dutch national softball team. His dad played for the Amsterdam Pirates, and his dad played for the Netherlands Antilles’ national team in the 1950s, when the Dutch Caribbean islands competed as a collective unit. In the Caribbean, Gregorius blossomed into a star alongside many others of his generation. “Curaçao is getting better,” he said. “As you can see, starting with Little League, they’re going to the World Series a lot, so it shows the talent we have coming up.”
Many Caribbean Dutch come to the Netherlands for education or work opportunities that they cannot find at home. In some cases, said Jasper Roos, they will step on the field and instantly be one of the best players on the team. They have helped to build the Hoofdklasse, the Netherlands’ top circuit. In turn, Roos feels the Kingdom’s efforts have elevated baseball in the Caribbean.
Many players from Curaçao and Aruba fill Hoofdklasse rosters. Seb Visser highlighted the diversity: “It’s a completely different way of playing baseball. They live baseball.” Added Peter Kwakernaak, “It’s a really mixed sport. It’s one of the reasons I started to play.”
For Kwakernaak, it is critical that Dutch ballplayers band together and exchange culturally. He pointed to a Kingdom team a decade ago as a model: “The pitching was Dutch, the infield was from Curaçao, the outfield was from Aruba. Those things happen. We love it. It builds friendships.”
Karel Crouwel remembers 40 years ago when the Kingdom had just a few players from the islands. “People were mad about it. They said, ‘these professionals, it’s not fair.’” Today, nearly all top European national teams bolster their rosters with players from outside Europe who qualify for citizenship or passports.
Last year the Dutch Olympic Committee demoted baseball’s “A Status” in the Kingdom, significantly reducing funds and support for players. Dutch players receive a stipend from the Olympic Committee to play baseball professionally — it is not a lot of money, but it is enough to allow them to focus on their craft without full-time work. Given the ruling, many players on the national team are likely to stop playing ball or at least find a job away from the diamond.
Over the years, baseball has been sporadically selected as an event in the Olympic games; counting the 2024 Paris Olympics, baseball has now been left off three of the past four Olympics. This inconsistency, paired with the underwhelming Dutch performance at the 2023 Euros, contributed to the Dutch Olympic Committee’s decision to cut funding to the national team.
Amid ensuing talks between the Federation and the Olympic Committee, it was floated that the Kingdom could regain its A status if it made the semi-final of the 2024 Haarlem Baseball Week, a high level, six-team international tournament. Although the Dutch team finished in third place, it still has not regained its A status. Since then, the Netherlands finished ninth at the Premier 12 tournament, further hurting its Olympic ambitions.
“Leaders from Curaçao and Aruba believe they can be baseball self-sufficient…“We no longer wait for others to take care of us. We take care of ourselves by using our greatest strength: baseball!” – Baseball federations of Curaçao and Aruba
Kingdom Questions
It’s unclear what the Dutch team will look like going forward. Within days of the Kingdom announcing its Olympic status, the baseball federations of Curaçao and Aruba announced a partnership to field their own team in a move seen as a potential split with the Netherlands. Sint Maarten is also expected to join.
Given Curaçao’s talent production over the past couple of decades, this decision had long been considered on the Dutch Caribbean islands. An official press release read: “…the federations have worked closely together to realize an ambitious project where baseball serves as a bridge from the history of slavery to the present and future.”
Leaders from Curaçao and Aruba believe they can be baseball self-sufficient. They want to drive awareness, tourism, and new revenue streams to the Caribbean. Together, they are considering a single name to enter into major tournaments, in a return to the approach for much of the 20th Century. “We no longer wait for others to take care of us. We take care of ourselves by using our greatest strength: baseball!”
The fall-out of a split would be a blow to baseball in the Netherlands. The 2023 WBC roster contained 10 players from the Netherlands and 23 from what was formerly known as the Netherlands Antilles. The Hoofdklasse would struggle to maintain talent pipelines, financial hurdles would arise, and the Netherlands would be tasked to do more with its own home-grown team to compete with the best in Europe.
The Federation knows Curaçao has been trying to climb the ladder of world rankings. “Actually, we support [their teams],” offered Seb Visser diplomatically. “The way we see it, we have different national teams.”
Visser explained that most of team Kingdom’s players are part of the Hoofdklasse. For the Euros, they’ll get more professionals, and then for Premier 12 and WBC they’ll get the best. “In a sense, we see the Dutch national team who play in the home league, and the Curaçao and Aruba teams as somewhat of a development team. We hope to get the best players from all those teams to play on the Kingdom of the Netherlands.”
Added Visser: “We try to keep the relationship as best as we can, while growing the game at home. You have to split your attention a bit.”
Karel Crouwel also maintains a realistic perspective, noting that the Dutch baseball landscape has changed. Hoofdklasse crowds used to be in the thousands. Now they are in the hundreds. Meanwhile the national team in recent years has relied heavily on its Caribbean players, making it harder for players from the Netherlands to have a chance.
Back at the academy, Crouwel encourages his players to play in the Hoofdklasse. He sees some leave the academies and go to America. When they come back, sometimes they play just casually or stop playing altogether.
It may not be easy to reestablish Dutch prominence in baseball, according to Crouwel. “The population of baseball and softball players was about 40,000 people 20 years ago. Now it’s less than 20,000.”
Some influences lie outside Dutch control. In few other countries do weather, climate, and geography detract so much from the sport. “You’re lucky when you are still playing at the end of August and in September,” said Crouwel. “This period of time and in October, it’s raining outside and cold. Baseball is not a game for that weather.”
Other factors are more controllable, though they run deep in the annals of Dutch culture. Crouwel told me a story of the recent Holland Series. “The third game was a big mistake for the umpires,” he said, illustrating a controversial stoppage in play. “If you check the rules, [you expect] a couple of minutes for a decision. There was a discussion for almost one hour.”
Tune in tomorrow for Part V.
Other articles in this series:
Part I: Making Sense of Europe’s Top Baseball Power [Link]
Part II: Polder Work [Link]
Part III: Dutch Engine [Link]