The Florida Marlins put pitcher Ricky Nolasco on the disabled list with elbow tenderness and called up 22-year old Dutch righthander Henricus (Rick) Vanden Hurk. Vanden Hurk is a converted catcher and a native of Eindhoven, Netherlands, which is in the southeastern part of the country.
Back in the Netherlands, they're saying Van den Hurk start dinsdag in Major League,which isn't particularly hard to translate if you think about it. Except the Dutch are putting a space in his name in a different place.
According to Baseball-reference.com, Vanden Hurk will be the seventh major leaguer to come out of the Netherlands.
There have also been three major leaguers who were born in Holland, Michigan and two who were born in Zeeland, Michigan, most notably Jim Kaat.
Doesn't Andruw Jones technically count as being from the Netherlands? Since Curacao is still a colony and all? Do players from Guam not count as being from the US?
3 In addition, according to the article you linked to, it seems like the Netherlands considers Jones to be "Na hem volgden nog twaalf spelers met een Nederlands paspoort." They also list Sir Sidney Ponson (Aruba) and Randall Simon (also Curacao)
Does anyone know if there's pro baseball in Holland? (I'm heading over there this summer for a couple weeks and am always on the lookout for a ballgame.)
Curacao (properly Netherlands Antilles) is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has its own government, but the Dutch handle defense and passports and stuff like that.
France treats all of its overseas possessions (such as French Guiana or those little islands near Quebec) as if it were France.
Going to a Honkbal Hoofdklasse game is a must, if only for the name. Hopefully Josh finds some Dutch baseball cards there which he can write about after he gets home.
Henricus Vanden Hurk is like the coolest name ever. It has flavors of Johnny Vander Meer and of the Big Hurt, and even a pinch of Spartacus. You simply can't go wrong there.
The young man also has the distinction of being the first graduate of the recently reconstituted Hawai'i Winter Baseball League to make it to the Show, or so I'm told by our local sportscaster.
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Does anyone know if there's pro baseball in Holland? (I'm heading over there this summer for a couple weeks and am always on the lookout for a ballgame.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honkbal_Hoofdklasse
2 That bad huh? Can I still play amateur(ish) soccer?
France treats all of its overseas possessions (such as French Guiana or those little islands near Quebec) as if it were France.
They need to work on their PR:
http://tinyurl.com/2a8rbq
5 hensley "bam-bam" meulens! always love a 'bam-bam' reference. : ) wish you had a bb card of his to post...
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