Bussum

On a Day of Almost

A failure on many levels

Thursday, May 16, 2019

Rotterdam, The Netherlands


Outside the Game: 
Despite the travel this day with a game at the end of it, I still had a lazy-ish morning. I got up and finished my packing, and before I left, I had a premonition in the back of my brain to double-check the game for the evening. I had everything packed but my tablet and my binder, so I sat down and looked through everything. And the little voice in my head was right, as I was set to go to The Hague this evening for the game, but even though they were the home team in the schedule, they were playing at the Rotterdam field and not their own. After cross-checking it a number of times, I confirmed it was true. I then re-arranged the rest of the games I had left, double-checked them, and was set to go to Oosterhaut this evening for the Twins game instead. I was smugly proud of myself.

For the moment.

I checked out of the hotel and then got on my Intercity Direct express train with no problem. The morning ride down to Rotterdam went without incident, until the very end, where I left my camera on the train. Now, normally, I am always paranoid when I am switching hotels for this very reason, so I am usually hyper-vigilant, but due to an extra bag or so, I was out of my normal process, and I was able to overlook the small camera bag.

Thankfully, a Dutch man didn't let me get three steps from the train before he returned the bag to me. I thanked him profusely, and then began a shocked re-inventory of all of my items before venturing forth. This already put me in the wrong mindset for the afternoon.

It should have been a relatively straightforward walk to my hotel, or at least as straightforward as anything is this country of narrow, crooked streets and canals everywhere. The distance started off longer than I was expecting, so I was already a little annoyed, but after walking even longer than I knew I should have, I started to get really frustrated, carrying all my possessions around and not being able to find the damn hotel.

I took a minute to pull all my gear off to the side of the sidewalk, sit down with a WIFI signal, and try to work out where I was. After several minutes, I was able to identify my wrong turn and the fact I had overshot my hotel by several blocks. I grumblingly got my gear together again and retraced my steps, finding the hotel on the second try, and ready to leave my bags and go off on the day. However, to my surprise, upon arrival I found that my room was ready early, so I dragged all my crap up to my room, unpacked and got settled in, and then had a brief stress nap to try and reset things.

I went back down to the front desk after my nap and asked the manager a bunch of questions about travel and the like, which he dutifully answered. Armed with knowledge, I marched a couple blocks over to a post office to buy shipping supplies for all the souvenirs and junk that I was carrying around and dropped them back off at my room. I then headed out to the tram stop at the corner to go back up to Centraal station, forgetting my jacket in the cool afternoon. I bought my train ticket for this evening and decided to walk back to the hotel from the station, this time unburdened from all my travel possessions. I stopped in a shopping market to buy some bread, meat, and cheese for sandwiches, as well as water and other sundries, and made it back to the hotel much more successfully this time. I had some sandwiches and took nap #2, because the first one had not been enough.

I prepped all my game gear and took the tram to Centraal. I was able to get an express train to Breda quite quickly, and once I arrived, I topped off my transit ticket with E20.00 and went to the bus terminal. Getting to Oosterhaut was only possible on public transit by bus from the larger Breda station, or at least the place I wanted to get to in Oosterhaut was only accessible in that way.

So there are three bus lines that took three slightly different routes through Oosterhaut that all leave from the same bay. Two of them go to the bus station I needed, and one did not. You can guess that I managed to get on the wrong bus, but thanks to the helpful video screens on all the buses, I worked out my error relatively quickly and was able to exit several stops along the journey while all the bus lines were going to the same stops. My problem now was that the next bus going to the station I needed wasn't for a bit, and I would be cutting it very close to getting to the game on time.

I spent some time nervously waiting for the next bus, which showed up on time. I carefully asked if it was going to the station I needed, and upon confirmation, I climbed aboard and waited nervously as time clicked by. We eventually got to my needed station a little early, and I jumped out to find that it was a much shorter walk to the park from the bus stop than I expected, as I could cut across a field. I realized I would be able to get there with five minutes to spare before the game. And I was feeling pretty pleased with myself again.

For the moment.

Briskly walking across the field to the sportpark for the stadium, I realized that it didn't sound right for a game. There were too many bat noises and not enough crowd noises. Blitzing through the front gate, I arrived, dejectedly, in the middle of a two-field practice going on for lower-level softball and baseball. I couldn't quite process the complexity of my failure just yet, but wandered into the park trying to make sense of it all.

Almost baseball

Two moms watching their kids play in the two practices called me over and asked what I was doing there. I explained my situation the best I was able, and they in turn explained that I did get the schedule correctly, but the Twins home field does not have lights, so they play the Thursday evening games at another field.

Because of course they do.

They introduced me to another adult fan who had gotten the same thing wrong that I did, and they tried to make me feel better that even local fans make this mistake. He offered to drive me over to the actual game, but I had to sheepishly explain that I needed to see the Twins here for it to "count," and he went on his way. One of the mothers said she lives in Breda, and if I was willing to wait for the practice to be over, she would give a ride to the train station. They seemed particularly horrified that I had used the bus to get out here. I thanked her and took her up on the offer, and we waited for her son to finish batting and gather up his gear, and we went to her car and had a pleasant drive to the station in Breda, talking about how she used to live in America with her family for a while before returning and commiserating with me on the current state of affairs back home. She dropped me off at the station and strongly urged me to take a cab next time out, and I thanked her as she left.

There was some semblance of luck left with me as an express back to Rotterdam was leaving just as I got there, and I just stared out the window for most of the ride back. I grabbed dinner at some kiosk or other at the station, and walked back to the hotel a broken man. Back inside, I did a complete strip-down of the rest of my trip. Thanks to a flex game day that I had used with this fiasco, I could still make all the teams as long as there were no more problems with the games. The only issues was that my last day of the trip I'd have to come back to Oosterhaut, which was the longest trip possible to make within the league, but it could not be helped.

I made another sandwich with the remaining ingredients from before, had a shower, and packed it in for the night.

sigh


The Accommodations: 

Hotel Van Walsum, Rotterdam

This was my first hotel switch for the trip, and, as mentioned, it was nearly disastrous. My hotel for the Rotterdam leg of the trip was the Hotel Van Walsum, two old canal-type houses merged together into a historic hotel. It was more stereotypically "Dutch" than my Amsterdam hotel, with its narrow stairwells, smaller rooms, and lack of air conditioning. But Dutch "small" is less oppressive than, say, Japanese small, as the Dutch live and die by gezelligheid, that sense of coziness.

My narrow room had a large wooden dresser right past the door on one side, and the entrance to the small bathroom on the other side of the entrance.  The little bathroom had a sink and shelf right next to the toilet and the shower, which was demarcated just by a curtain running across the room, as the drain shared the same tile floor as the rest of the bathroom.

The bed was against the wall right past the dresser, across from a plush easy chair and a side table. At the far end of the room was a small desk with a TV above it and a luggage rack on the opposite wall. The room ended in a bank of two outward-opening windows under stained glass top windows. Those windows had no bars or anything in them, so when you opened them up, you could throw things out of them or jump out if you were so inclined.

There were also snake lights over the bed and on the wall to direct specific light as needed, in addition to the main ceiling lighting. All of it was controllable by panel switches reachable from the bed, which was nice. I was a little worried about street noise or noise from the hotel itself, but it turned out to be unwarranted, even later in the trip when I had to leave the windows open at night to let in cooler air.

On Problems with Timing

Strange vegetation

Friday, May 17, 2019
Rotterdam, The Netherlands


Outside the Game: 
Given my stressful failures and near failures of the previous day, it is perhaps not surpsing that I slept fitfully. I was up early and went down to another cheese-and-meat-laden breakfast, culminating in a sandwich of the gods. I perused my guide book to see what to do with my off day while I ate an inadvisable amount of food, and then waddled up the stairs back to my room for another nap.

Upon my second wakeup, I contemplated a selection of VPNs on my tablet so that I could access my DVR back in the states and get through the last episodes of Game of Thrones and be done with it. I should have been able to access them legally on either HBO Go or my DVR, but the European IP addresses were preventing me from doing so. Either way, I put a pin in it until later and grabbed a shower before heading out into the day at around 11:30 AM, quite late for me.

That kind of day

It would seem that my luck from the previous day was holding over, as nearly as soon as I boarded the tram to Centraal, it got into an accident with a truck. After determining that it wasn't going to move any time soon, I walked down the street to the Metro station, and just as I was going down the stairs, I saw the tram happily drive past.

So it was going to be that kind of day.

I worked out the metro system and which line I needed to get on and finally arrived at Centraal. I walked from there for my first stop for the day, Mini-World Rotterdam, basically an entire H-O scale re-creation of the city. I arrived just before noon, when I discovered that the place didn't open until noon, so I hoped that this was an indication of better luck to come.

Teeny, tiny bunkers

I spent the early afternoon walking around the exhibit. In addition to seeing everything in miniature with helpful information panels, there were also action buttons you could push to make a ship lock work, or start an outdoor concert and the like, as well as having the entire place cycling through day and night every half hour or so. In the basement, they were in the process of building a Mini-World Britain, and they were pretty lenient about you walking around in their active build zone.

Having my fill, I headed back to the metro to head south for the Maritime Museum. On the way there, there was a tourist information center, so I decided to stop in. I had seen Kinderdijk, a UNESCO polder and windmill site, in most of my books on the city, but it was always represented with a vague arrow off to the east. I talked to a nice young lady who set me up with some tickets for the ferry there on Monday and some more sundry maps, and I was off to the museum.

How to Smuggle Coke

Rotterdam is a weird mix of Prague and Pittsburgh. It is a city fiercy proud of its avant-garde architecture and arts, but equally prideful about its working port, the largest and most mechanized in Europe. The Maritime Museum reflected that, with a large outdoor section on port machinery and support boats, as well as amazingly frank videos from docks workers over the years (discussing things like drinking on the job, for example). Indoors was more of a formal museum, which was currently invaded by an absolute mob of schoolchildren attending a performance by the museum's scientist mascot. The museum had some interesting exhibits on sea monsters and cruise ship travel over the years (the cabin representing the 70s had, of course, The Love Boat playing on a screen), but the perhaps the most interesting was the display on smuggling. As I've said, the Dutch do not shy away from controversial topics. Things You Won't Find In An American Museum Part 231: A panel describing, in detail, how to smuggle cocaine.

Alien cubes

I forgot what I was originally planning to do, but I decided to walk over to Blaak Station to see the Cube Houses. Of all of Amsterdam's architecture, the row of tilted cube houses near Blaak Station is perhaps the most iconic. One of them is permanently open as a public museum, and after a certain bit of walking around, I finally found my way to the entrance. The tiny cube house had a till and small shop wedged in in the entry foyer, and it was crammed with tourists, making it a bit hard to get around. Once you got used to the weird angles, the house wasn't too bad, but the big deal breaker for me, at least, was the fact that you could not only look into your neighbors' windows directly, but thanks to the arrangement of things, look into the neighbors' house beyond him as well. Despite the oddities, they are incredibly desirable and iconic living spaces, and fetch up to E300,000 for the small houses, and there is a waiting list to get one.

METAL!!!!!

I passed a Chess Men Museum while I was looking for the Cube House Museum, and stopped in there for a bit after. I mean, it was only E2, so why not? The fee was collected by a disinterested college student reading a book, and the museum was just as much a store as it was an educational institution, as many of the sets were on sale and not just for show.

Market Hall

After that, I made the short walk over to another of the architectural standouts of Rotterdam, the Market Hall, a giant, inverted "U" with huge glass walls on the open ends, housing a food court inside and chic apartments along the outer perimeter. Starving for food, I stopped at a German restaurant and got a winerschnitzel sandwich to go and then went back to the metro station to head back to the hotel.

This was my first go using the metro to get to the hotel, so once I got out of the station, it took me a bit to get oriented. A sign for "New Hoboken" certainly caught my attention, and it turned out to be right next to the little side road I needed to walk down to connect up with my hotel, so that became a useful sign-post for the remainder of my trip. I thought I had figured out how to get to the my destination for later than evening, but given my luck so far, I decided to check with the hotel front desk just to be sure. The man there informed me that I was normally correct, but because of tunnel construction, the bus I was thinking of taking would not go where I thought it would normally. He gave me some alternate directions, and I went back up to my room for a defeated nap.

Waking up, I played around with the VPN I had selected earlier in the day to see if it worked, and then I headed out for the Euromast, using the alternate directions provided me by the hotel staff. The Euromast is a giant observation tower that was originally constructed as part of an annual flower exhibit in the 50's. Now it is just a tourist trap for the kind of tourist that likes to see things from very high up, i.e. me.

The pointy end

After paying, you take a high-speed elevator that takes you to the main section of the building, which houses a restaurant and outside viewing area. On the top of that is an additional mast added later to again make it the highest building in Rotterdam. You wait for a small elevator that takes you to the very tippy-top and spins you around while you get a recorded spiel. Unfortunately, there was a group of very drunk Dutch people having an event in the restaurant, and they decided to go the top just at the same time as me. I couldn't hear a thing of the recorded messages, and as soon as I was out of the elevator, I lost them quickly.

Pizza Day

I took a whole bunch of pictures and then headed back down to find everything in the areas closed: the restaurants on the canal, the nearby mini-golf course, all of it. I decided to make the best of it and took a walk around the adjoining "Het Park" (literally, "The Park") to clear my head from the drunkards and then headed back to Market Hall again to get some dinner. But on a Friday, most of the restaurants were already closing. An Italian place was open, but they sat me in the hot back of the place at the bar and no one came to see for ten minutes, and I bailed. But I remembered it was National Pizza Day in America, so deciding kismet was at the wheel, I went to "Very Italian Pizza," which still had sittings. I had a quite nice little dinner and a good chat with the manager on the way out.

Then it was the Metro back to the hotel for some planning and organizing for the next day's game. That completed, I put the VPN and the hotel's WIFI to work to watch the last two, insanely disappointing GoT episodes before going to sleep wondering how a show could end that badly.


The Accommodations: 
I spent a good deal of time in my room this day, but most of it was asleep. Even thought it was on the small size, it was quite functional, and I never felt cramped while I was there. Also, an extra plus to them for having WIFI that was up to streaming television over a VPN, even if the content itself wasn't what was expected, but I can hardly blame them for that.

On Getting Back on the Paard & Getting Shot Out of the Saddle

Rob Hoffmann Vallei, 2019

Saturday, May 18, 2019

Oosterhaut Twins vs. HCAW Bussum
Rob Hoffmann Vallei
Honkbal Hoofdklasse
Bussum, The Netherlands
2:30 PM


Outside the Game: 
Perhaps with some residual depression at how awful the ending of Game of Thrones was, I had another lazy morning. Or maybe it was just the trip starting to catch up with me. But mostly GoT depression.

Given me fiasco on Thursday, I spent some of the morning re-checking all my scheduling over and over again until I was pretty damn certain how the rest of this would play out. I was out the door with my game bag at around 11:30 AM for a leisurely walk to the train station, as this game was at 2:30 PM for some reason. Arriving at the station, I decided to try and use the automated ticket kiosks as opposed to the packed customer service area. I bought my ticket and upgrade successfully, and then went off to find my train. Not able to locate the Intercity Direct, I went to a smaller info desk to be informed that they weren't running the Intercity Direct trains today because of track work, leaving me with the regular Intercity Trains and a useless upgrade. I mean, it was about E2.00, but it was the principle.

I grabbed a bunch of breakfast then booked it to the next train to Utrecht. Perhaps because of the construction, or perhaps because it was a weekend train to a big hub, the train was packed. I had to jostle an annoying Italian couple that was trying to monopolize a four-seat section with their luggage, but only to find that there were some--probably drunk even at this hour--Germans right behind us, being boisterous. So I got annoyed by the entire Axis on this train ride.

I managed to nap a little, as well as eat and stare at my tablet until Utrecht. Then it was a giant scrum as a packed train emptied into a busy station. I found my local Sprinter to Bussum a little after 1 PM, and had a short, uneventful ride to the Bussum South Station by the sportpark. Once I exited, it was a little disorienting where I was, but a bit of sussing out got me pointed in the right direction. A short walk later, I was at the ballpark with slightly over a half-hour to spare.

Walking back to the station, I was being tailed by someone from the game. I mean, he probably wasn't following me per se, but we were both going back to the train station. It was about a 20-minute wait until the next train, so I grabbed some bench and finished off my scorecard. I had an easy ride back to Utrecht, but once I got there, it was utter pandemonium, even more so than before. I never got a sufficient answer, but perhaps because of the track work, all the direct trains back to Rotterdam were cancelled. There was only one, swarmed information booth inside the ticket area, and I got as much info as I could. When the next Rotterdam train was cancelled, I used their suggested alternate plan of getting a Sprinter to Gouda. (I also learned I've been pronouncing "Gew-dah" wrong my entire life. It is "GOW-DAH," as a Bostonian would pronounce "chowder.")

Utrecht anarchy

As packed as the train was before, this was even worse. It was standing room only as people were trying to get home or to their destinations by any means necessary. Of course, there were several babies, and one by me was particularly inconsolable. Not that I could blame him. It was hot and stuffy, and everyone was giving off very negative energy. I felt real pathos for its poor parents who could do nothing about it. They went from constant apologies, to trying to console the baby, to awkward smiles.

On the other hand, I had more problems with Italians on trains. I was jammed in by the far door of the train. As is the case in the Netherlands, there was a gentleman with a bicycle against the door itself, and its handlebars were jutting out into me. You couldn't quite see the bike from certain angles, and there was an Italian couple next to me who thought I was just blocking the fold-down seat on the wall for no reason, and also clearly thought I couldn't speak Italian. I asked him if he wanted to sit with a bicycle up his ass ("Tu piace sedere con una bicicletta sul culo?," should you need this in your own life), and he looked surprised, then sheepish, and then turned his back to me for the remainder of the overlong train ride.

Of course, this train experiences long delays as well to keep us all as miserable as possible. After a millennium or two, we finally reached Gouda, where I was immediately able to transfer to a train to Rotterdam Centraal, and then bask in the freedom of movement denied me for an hour or so.

After some shopping for some essential supplies at Centraal, I was pretty much starving, so I stopped into a pho place in the faux-Chinatown Rotterdam has right by the train station and filled up on some noodle love. Enjoying the use of my legs again, I walked around for a while around the canals before heading back to my hotel for shower and some tea. I organized and re-checked my itinerary for the next day, and then went to bed early to catch up on my DVR'ed episodes of Brockmire.


The Stadium & Fans: 

Home plate to center field, Rob Hoffmann Vallei

Rob Hoffmann Vallei was another sportpark laid out like a Spring Training complex. After the alley with the ticket booth at the entrance, the main field lies down a small row of stairs, holding the main seating that runs from dugout to dugout (which were situated further than normal on the field, out by the bases). A low brick building on the first-base lines houses the team changing rooms and offices, the clubhouse and "Fanshop" is behind home plate, and another low building runs down the third-base line with the "Buccaneers' Business Club." A small, unattached scoring and announcing booth is halfway down the first-base line.

Baseball bench

There are four retired numbers on the left field wall, and the basic digital scoreboard pops up in right field against the backdrop of trees, other ballfields, and a large training building beyond left field. There is a team mural on the alley wall on the walkway inside and a "Violin Plein" of flowers right by the scorebooth. The clubhouse (called the "DugInn") was similar to many around the league, with tables, trophies, library, and a small canteen selling affordable snacks and drinks. (As a matter of fact, you could just order up a literal crate of Heinekens, as several members of the crowd seemed to have done.) The clubhouse also had a nifty baseball couch made of bats and balls and leather. The "FanShop" seemed to have team-specific, as well as generic baseball, merchandise, but it wasn't open for whatever reason.

The crowd at this game was easily the most sizable I saw in the entire trip. It perhaps topped 200 people at its peak. A small number of them were Twins fans, who mostly situated themselves down the scattering of seats on the third-base side. The umpiring in this game left a lot to be desired (to be discussed later), and both groups of fans were quite vocal during the disagreements that resulting from the officiating. There was no pomp or festivities as per normal, except again the bizarre Meet Me In St. Louis during the 7th inning stretch.


At the Game with Oogie: 

Dutch scoring

I rolled into Rob Hoffmann Vallei with a little more than a half and hour before the game. I was greeted at the gate by someone clearly surprised to see an American show up, but he told me he was excited for me to be here and sold me the E5 ticket and sent me inside. I did my regular walking around and picture-taking of the field and the other fields in the complex before heading back to the clubhouse.

Hot dog and 7Up

The team store was there, but closed--as many of the team stores seemed to be. I went inside the main clubhouse and grabbed a hot dog and some 7Up and exited, as they were getting ready for the game. I sat right behind home plate in the last row, and an older gentleman sat next to me and asked me a bunch of questions before being called over to another one of his friends. Another old man started to play catch with--what I'm assuming was--his granddaughter behind me in the middle innings, before their game was disrupted by one of the dogs in attendance, who fetched the ball for the little girl and upset her.

The game started overcast and cold, so I was happy in the blue seats until later in the game, when the sun came out blazing. I moved over to some shaded seats on the third-base side for the remainder of the game, bailing between innings to get more drinks, as it went from chilly to scorching quite quickly.


The Game: 

First pitch, Twins vs. HCAW

This game featured the middle-tier match-up of HCAW Bussum against the Oosterhaut Twins. Unfortunately, it was the case of the umpires nearly deciding the game, but that outcome was avoided with a last-minute rally.

The game started with the Twins jumping out early, thanks to two singles and two-out double staking them to a 2-0 lead. Bussum went in order quietly in the bottom of the first. A single and a sacrifice bunt got a runner into scoring position for Oosterhaut in the top of the second, but there he was stranded. HCAW had a one-out single and then a walk stranded in their own turn. The top of the third had the first umpire misfires of the day, as a leadoff hitter had a seeming infield single, but it was called back and ruled a foul ball, engendering an argument that eventually involved both managers and delayed the game for a good five minutes. After settling the dispute, the Twins just had a single for their part of the frame, and Bussum also had a solitary single erased on a stealing attempt in their half of the third.

Oosterhaut went in order in the fourth, and the bottom of the inning saw Oosterhaut get jobbed royally by the umpires. That half-inning began with the leadoff hitter smacking a long shot that had some interaction with the fence. No matter what the issue, I knew the call should be "ground rule double." The crew on the field came to the same decision after a good ten minutes of discussion. This was no the jobbing, but it was indicative of the umpirial incompetence to come. A hit batsman followed, but the runner on second stole on the play, which is illegal, as the ball is dead. But the umpires let that stand, although it didn't matter much, as a long double to right cleared the bases. A ground-out got that runner to third. Here was the jobbing. The next batter hit a fly ball to right. It was a clear sacrifice fly to bring the run home. From my seat, I saw a clean catch into the fielder's mitt. The umpires, for some reason, ruled it a trap. That run would have scored regardless, but another clear ground rule double brought that run in, and two singles, a double, and another single followed, bringing the total damage to seven runs, giving HCAW a 7-2 lead. The Twins just had a single in the top of the fifth, while Bussum went in order, and Oosterhaut stranded back-to-back singles in the sixth, with HCAW having a sole single.

The seventh was sluggish as well, with the Twins going in order, and Bussum managing only a stranded single and a hit batsman. Oosterhaut started to climb back in the eighth with a new pitcher giving up back-to-back walks, and then a double and a single brought in three runs, to close it to 7-5. HCAW only had a single to show for the bottom of the inning. The ninth saw a completion of the Twins comeback, where an error, fielder's choice, a walk, and a hit batman loaded the bases. A ground-out to short brought in a run, and then a double to left cleared the bases, giving them an 8-7 lead. Bussum's last licks fizzled, and they went in order, leaving the visiting team with a comeback 8-7 victory.


The Scorecard: 

Twins vs. HCAW, 05/18/19. Twins win, 8-7.

Where... to... begin...

Well, I was in the BBWAA scorebook again, for starters. All the umpire miscues above got detailed notes written on them, so there's that. Lots of hit batmen (3) and doubles (6). There were a weird on-filed play, where a sacrifice fly in the top of of the fifth that turned into a DP F9-2. And a majority of the Twins' offence came from one man, left fielder Martin, who went 4-for-5, with three doubles, one run scored, and five RBIs. Not a bad day, indeed.

Between the team Websites and the on-field announcements, I was able to get most of the players down, except for an Oosterhaut reliever, two players on HCAW, and all of their pitchers. The PA wasn't very good, and the HCAW Website didn't have a good rundown of lineups with numbers.


The Accommodations: 
I spent little time in the room between getting up in the morning and watching TV in bed at night. But a bed was all I really needed after the travel challenges of the day.

Click here to see all the photos from this trip.

2019 The Netherlands