On Unexpectedness in Many Forms
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| Sportpark Pioniers, 2019 |
Thursday, May 23, 2019
Haarlem DSS vs. Hoofddorp PioneersSportpark Pioniers
Honkbal Hoofdklasse
Hoofddorp, The Netherlands
6:00 PM
Outside the Game:
The longer this trip went, the later my mornings started. I managed to drag myself into the sunlight at around 11:30 AM, and I was heading straight to the post office to send my package of crap home to myself. The gentleman who was at the counter the last two times I went wasn't there, so I struggled through the process using my poor Dutch with a younger person who didn't have great English. Things were improved when an older woman came out from the back and helped us both out, and my package was on its way.
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| Before bird problems |
I was hungry for breakfast/lunch, so I took the metro over to Market Hall again, and had a long, leisurely lunch out the outdoor seating of an Italian place. I ended up sitting under a tree, which is important because I was leaning over the remains of my bowl of risotto reading my tablet when a bird crapped right on the tablet. Now, the good news here is that it didn't ruin the remains of my lunch. The bad news is that I had bird crap all over my tablet. The waiter was apologetic and brought me napkins and things to clean it with, but I mean, what are the damn chances?
After lunch, I went up to Centraal to secure my train tickets for today and tomorrow. After waiting for my number to come up, I had a very helpful and friendly woman walk me through all the tickets and the potential pitfalls, and I headed back to the hotel for my last afternoon nap in this hotel.
I got the tram back up to Centraal at 5 PMish, and I was quickly able to get an Intercity to Schiphol, the closest major train stop to the stadium, and I went to the tourist information desk to get the number for cab company for the way back. There was a two-bus commute that I could potentially use to get out to the stadium, but especially this late in the trip, I wasn't feeling it and decided to cab out and back from the somewhat inconvenient park.
With some time to kill, I got the lay of the airport down, and then used a massage chair for a bit to help my back and aching feet and legs. It was then time for me to go out to the cab stand outside the airport and get out to the park. As is often the case, I had a nice conversation with the cab driver. After I told him my destination, he related how he played softball in middle school, but that was the limit of his knowledge with baseball. He said he wasn't working later when the game was over, but he also gave me the number for his cab company, so thusly armed I went into the game.
After my tribulations detailed below, on the way out, I did get another cab to get me back to the airport. A quick ride later, and I grabbed some sandwiches at a market in the station and boarded a train back to Rotterdam, getting in at about 11:15 PM. I decided for some reason or another to walk back to the hotel, but the walk seemed longer than normal, though it was a nice night.
Back at the hotel, I did some desultory packing before packing it in myself around midnight.
The Stadium & Fans:
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| Home plate to center field, Sportpark Pioniers |
Sportpark Pioniers was easily one of the nicest baseball complexes in the Netherlands. Its only real competition was Rotterdam. While Rotterdam probably had more capacity, the Hoofddorp stadium was very close, much newer, and much better organized. It was a baseball-only facility for one, although it is across the road from a park and a rugby pitch. You enter from the parking lot, and the main stadium is right there, with a proper facade and everything, and the practice and training fields arrayed around much like a US spring training complex. Along with Rotterdam, this was the only stadium in the Netherlands approaching mid-A minor-league ball, definitely high-A and a stretch for AA. I would learn it was part of a bid to lure MLB to play in the Netherlands, though London would eventually secure those games.
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| The DuckOut |
A large brick plaza is at the entrance and around the park, reaching to the softball and other fields that surround the main field. A large baseball-bat column holds up the overhang by the main entrance to the park. The lower floor of the building houses the player locker rooms, bathrooms, and a team baseball store. A small flight of stairs leads up to the second level, which has a business lounge luxury level with its own patio, and the "DuckOut" general clubhouse. Outside the DuckOut are picnic tables for the smokers on a plateau above the one row of seats that extends down and runs from about third to first base. Two patios with tables and stairs down are on each end of the building. An addition set of stairs goes up to a proper press box perched on the top of the building.
The field itself is quite up-to-date, and the facilities even have minor-league standard elements, such as the bullpens beyond the outfield walls. A large digital scoreboard sits in left-center field, above the advertising-strewn outfield wall and the solid backdrop of trees, excepting one block of buildings in right-center field. The park had a number of memorials and tributes, including Fysio Cura Plaza, Co Pikee Terrace, Koene Plain, and Van Zullien Terrace, a block of seven retired numbers on the outfield wall, and two plaques to Friends of Softball and the 100 Club.
The crowd was about the Dutch average between 100-200 humans and dogs. The entertainment level was slightly higher than normal, as well, with minor-league standard "glass breaking" sound effects on foul balls and even playing "Who Let the Dogs Out," in addition to play-up music and the 7th-inning stretch. For the most part, the crowd was quite into it, and were very appreciative when the home team came back and (spoiler) won it in the bottom of the ninth.
At the Game with Oogie:
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| Night scoring |
I arrived at the park just as a bunch of practices on the surrounding fields seemed to be ending. I did my walk around and took my pictures before heading back into the park building itself. There was a ground-floor shop that was actually staffed and opened. Although it didn't have much Pioneers merch beyond jerseys, I was able to pick up an official Dutch baseball at least. I went upstairs and wandered around the business area and patio before heading into the "DuckOut" clubhouse. Though it had the bar/barfood/trophy setup of most teams, it was obviously much newer and nicer.
The bartender saw me taking pictures and told me to stop wasting film, but I told him that was why I was here. We talked a bunch about my trip, and he told me that I should go upstairs to the press box because that was the best place to take pictures. I explained to him that in America, you just don't walk up to the press box, but he said to just tell them that he said it was okay. The intrinsic New Yorker in me expected a set-up, but I decided to give it a try.
There was another set of stairs that went up to the press box at the top of the stadium, and I walked in. The three occupants turned around to look at me, and I told them what the barkeep had said. The head announcer ushered me in and let me take some photos. I saw he was the official scorer, and I asked him about keeping score in Europe. He said he "kept score in Dutch," using Dutch word abbreviations in his scorebook instead of English ones. I talked to him quite a bit about scoring before I realized it was getting close to game time and excused myself.
I went down to the bar and reported my successful endeavor. I tried to order some food, but the grill wasn't working that day, so I just got a drink and went outside to grab a seat. I started out behind home plate, but I moved over to the first-base side seats for most of the game, as I could get better pictures there. There was a guy in my section who was watching a soccer match on his phone for most of the game, so there's that.
After the game ended, I tried to call the cab companies, but I was not able to get through for whatever reason. I knew I was dialing the phone right this time, but it still wasn't working. Maybe there was a dead zone? After attempting in several places in the stadium, I realized that I was screwed.
The bartender from before was out having a smoke and saw me cursing at my phone and asked what was up. He said that he'd get me a cab. The places that I had contact info for were all booked up (apparently it is a big night out in Haarlem on Thursdays or something), but he called another number he had and assured me that a cab was coming. He even offered me a drink on the house, but I politely declined, as I needed to get back and I wasn't in the mood for drink right then, even if if I probably needed it. Sometimes people don't suck.
The Game:
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| First pitch, DSS vs. Pioneers |
The battle of the Dutch teams with nearly identical red uniforms (DSS and Pioneers) was won by the home team on a walk-off. For what kind, you will need to read on.
The first inning started slowly, with DSS going in order. A two-base error on a throw by the pitcher got Hoofddorp's lead runner to second, and he was sacrificed over to third, but there he died. The second was a scoring frame, as Haarlem had a string of a single, a hit batsman, and two more singles to bring in three runs for a brief, 3-0 lead. In the bottom of the inning, the Pioneers came back with three straight singles, a sacrifice bunt, and a ground-out to get two back, leaving it 3-2 at the end of two. DSS kept going in the third with a hit batsman, a single, an error, and another single to tack on two more runs, making it 5-2. Hoofddorp could only answer with a leadoff double in the bottom of the inning that went no further.
The fourth hit a lull, as Haarlem went in order and the Pioneers only had a single in the bottom half. DSS continued its languid ways in the top of the fifth with just a single to show for their efforts, but the Pioneers were off to the races. Five straight singles and a ground-out got them four runs, giving them a lead for the first time in the game at 6-5. The sixth went quickly, with Haarlem going in order and Hoofddorp stranding a single.
The seventh was also more of the same, with DSS going in order, and Hoofddorp leaving a walk and a single on the base paths. Things got interesting again in the top of the eighth, as Haarlem turned one-out singles and doubles into the tying run. The Pioneers managed to squeak out only a walk erased on a double-play in the bottom of the frame. DSS struck out in turn in the top of the ninth, but Hoofddorp made something of their last licks. Two back-to-back, one-out singles got it first and third. An intentional walk loaded the bases, and a grounder to first got the force at home, leaving it bases loaded with two outs. A routine grounder to short seemed to send us to extras, but the shortstop threw it to Germany, and a walk-off E6 ended the game at 6-5, Pioneers.
The Scorecard:
DSS vs. Pioneers, 05/23/19. Pioneers win, 6-5.
I was using the BBWAA again.
Beyond the walk-off E6, there were a bunch of plays of note. In the top of the third, there was a dispute over a hit by pitch that was not called by the umpires. The batter got a single afterwards, so perhaps some justice there. There was also your garden-variety CS 8-3-6 in that same inning when the batter unsuccessfully tried to extend his clean single into a double. In the bottom of the fifth during the Pioneer's rally, there was an incident where "FC" didn't really capture of all the play, which was a grounder to third that was an attempted 5-2 putout that hit the runner. That same inning had a pretty rare 5t on a grounder to third with men on first and second. And, of course, the last play of the game got a write-up on the E6 heard round the world.
The leadoff hitter on DSS got a golden sombrero, a suprisingly rare event on the trip, and between team sites, scoreboards, and announcers, I was able to get the entire lineup in the scorebook correctly. Hurray me.
The Accommodations:
I left pretty early and got back pretty late with travel the next day, so as per usual, most of the my time in the hotel was spent sleeping.
2019 The Netherlands
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