On Mercy
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| Sportpark Kijkduin-Schapenatjesduin, 2019 |
Sunday, May 19, 2019
Curcacao Neptunus vs. Silicon StorksSportpark Kijkduin-Schapenatjesduin
Honkbal Hoofdklasse
The Hague, The Netherlands
2:00 PM
Outside the Game:
I had another lazy morning, but eventually inspired myself to get out of bed and shower up. I double-checked my itinerary for the day and did a little research on hotels for my last weekend in Amsterdam before heading out.
I had a couple of choices to get to the nearby Hague. I could take the metro all the way there, or overland trains. The hotel said the trains were the right way to go, so I took the tram up to Centraal and got on the next Sprinter, as the travel time was about the same if I waited for the next Intercity Direct. Once in The Hague, I could either take a tram (that was a bit of a walk to the stadium) or a bus (that would take me right there). I confidently went up to a bus shelter with my bus number on it when the two old ladies there clearly saw I was going the wrong way, and pointed me to the outbound stop for the same bus that I should be on.
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| Lovely day |
A short bus ride got me to the stop I needed, and after a little looking around, I figured out which way to walk to get to the stadium. As per usual, it was in a sportpark, but this one had quite a big hill right at the entrance. With time to kill, I climbed the big hill and looked around, and eventually tramped around the park a little bit before heading into the wooded entrance to the ballfields until about a half hour before gametime.
Earlier than expected, I was heading back to the bus stop, as the weather was getting cold and windy relatively close to the shore. Luckily, I arrived just as a bus back to the station was arriving, and I boarded it with a clutch of old folks who were there for some reason. A short--but warm--bus ride got me back at The Hague Centraal, where a train back to Rotterdam was just about to leave.
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| Witty |
A walked back to the hotel for a well-deserved nap, and then cleaned up again and head off into the evening. My goal this evening was to cut through the Museumplein in Roterdam and check out the Witte de Withwartier, the "hip street" in Rotterdam. I stopped off at some shops, and poked around the bars and whatnot, even finding a full-fledged supermarket to grab some supplies. I popped into one of the fancy burger shops for dinner and topped it off with some gelato from a store at the end of the street. I walked around a bit more to burn some of it all off before heading back to the hotel.
I prepped for the next day of museum blitzing and then had an early night in bed, with the window open and a light breeze blowing, while catching up on my episodes of Barry.
The Stadium & Fans:
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| Home plate to center field, Sportpark Kijkduin-Schapenatjesduin |
The curtly named Sportpark Kijkduin-Schapenatjesduin probably has the most chain-link per square foot of any Dutch ballpark. With the exception of the clubhouse buildings and dugouts, everything in the fields are constructed of chain link. A secondary full-sized field is right by the entrance and shares a chain-link outfield wall with the main field further along. The cement dugouts are located outside of the field (accessed by a small chain-link gate), as is the press box, which is its own little trailer building. Along with Oosterhaut, this field was the only one that doesn't have lights, so they play their home games on Thursday evening at other fields.
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| Clubhouse |
The clubhouse is located by the entrance, next to a maintenance building, a good distance from the main field. It had the requisite little canteen/bar, and trophies and other baseball memorabilia over the walls. Outside is a small area of picnic tables (for smokers) and a play area (right next to the smokers' tables). There is a retired number for Win Remmerswaal and an Ed Lakwijk Terras. A small section of stepped wooden bleachers sits behind home plate for seating under an overhang of trees, and the scoreboard is a small digital ball/strike/out number in left-center field. The vista is all trees behind chain-link, the major milieu for the field.
Even though they are the lowest team in the league, they still got the Honkbal Hoofdklasse-standard 100-200 people watching the game, along with the requisite dogs. There were a number of supporters for the nearby Rotterdam squad along the visiting third-base dugout as well. There was also the complete lack of extras that was common in Honkbal Hoofdklasse, and I didn't even get to find out if they did a seventh-inning stretch (for reasons described below).
At the Game with Oogie:
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| Scoring early and often |
I walked into the sportpark at my usual time, and I was immediately stunned by the amount of chain link involved in the proceedings. I went down to the field first and took my pictures before hiking on back to the clubhouse. The guys working the counter that day weren't great with English, so I mustered up as much usable Dutch as I was able to order a burger and frites and something to drink while poking around and taking pictures.
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| All-American |
As the game approached, I walked back down to grab a seat on the benches behind home plate, carefully cleaning it of bird droppings caused by the over-hanging trees behind home plate. I was sitting among the usual Dutch-sized baseball crowd, garnering a look every now and again. I was regularly startled by batboys in the woods on the other side of the chain-link fence behind me who went to go and retrieve the many foul balls that got knocked back there.
After the end of the game, I had an extended discussion with the guys in the announcer's booth (see below), and with that, I was heading out with the crowd to get back to the bus station.
The Game:
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| First pitch, Neptunus vs. Storks |
The best team in Europe played the worst team in the Dutch league, and the results are exactly what you'd expect, starting with the visiting Neptunus batting around in the first inning, and ending with their DH pitching in a mercy-ruled game.
The first batter for Neptunus got a single, then stole second, and made it to third on the errant throw by the catcher. The second batter singled him in and stole second. A fly out to deep right changed things up a bit, but the next batter walked, and both runners pulled a double steal. The next two batters walked to load the bases, and a short single brought in another run. Charlie Brown uncorked a wild pitch, and a run scored and everyone moved up, and a short single loaded the bases again. That was it for the starter. The new pitcher got a strikeout then walked the next two batters, sending in a run before a ground-out to short ended the top of the first at 4-0 Neptunus. The Hague went in order.
In the second, Rotterdam settled for two runs on a leadoff single and a homer to right to extend the lead to 6-0. The Storks again went in order. Neptunus very nearly batted around in the third again. Two straight singles started off the inning, and a fly out to right moved the runners. A one-out single drove in a run, and then a grounder to short got thrown away, leading to another run and everyone advancing. A sacrifice fly brought in another run, and a double cleared the bases, giving Neptunus a comfortable 10-0 lead. The Hague broke up the no-hitter and the shutout in the bottom of the third, with a single, double, and another single driving in a run to make it 10-1.
Rotterdam did bat around again in the fourth. A one-out hit batsman and a double were followed by two walks to drive in a run. A single brought in two more, and a walk loaded the bases again before two outs ended the inning at 14-1, Rotterdam. A new pitcher came in, and the Storks put together as good an inning as they could muster, turning four singles and a double into three runs to close it to 14-4. In a small miracle, Neptunus only had a double in the top of the fifth, while The Hague went in order.
In the top of the seventh, Rotterdam almost batted around yet again. The half-inning started with two quick outs, and then it continued with a walk, a single, a walk, and a wild pitch to move everyone up. A grounder to first got butchered, and another run came in. Then, just for fun, there was a homer to dead center before the fly-out to center ended the half at 19-4. Perhaps as a reward for his homer in the top of the inning, Neptunus put in their DH to pitch. After giving up two walks, he got the Storks in order.
And everyone packed up to go home. A brief conversation with the announcing crew identified that there was a mercy rule in Honkbal Hoofdklasse, and with a run differential of 15 runs, that was quite invoked. So that was a thing that happened.
The Scorecard:
Neptunus vs. Storks, 05/19/19. Neptunus wins a mercy-shortened game, 19-4.
I was using the BBWAA again.
So outside of having to put down a note about a mercy rule in a game not in Little League, there were more oddities. Plays of literal note involve the E2 on the catcher's throw on a base steal attempt in the first inning and the E6 in the third that the shortstop threw out of play. This is also probably the first, last, and only time I will have a DH with a pitching line. (And what a line it was: 1 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 2 BB, 2 K.)
Between team Websites and announcements, I got all the players except three pitchers.
The mercy rule in a pro game. I mean, really.
The Accommodations:
I spent little time in the hotel again, today, except for the morning and evening.
2019 The Netherlands
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