Riccardo Schiroli in Rotterdam
1912 was the year when the Republic of China was established (right on January 1), ending the Imperial Rule, but leading to a Civil War. It was also the year when, January 23 in The Hague (The Netherlands), 13 countries signed the International Opium Convention, the first drug control treaty of the history.
More tragically, in April, RMS Titanic struck a Iceberg in the northern Atlantic Ocean and sank, killing over 1,500 persons.
There’s something else that happened in The Netherlands. Less then a month before the Titanic disaster, an English teacher named J.C.G. Grasè founded the Dutch Baseball Union, that would later develop into the Dutch Royal Baseball and Softball Federation (KNBSB).
On March 17th in Rotterdam KNBSB will celebrate their 100 years of history. The celebration will happen at the Erasmus University. The President of the IBAF Riccardo Fraccari and the President of the International Softball Federation (ISF) Don Porter will attend.
Grasé had fallen in love with baseball during a trip to the United States and had translated the rules into dutch. He would found also the very first team in Europe: Quick Amsterdam (March 1913) and the team would win the very first official championship played in the Old Continent (1922).
The Netherlands won their first European Championship in 1956 (inRome), but built their first baseball stadium only in 1963 (the “Pim Mulier” in Haarlem).
Future Hall of Famer Burt Blyleven was the first dutch born player to appear in a Major League roster (Minnesota Twins 1970). But the first player developed in The Netherlands who made it to the Big Leagues was Win Remmerswaal (Boston Red Sox 1979).
The Netherlands are the defending World Champions. They claimed the gold medal in Panama City, when the beat Cuba in the final of the 2011 IBAF World Cup.
