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Some oddities concerning the Baseball World Cup 2009
September 2009 year we will have the largest Baseball World Cup ever seen, played in 7 countries by 22 countries. In Prague the host nation will try to defeat Australia, Mexico and Taiwan, in Barcelona Spain will take on Cuba, Puerto Rico and South Africa, in Stockholm Sweden will have to deal with Canada, South Korea and the Netherlands Antilles, in Moscow Russia will have a good chance to survive as besides Japan and Nicaragua its pool will include the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (will finally get a hall of fame this autumn too, ‘nuff said) and in Regensburg Germany will have to try to be better than the United States of America, the People's Republic of China or Venezuela.
All the teams, but the #’s 4 and the worst one of the #’s 3 will then be divided over two pools to be played in those two countries who have ruled European baseball since they could be bothered with it… Italy and the Netherlands. The hosts will enter the competition then and later the 3rd round and the final round will be played in Italy and then we will have the latest real baseball world champion.
If baseball is cancelled in the coming weeks because of the rain, you could have fun (with the kids) in coloring the different groups on a blank worldmap, and thinking about who will win where. Coloring the Netherlands Antilles may be somewhat difficult though, even if you know where to find them.
The Netherlands Antilles and the Netherlands have a somewhat complicated relationship, not dissimilar to the one Puerto Rico and the US have, or the one between the constituent countries of the UK, with different countries with the right to field national teams, but one nationality, but with some extra complications. The main complication is that the Netherlands Antilles has failed as a constituent country, the islands simply had not enough in common to be one country. The decision has been taken the Netherlands Antilles is now being broken up, the dissolution question is when, not if. The island areas with the largest populations, Curaçao and St. Maarten, will become constituent countries by themselves and the smaller islands will become part of the Netherlands, which is with over 95% of the population and the area very dominant in most fields, the baseball field excepted.
This is thus in all likelihood the very last time one will ever be able to see a team with the colours of the Netherlands Antilles at this stage, but is it really representing this country that is breaking up? Actually no, this team is from Curaçao. It won the right to participate in the Copa América de Béisbol 2008 as the country Netherlands Antilles by a victory in a best of three elimination series against St Maarten. SMBA vs. FEBEKO, the country was not big enough to team up, even though the Netherlands Antilles does have an umbrella baseball federation as well.
http://stmaartenbaseballassociation.com/
Curaçao won, went disguised as Netherlands Antilles to Venezuela, defeated it 5-6, Panama 5-0, Colombia 5-1, but lost 1-2 to Nicaragua in Group A, proceeded to the final phase, in which they were starting with victories against Brazil (1-2) and against Aruba (10-5), but lost after that against Puerto Rico (14-4) and Mexico (7-10), which meant that after the three countries they had lost to, they had acquired the fourth ticket for the World Cup, not bad for an island that small, certainly not as many of its best players were not available, because they had professional obligations in the USA or the Netherlands and/or they were already on the roster of the team defending the colours of the Kingdom.
Face it, this is the first time since 1988 that the Netherlands Antilles play baseball at the World Stage, there had not been a national team for years since 2002. The team representing the Netherlands, which just had to defeat some European teams for the world stage tournaments, had grown to be and will be in September more like a dream team of the best players with the Dutch nationality than a team representing the constituent country Netherlands, but to this it has to be added that even though the love for baseball is much more common in the “Caribbean Dutch” than in the “European Dutch”, about a third of the Caribbean Dutch do live in Europe, so it all evens out in a way. More importantly, baseball players teaming up as one kingdom, all constituent countries, Aruba, the Netherlands and The Netherlands Antilles together against the others (where did that Republic of Baseball go, by the way?) has an important symbolic function, especially in a time when the important but painful process of changing the structure of that kingdom provides a lot of frustration.
Still something about terminology, the Kingdom of the Netherlands consists out of the Caribbean isles and the Netherlands in Europe, Holland is a former county in the Netherlands, which as area has always been the “central” area of the Netherlands, containing the largest cities, the government, the capital, the main ports and air port and the homes of almost all Hoofdklasse Honkbal teams. All of the 2009 World Cup games in the Netherlands will be played in Holland, in the strict sense, but even though perhaps all the players may have a connection to Holland, their team represents to their fans so much more, an union over an ocean, a shared hope, pride and glory, queen and country, the hope that finally that %#@%& %^$ Dutch press will start paying REAL attention, and perhaps most of all shared love for the experience called baseball.
All right, this is somewhat melodramatic, but it all comes down to the fact that in September the team called Netherlands Antilles will actually be representing Curaçao, and the team called Netherlands will actually be the team of the whole Kingdom, Curaçao included, and that is a somewhat weird situation, as if Texas and the United States would both have a team in the same tournament and all.
Actual reaction of a Yankee fan test reader in California: "tha is weird".
All the teams, but the #’s 4 and the worst one of the #’s 3 will then be divided over two pools to be played in those two countries who have ruled European baseball since they could be bothered with it… Italy and the Netherlands. The hosts will enter the competition then and later the 3rd round and the final round will be played in Italy and then we will have the latest real baseball world champion.
If baseball is cancelled in the coming weeks because of the rain, you could have fun (with the kids) in coloring the different groups on a blank worldmap, and thinking about who will win where. Coloring the Netherlands Antilles may be somewhat difficult though, even if you know where to find them.
The Netherlands Antilles and the Netherlands have a somewhat complicated relationship, not dissimilar to the one Puerto Rico and the US have, or the one between the constituent countries of the UK, with different countries with the right to field national teams, but one nationality, but with some extra complications. The main complication is that the Netherlands Antilles has failed as a constituent country, the islands simply had not enough in common to be one country. The decision has been taken the Netherlands Antilles is now being broken up, the dissolution question is when, not if. The island areas with the largest populations, Curaçao and St. Maarten, will become constituent countries by themselves and the smaller islands will become part of the Netherlands, which is with over 95% of the population and the area very dominant in most fields, the baseball field excepted.
This is thus in all likelihood the very last time one will ever be able to see a team with the colours of the Netherlands Antilles at this stage, but is it really representing this country that is breaking up? Actually no, this team is from Curaçao. It won the right to participate in the Copa América de Béisbol 2008 as the country Netherlands Antilles by a victory in a best of three elimination series against St Maarten. SMBA vs. FEBEKO, the country was not big enough to team up, even though the Netherlands Antilles does have an umbrella baseball federation as well.
http://stmaartenbaseballassociation.com/
Curaçao won, went disguised as Netherlands Antilles to Venezuela, defeated it 5-6, Panama 5-0, Colombia 5-1, but lost 1-2 to Nicaragua in Group A, proceeded to the final phase, in which they were starting with victories against Brazil (1-2) and against Aruba (10-5), but lost after that against Puerto Rico (14-4) and Mexico (7-10), which meant that after the three countries they had lost to, they had acquired the fourth ticket for the World Cup, not bad for an island that small, certainly not as many of its best players were not available, because they had professional obligations in the USA or the Netherlands and/or they were already on the roster of the team defending the colours of the Kingdom.
Face it, this is the first time since 1988 that the Netherlands Antilles play baseball at the World Stage, there had not been a national team for years since 2002. The team representing the Netherlands, which just had to defeat some European teams for the world stage tournaments, had grown to be and will be in September more like a dream team of the best players with the Dutch nationality than a team representing the constituent country Netherlands, but to this it has to be added that even though the love for baseball is much more common in the “Caribbean Dutch” than in the “European Dutch”, about a third of the Caribbean Dutch do live in Europe, so it all evens out in a way. More importantly, baseball players teaming up as one kingdom, all constituent countries, Aruba, the Netherlands and The Netherlands Antilles together against the others (where did that Republic of Baseball go, by the way?) has an important symbolic function, especially in a time when the important but painful process of changing the structure of that kingdom provides a lot of frustration.
Still something about terminology, the Kingdom of the Netherlands consists out of the Caribbean isles and the Netherlands in Europe, Holland is a former county in the Netherlands, which as area has always been the “central” area of the Netherlands, containing the largest cities, the government, the capital, the main ports and air port and the homes of almost all Hoofdklasse Honkbal teams. All of the 2009 World Cup games in the Netherlands will be played in Holland, in the strict sense, but even though perhaps all the players may have a connection to Holland, their team represents to their fans so much more, an union over an ocean, a shared hope, pride and glory, queen and country, the hope that finally that %#@%& %^$ Dutch press will start paying REAL attention, and perhaps most of all shared love for the experience called baseball.
All right, this is somewhat melodramatic, but it all comes down to the fact that in September the team called Netherlands Antilles will actually be representing Curaçao, and the team called Netherlands will actually be the team of the whole Kingdom, Curaçao included, and that is a somewhat weird situation, as if Texas and the United States would both have a team in the same tournament and all.
Actual reaction of a Yankee fan test reader in California: "tha is weird".
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Comment by Theodoor Westerhof on September 8, 2009 at 7:19am -
Well, shortly before the start of the tournament the island of Saba, has declared it wants to move from the Netherlands Antilles to the Netherlands NOW, I would not be amazed if they would rather support their European rather than their American co-nationals if the teams would face each other...
Nevertheless, tomorrow the Netherlands Antilles, will face the hosts in the first match in Sweden. Weather forecast pretty good, summer like and all, the other teams in Sweden are the Canadians and the Koreans, so in Sweden the "weak" teams will face eachother first.
The opening match of the event will be in Prague, the hosts against Australia (not Austria!), in Regensburg Germany will play against China, but in Barcelona the host nation will not show up yet, but South Africa will play against Puerto Rico.
One more night and serious international baseball will be back!
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Comment by Theodoor Westerhof on September 8, 2009 at 7:45am
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Oops, I forgot to mention that Russia and Moscow have been replaced by Croatia and Zagreb, which is a lot closer to the other venues. The reason for that was that Russia could not manage to prepare one venue up to IBAF standards. Croatia managed to do so, but if it had failed to do so one of the Dutch or Italian venues could have been used... This is Croatia's first appearance on this stage BTW, so I guess the survival chances for the UK have improved somewhat.
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Comment by Theodoor Westerhof on September 9, 2009 at 10:49am
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The website of the baseball World Cup offers Live stream of the matches between the Netherlands Antilles and Sweden and of the one between China and Germany... In case somebody wants to watch real baseball. They claim one will be able to see all matches there, but I still have to see that.
http://www.2009baseballworldcup.com/index.php?id=47
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Comment by Bill Stanton on September 9, 2009 at 11:00am -
Who is the favorite going into this tournament to win it?
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Comment by Theodoor Westerhof on September 9, 2009 at 12:03pm
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Favorite? I would say Cuba, world ranking #1, won 29 of the 37 world cups, including a series of 20 just before the last one, Cuba always won the world cup when the tournament was on the European continent. On the other hand, the USA is the defending world champion (3 out of 37, just like Venezuela), so the 50 State Yankees are favorite too, if you forgive me the expression. Japan and such are of course serious contenders, but I would not call them favorites.
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Comment by Theodoor Westerhof on September 9, 2009 at 12:06pm
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Oops, Cuba was 25 times World Champion, but medaled 29 times, sorry.
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Comment by Theodoor Westerhof on September 13, 2009 at 8:44am
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OK, in less than an hour I will be watching the Netherlands vs. South Korea in the Baseball World Cup, I would bet on South Korea's loss, their last match ended in a loss against the Netherlands Antilles, in a way the B-team to the Netherlands, (the Netherlands Antilles finished second in their pool, behind Canada and are playing the rest of the tourmament in Italy. Sort of a mixed blessing, in Holland's ball parks the team would have been a greater attraction, but this way an unnecessary loyalty conflict is avoided and to the well informed baseball lover it stays much more clear what team reports are talking about. Both the Havanna Times and, this even more shocking, Jesse Sanchez at MLB.com, referred to the Netherlands Antilles with "Netherlands", I knew that this would happen with some sources of information, but MLB.com should know better: Australia will play in Italy against the Netherlands Antilles-who have already beaten the Koreans-, not the Netherlands in the Netherlands. Very sloppy reporting, I will inform Mr. Sanchez, but hope that somebody else will be so good to post a clarifying comment on the MLB site.
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Comment by Theodoor Westerhof on October 12, 2009 at 6:15am
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Well, I was busy at my work at the botanical garden (lots of ash, maple, oak and birch there too, mostly European varieties, though) where I had to provide for hundreds and hundreds of little hungry mouths...
So looking back on the World Cup one could say that this was indeed the greatest one ever, more countries, more pro''s than ever before, the US and the Dutch teams were both stronger than ever before in a world cup (at least on paper). The Netherlands -world ranking #6 -finished sixth, fitting and all, but as the North East Asians were rather underrepresented one could feel that the Dutch should have been able to finish 4th or 5th.
The US kept the title and played the finals against Cuba, a deserved victory, but I cannot help to feel that it would have been better for baseball, if a third country had honestly won. Look at the ranking 1-4 are North American (Caribbean included) countries, OK, followed by Australia and the Netherlands, sure, but as long as the sport is strongly dominated by one region, unlike, say, cricket, in which we find a limited group of strong countries , but those happen to be found in the Carribean, southern Africa, western Europe, Oceania and Asia, nicely divided around the world, we cannot hope to see Olympic baseball again, certainly with the other problems.
One problem with this is of course that if the situation in women's baseball was different, globally playedat a larger scale with other superpowers and all, baseball would stand a better chance in the not-so-near future. The World Cup was used to promote Women's baseball in the Netherlands, after Netherlands-Cuba the first Dutch ladies team (the Pink Panthers) played against the second team of Neptunus a demo game, that was announced multiple times during Netherlands-Cuba. That female baseball players exist was made clear that way to about everybody interested in "honkbal". There were more positive developments in Dutch women's baseball last month, but the only one I really should mention here is that the first ever try-out for the National Women's baseball team for the Women's World Cup next year...
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