The Honkbal Hoofdklasse is the highest level of professional baseball in the Netherlands. It is an eight-team league that plays a 42-game schedule and is overseen by the Royal Netherlands Baseball and Softball Federation (KNBSB).
Kinheim is a baseball and softball team based in Haarlem, the Netherlands. The title sponsor of the club is currently Corendon, so that the official name of the team is Corendon Kinheim.
Pioniers is a baseball and softball team based in Hoofddorp, the Netherlands. The club is currently sponsored by Worldwide Pharma Logistics BV, and the team is officially called Worldwide Pharma Logistics Hoofddorp Pioniers. Under a previous sponsorship, the team had been called the Vaessen Pioniers.
The Holland Series is the annual championship series of the highest level of professional baseball in the Netherlands. First played in 1987, it is the conclusion of the postseason of Honkbal Hoofdklasse, played between the two winners of the league's playoffs.
Rob "Robbie" Cordemans is a Dutch baseball player. He bats and throws righthanded. Cordemans is best known for representing the Dutch national team at the Olympics and other international competitions.
Baseball in the Netherlands started in 1911, having been introduced to the country by English teacher J.C.G Grasé of Amsterdam, following a holiday to America. The first professional baseball league began in 1922. The national governing body for baseball is the Royal Netherlands Baseball and Softball Federation.
Ludovicus Jacobus Maria "Loek" van Mil was a Dutch professional baseball pitcher. At the height of 7 feet 1 inch (2.16 m), he was and still is the tallest player in the history of professional baseball. He played for Curaçao Neptunus of the Honkbal Hoofdklasse and for the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles of the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). He also played for the Netherlands national baseball team, serving as the team's closer in the 2013 World Baseball Classic and the 2015 Premier 12. He also appeared in the 2007 Baseball World Cup and 2017 World Baseball Classic. He missed the 2008 Summer Olympics due to injury.
Tjerk Smeets is a former Dutch baseball player for Kinheim and the Dutch national team and technical director of the Royal Netherlands Baseball and Softball Federation (KNBSB). He is the son of Dutch radio and television personality, writer, and columnist Mart Smeets.
Yurendell Eithel DeCaster is a Dutch-Curaçaoan former professional baseball third baseman. He played 3 games in Major League Baseball with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2006. He played for Team Netherlands in many tournaments, including the 2004 Summer Olympics.
The Royal Netherlands Baseball and Softball Federation is the national governing body of baseball in the Netherlands. Baseball is widely played in the Netherlands but has struggled to become a major spectator sport due to the dominance of soccer, in which the Netherlands has always been one of the leading nations. School-aged children are generally encouraged to play soccer rather than baseball.
The 2010 Honkbal Hoofdklasse season began Saturday, April 10 and ended on September 18.
The 2009 Honkbal Hoofdklasse season began Saturday, April 11.
The 2011 Honkbal Hoofdklasse season began on Thursday, April 7 and ended on September 11.
The Honkbal Rookie League is a professional baseball league in the Netherlands for rookies from the teams in the Honkbal Hoofdklasse. It is an eight-team league that plays a 42-game schedule. The season runs from April to September and is not followed by a promotion and relegation system.
Randolph F. Oduber is a professional baseball outfielder for the Hoofddorp Pioniers of the Honkbal Hoofdklasse. He played for Team Netherlands in the 2019 European Baseball Championship, and at the Africa/Europe 2020 Olympic Qualification tournament in Italy in September 2019.
Dashenko Adriano Ricardo is a Dutch-Curaçaoan professional baseball catcher for Curaçao Neptunus of the Honkbal Hoofdklasse. He played for Team Netherlands in the 2019 European Baseball Championship, and at the Africa/Europe 2020 Olympic Qualification tournament in Italy in September 2019.
Lars Huijer is a Dutch professional baseball pitcher for HCAW of the Honkbal Hoofdklasse.
The 2019 Honkbal Hoofdklasse season began Thursday, April 4. Curaçao Neptunus was the regular season champion, but it lost in the Holland Series to L&D Amsterdam, four games to three.
The 2013 Honkbal Hoofdklasse season began on Thursday, April 11. Mampaey The Hawks from Dordrecht competed in the Hoofdklasse for the first time. Sparta/Feyenoord was relegated at the end of the 2012 season but was declared bankrupt by a Rotterdam court on November 22, 2012 and did not compete in the Overgangsklasse.
DSS/Kinheim is a baseball team in Haarlem, the Netherlands that competes in the Honkbal Hoofdklasse. The team is a combination of two Haarlem sports clubs, DSS and Kinheim, which merged in 2020 after DSS had defeated Kinheim in a promotion/relegation playoff. DSS, however, faced financial difficulties staying in the top Dutch baseball league. The team plays at Pim Mulier Stadium in Haarlem. DSS/Kinheim also fields a combined second team that competes in the second-highest Dutch baseball league, the Honkbal Eerste Klaase.
