Okay, okay…I admit it. I was giddy at the Dutch beating the big, bad Dominicans in the WBC on Saturday.

I have nothing against David Ortiz, Hanley Ramirez or Jose Reyes. Heck, Ramirez was a big reason why my fantasy team won the title his rookie season, and Reyes led me to a championship last year. But I have been a fan of Dutch baseball since the 1990s.

The Dutch dominate European baseball like Cuba does international tournaments. Although the Cubans are experiencing somewhat of a title drought, the Big Red Machine always seem to find a way to reach the championship game. And, when it comes to the European Baseball Championship and European Baseball Cup, guess who is always hanging around in the finals? Yep, those dreaded orange and black uniforms.

Few Americans had ever even heard of Rob Cordemans or Leon Boyd. But on one fateful day that baseball fans in the Netherlands will never forget, these two unknown pitchers were giant-killers.

Cordemans went 9-0 for Sparta/Feyenoord in the Dutch League last season and a league-leading 112 strikeouts in 94 1/3 innings. And, with a little more run support, the 34-year-old would have won another 2-3 games. But thanks to the WBC party, the right-hander got the chance to challenge some of the major league’s top hitters – and won!

Boyd, a Canadian, plays for my favorite Dutch team DOOR Neptunus. I coached against their second team at the Therwil Flyers international tournament one year and then partied with the talented squad afterwards. Trust me, the Dutch know how to have a good time.

The Neptunus ace posted a 10-2 record a year ago and tallied 86 strikeouts 93 1/3 innings. Making his first relief appearance, Boyd overcame a leadoff walk and preserved a one-run lead to cap one of the biggest upsets in international baseball history. WOW!

BASEBALL CONTINUES TO GROW WORLDWIDE

If anyone has doubts that baseball is growing around the globe, just visit Bohol Island in the Philippines. The three B’s – basketball, boxing and billiards – are king here. But over the past few months I have had two impromptu baseball clinics.

First, coming home from the city one day I saw three boys with two gloves playing pitcher and catcher in the road. Of course, I had to stop and give a few pointers for both the pitcher and the catcher. It was a fun 15-20 minutes.

A few weeks later on my daily jog I stumbled across a group of 8-10 teenage boys playing baseball in a field with a tennis ball and a piece of wood as a bat. At first, I thought they were playing cricket because the batter started his swing with the bat touching the ground. Also, the pitcher was using a softball-style fastpitch delivery.

Again, I stopped and this time spent nearly an hour doing throwing and hitting drills. The laughter from the kids once they learned how to hit the ball past the infield was satisfying for the old coach.

BASEBALLDEWORLD REACHES MILESTONE

There was a time in 2007, when I first started writing about European baseball at TheTalkinTexan.com, I would have been ecstatic with 1,000 visitors a month. But now that BaseballdeWorld has passed this milestone – on a daily basis – our goal of 50,000 unique visitors a month this season seems plausible.

The key to success for professional wrestling is for the established wrestling superstars to help the up and coming wrestlers to become household names as well. This ensures a large talent pool of wrestlers to sell pay-per-views, tickets and merchandise. And, while BaseballdeWorld is a long, long ways from being established…we remember two years ago when we started our own journey.

If you have a baseball website, and a willing to write a weekly article for BaseballdeWorld, we will help promote your website to baseball enthusiasts from the United States, Asia and Europe. Contact mjmoore@baseballdeworld.com for more details.

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