Dolf de Zwart

Adolf Gerrit de Zwart, Jr.

• Born May 25, 1931 in Utrecht, Utrecht Netherlands
• Died October 6, 2019

Biographical Information

Dolf de Zwart both played and coached for the Dutch national team.

De Zwart came up to the highest Dutch league in 1949 with EDO and would remain with them through 1963 (they were out of the top league from 1951-1952). A catcher, he was noted for his combination of hitting ability, drawing walks and speed. He moved to third base later in his career.

He debuted for the Dutch national team as an outfielder in the 1956 European Championship, when they won the title. They repeated in the 1957 European Championship when he backed up Joop Geurts at catcher and in the 1958 European Championship. In the 1958 season, he caught a no-hitter by Doby Peters and hit a long home run off Han Urbanus to support the gem.

In 1962, he became player-coach of EDO and hit .327 to tie Peters for 2nd in the league, .006 behind Simon Heemskerk. In 1964, EDO merged with EHS to become Haarlem Nicols; by this time, de Zwart mainly played third. He helped the Netherlands win the 1964 European Championship and 1965 European Championship. Haarlem Nicols won the Dutch title in 1965 with de Zwart as player-assistant coach and the 1966 European Cup, the first Dutch European Cup champion.

Dolf moved to the bench in 1967 and moved to the lower classification team HCTIW as player-coach in 1968. He coached for the Netherlands in the 1969 European Championship (Gold), 1970 Amateur World Series, 1971 European Championship (Silver) and 1972 Haarlem Baseball Week. He was back with Haarlem Nicols as a coach in 1973.

Source: Obituary by Marco Stoovelaar