Gino Henson

Eugene Henson

• Bats Right, Throws Right

• Born January 8, 1971

Biographical Information

Infielder Gino Henson played for 18 years in the Dutch Hoofdklasse.

Henson debuted in 1991 for Sparta and hit .380, .067 behind league leader Marcel Kruyt. He signed with the Atlanta Braves for 1992 and played for the DSL Braves that season. He then returned to the Netherlands for the rest of his playing career. He was with ADO in 1993-1994, the Twins in 1995, the Pioniers in 1996-1997, ADO again from 1998-2001, HCAW from 2002-2007 and Sparta/Feyenoord from 2008-2009.

Henson led the Hoofdklasse in steals in 1993 (38), 1994 (42) and 1996 (24). He was on the Pioniers club that won the 1997 Holland Series. In 2000, Gino hit .342 to finish 8th in the Hoofdklasse.

Henson played for the Dutch national team in the 2001 European Championship, hitting .333/.586/.500 with 10 walks in 7 games as his country won the Gold Medal. He tied Lahcene Benhamida for second in the event in walks, behind Magnus Pilegard.

Gino ranked among the 2004 Hoofdklasse leaders in runs (31, 4th), hits (46, 5th) and steals (10, tied for 6th). After that, he began to show signs of age. He hit .136/.212/.175 in 2005 and was 0 for 14 in the 2005 Holland Series. In 2006, he batted .295/.413/.344 in a resurgent campaign, finishing 15th in the Hoofdklasse in OBP.

Henson hit .274/.396/.357 in 2007 and .253/.374/.293 in 2008. He was 6th in 2008 with 28 walks. In his last year, 2009, Gino batted .242/.340/.296 and stole 16 bases in 21 attempts. The old-timer finished third in steals to show he could still run.

Henson then retired to become the coach of ADO's Rookie team and take a job at the Tsunami Baseball Academy in The Hague. He became head coach of the ADO Lakers for 2014, replacing Dave Daniels after a last-place season. The team folded at year's end and he became manager of Mampaey The Hawks. After a 7-35 season, they were relegated out after 2015. He became head coach of the Silicon Storks for 2020.

Sources

• Dutch Baseball and Softball Federation
• Marco Stoovelaar's Dutch Baseball site