Hoofdklasse Honkbal

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Johnny Balentina 2007.jpg

The Hoofdklasse Honkbal, Dutch for Major League Baseball, is the highest level of baseball in the Netherlands and is overseen by the Royal Netherlands Baseball and Softball Federation. Payment players receive greatly vary, depending on the club's budget. It is an eight team league that plays a 42-game schedule played mostly on weekends, with the season running from April to September. At the end of the season the top four teams qualify for the playoffs which culminates in the Holland Series. Both of the playoff rounds are best-of-five. For many decades, the league followed a promotion and relegation system with the Overgangsklasse (Transition Division), which is between the Hoofdklasse and Eerste Klasse (First Division) in which the last place Hoofdklasse team plays the Overgangsklasse champion; the format changed in 2022, with it becoming a "closed league". The league once drew attendance in the thousands but by the 2020s had dwindled to the hundreds. Many of the official team nicknames contain the name of the club's corporate sponsor.

Current Teams[edit]

Franchise Official Team Name City Stadium
Amsterdam Pirates L&D Amsterdam Amsterdam Loek Loevendie Ballpark
Neptunus Curacao Neptunus Rotterdam Neptunus Familie Stadion
Oosterhout Twins De Glaskoning Twins Oosterhout Sportpark De Slotbossetoren
DSS/Kinheim DSS/Kinheim Haarlem DSS baseball field, Pim Mulier Sportpark
Hoofddorp Pioniers Hoofddorp Pioniers Hoofddorp Sportpark Pioniers
HCAW HCAW Bussum Rob HoffmanVallei
Quick Amersfoort Quick Amersfoort XLLease Park
Storks Silicon Storks The Hague Sportpark Kijkduin-Schapenatjesduin

List of Holland Champions[edit]

(Holland Series instituted at this point)

Famous Players[edit]

MVP (AKA Balink Award)[edit]

Pitcher of the Year[edit]

External Links[edit]

Baseball in the Netherlands
Federation National Team Womens' National Team
Hoofdklasse · Eerste Klasse
Holland Series · Haarlem Baseball Week · World Port Tournament · Dutch Baseball Hall of Fame
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