Jan-Dick Leurs

Jan-Dick Leurs

• Born October 8, 1947 in Amsterdam Netherlands

Jan-Dick Leurs was on the Dutch baseball scene for many years. Leurs was on the Dutch national team from 1969-1977. He was named the best Dutch rookie in the 1969 Haarlem Baseball Week. In 1973, he led Hoofdklasse with a 0.82 ERA. He won Hoofdklasse Pitcher of the Year honors in 1972 and 1974 (sharing the award the latter year) but missed out in '73, his one time leading the league in a key area.

After playing, Leurs became a coach and manager. He coached six Hoofdklasse winners after having played for five. His four consecutive Dutch titles are tied for a record with Evert-Jan 't Hoen. He was pitching coach of the Dutch national team in 1979-1980 and 1984. From 1992-2000, he was the manager of the Netherlands squad, setting a record for wins (72), which was later broken by Robert Eenhoorn. His tenure included his guidance of the team in the 1996 Olympics and three European Championship titles.

In 2009, Leurs was inducted into the Dutch Baseball Hall of Fame.

Sources

• Marco Stoovelaar's Dutch baseball site
• Dutch Wikipedia entry
• Honkbalgids 2000 by Marco Stoovelaar