Jason Halman

Jason Geronimo Halman

• Bats Right, Throws Right

• Born February 28, 1989 in Haarlem, Noord-Holland Netherlands

Biographical Information

The brother of Gregory Halman and son of Eddy Halman, Jason Halman was playing regularly in Hoofdklasse Honkbal at age 16 like his brother.

Halman hit .467/.500/.600 in the 2004 World Junior Championship at DH, leading the Netherlands in OPS.

He hit .279/.341/.361 in 2005 while splitting his time between catching and the outfield for the Amsterdam Pirates. In 2006, the young Dutch player batted .261/.293/.278 for Almere as a C/1B/OF. He moved to ADO for 2007 and hit .228/.282/.316.

In 2008, Halman was decked with a 10-game suspension for his role in a large brawl between Kinheim and Neptunus on May 18. Jason hit .231/.267/.308 as the Kinheim DH in the 2008 European Cup in Grosseto; Kinheim won the event. In the 2008 Hoofdklasse season, Halman batted .232/.291/.305 as a bench player for Kinheim. He went 0 for 3 in the playoffs and did not appear in the 2008 Holland Series. In the 2009 European Cup's Matino phase, Jason went 2 for 5. He was 0 for 3 with a walk in the Cup's Final Four. He had his best season in the Hoofdklasse to that point, batting .313/.343/.440 while splitting the Kinheim catcher's job with Tjerk Smeets. He also played DH frequently when not catching. He was 10th in the Hoofdklasse with 25 RBI, tied for 5th in doubles (11) and was 12th in slugging (between Jeffrey Arends and Mervin Gario).

Halman was picked to play for the North in the 2010 Hoofdklasse All-Star Game, the first Hoofdklasse All-Star Game. For the season, he fell to .279/.314/.378 with 33 RBI in 41 games. He took over at catcher for Kinheim with Smeets moving to first base; Halman had 12 passed balls. He led the 2010 Hoofdklasse in passed balls, was 10th in runs (25, between Sidney de Jong and Rene Cremer), tied for 4th in hits (48, behind Bryan Engelhardt, Dirk van 't Klooster and Raily Legito), was 4th in RBI (3 behind leader Engelhardt, 2 behind Legito and one behind Danny Rombley), tied for third in doubles (11, trailing Legito and Dwayne Kemp), tied for 7th in home runs (2), was 7th in total bases (65) and ranked 10th with 31 strikeouts.

Making the Dutch national team for the first time, he hit .353/.353/.647 in the 2010 Haarlem Baseball Week, with four hits in a win over Taiwan. In the 2010 European Championship, he was 2 for 11 with a walk, run and RBI, backing up Sidney de Jong and Bas Nooij at catcher. The Dutch won the Silver Medal; Halman did not play in the Gold Medal game loss to Italy. In the 2010 Intercontinental Cup, he played one game, going 3 for 4 with two doubles and two runs as the DH against the Thailand national team. For the rest of the event, he did not play, as the team went to veterans Engelhardt and Bas de Jong at DH.

In the 2011 Hoofdklasse, Halman was again Kinheim's main catcher. He hit .333/.416/.473 with 28 runs, 20 doubles, 32 RBI and 23 walks in 42 games. He was 9th in the league in average (between Fausto Alvarez and Sidney de Jong), 8th in slugging (between Dirimo Chavez and Bas de Jong), 5th in hits (55, between Chavez and MVP Vince Rooi), 8th in RBI, first in doubles and 5th in total bases (78).

On the morning of November 21, 2011, Jason's brother Greg Halman was found by Dutch police at his home in Rotterdam, victim of a stab wound, and died soon after. Police indicated that they had arrested a 22-year-old man in connection with the stabbing, who was identified as Jason. He was rumored to be the main suspect in the tragic death. During his trial the following August, prosecutors and his defense lawyers agreed to have the charge reduced to manslaughter, pleading that Jason was undergoing a psychotic episode at the time. He was formally acquitted on August 30th. Jason Halman was allowed to walk free after psychiatric and psychological assessments found "there is only a remote chance of any reoccurrence; it is well possible that the psychosis has been a singular event."

Sources

• Dutch baseball stats
• 2008 European Cup in Grosseto
• 2009 European Cup in Matino
• Honkbalsite
• 2010 Haarlem Baseball Week
• 2010 European Championship
• 2010 Intercontinental Cup Final Report