General Baseball Organization

In Holland, the 80 year old Royal Dutch Baseball and Softball Federation is the national body for administering all organized baseball. As opposed to American baseball, which is set up at many levels, leagues, organizations, schools and grades of profession, Dutch baseball is a club team thing. Several hundred clubs have teams, participating in leagues of different levels and age groups. For instance, a typical club would have two or three teams of each of the following:

men's baseball, age 18+
juniors baseball, age 16-18
cadets baseball, age 13-15
juveniles baseball, age 9-12 (LL rules)
T-ball or coach/toss-ball, age 6-8
and some teams in women's and men's fastpitch softball.

Some clubs only consist of four to six teams, other clubs have over thirty.

The baseball federation organizes leagues at two or three National levels for senior ball, and at the lower District levels for under-18 and lower level senior teams. Even at the highest levels, players are amateurs, although they get their costs for uniforms and travelling reimbursed, as well as some pocket money.

Teams practice during the winter in gyms and outdoors. In March, spring training exhibition games are organized, and around April 15, the regular season will start, and run until mid-September. Then, play-offs and final series (we call them the Holland Series) determine the national champion of baseball/softball.

While teams at the national levels play two or three games a week, thus working a 45 games season, teams at the lower levels only play once a week on Saturday or Sunday. However, most teams compete in several exhibition tournaments during the summer months as well.

At the end of the season, every league's best team is promoted to the next higher level, while the team at the bottom of the ranking will be placed at a lower level next year. A league usually consists of 8-10 teams.

The level of the highest league's baseball can be compared to USA's top college teams or single-A-teams on average. To illustrate this: in recent years quite some dutch ballplayers have been signed by pro organizations, and three of them have reached AAA or Major League ball (Eenhoorn, Faneyte and Milliard).

The Umpires

Any individual who wants to become a baseball or softball umpire will have to attend school. In the months of January and February, courses are held in every dutch region. Typically, these courses runs for five or six weeks, one night a week. Both rulebook lessons and gym sessions are conducted by an instructor who is assigned by the federation. After passing the final exam, new umpires are assigned to games at the lower district levels.

About 500 new umpires are trained each winter, but no more than about 80 will actually become an active umpires. All others just attended school to learn more about baseball, its rules and the umpire's role in the game. Since Holland is still always short on umpires, youth games are usually umpired by club people. Although everybody is aware of the dangers of this practice, nothing can be done about it.

Umpires in the districts are observed by local federation representatives. Based upon good performance, these umpires are invited to attend a higher level clinic after one or two years. After passing the exam at this level, they are promoted to the lowest of the national levels. Since 1996, these new umpires form a group of officials, who are trained, coached and observed constantly during their first year at this level. Almost all their games are observed, they get assistance from a sports psychologist and a veteran umpire, and receive reports about their performance on a weekly basis. As a result, some of them make it to the highest national level sooner or later.

Apart from this specific group of new umpires, all other umpires are also observed once in a while by veteran umpires, who now report their observations to the umpire's commissioner. Based upon these reports, that reflect the official's performance, an umpire can be promoted to a higher level of baseball.

Umpiring in Holland is fun, compared to what I have learned about baseball in the States. Almost all venues are regular baseball fields with wonderful infields and green outfields, dugouts, fences, and in many cases scoreboards. Artificial lights can be found at more and more stadiums. Umpires always have their own locker room, so they don't have to change in the car.

A regular Sunday for an umpire would look like this: In case of game time of 2:30pm ....
the umpire will make sure to be at the baseball field around 1:30pm. He (note: we hardly have female umpires) will park his car and take his bag to the locker room.
Then, (and this is something typical for dutch culture, I guess) he will go to the clubhouse, and is offered coffee or a soda by the home team club representative.
When his partner has arrived and has had some coffee, too, they will go to the locker room, rub some baseballs, and get ready for the job.

From then on, working a ball game should be about the same thing as what the reader is used to.

After the game, the umpires get back to the locker room, have a hot shower, get dressed, and return to the home team's club house. There, the game forms (scorecard and another official document) are signed by the plate ump, and....yes, the umpires usually are offered a beer or two (often Heineken, no less!). Then, after chatting a bit about the ballgame, they leave.

Payment? Certainly at the higher levels, but less than most american leagues pay. The federation will pay each umpire, depending on the ballgame's level, 20-40 guilders (US$ 10-20) plus some mileage fee. The federation sends a check to each umpire on a monthly basis for all ballgames worked during the previous month. At the lower district levels however, umpires are not paid. They receive a warm "Thank you" (plus the beer and burger) from the home team after the game.

Umpire's Association

Umpires may become a member of the national independent umpire's association B.U.B.S.. This association is not to be compared with NASO, for instance. It's not a strong legal institute, and it doesn't provide insurance. The BUBS, however, publishes an umpire magazine (in the dutch language) and organizes a one-weekend annual clinic for members of all levels. During this weekend, the umpires not only appreciate the officiating instruction (both classroom and gym sessions), but above all like the informal atmosphere and the opportunity to enjoy a good conversation and some drinks (and some more drinks).

Because BUBS membership is not mandatory, and because the BUBS clinic is not supervised officially, the federation also conducts a mandatory annual clinic for dutch national umpires.

Any questions or comments will be appreciated!