View Full Version : Talking of 'spreading the word' ...
Baseball Mum
06-11-2007, 12:28 AM
There's been a bit of discussion here on how to get the word out to girls that baseball is an option for them when they're looking for a sport. A kids TV show here in Australia, 'Totally Wild' recently filmed a girls baseball tournament and aired a segment on their show. Someone has posted it to the net and you can see it here on YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Miy1243ohE8 (It takes a while to download, so be patient.)
This was a tournament in two age groups, Under 14s and Under 16s. There were three teams in each comp from two different states. 45 girls travelled 500 miles from Sydney to compete in the tournament in Melbourne. There were about 90 girls total. They certainly got a buzz out of the TV cameras being there.
NotAboutEgo
06-11-2007, 07:54 AM
There's been a bit of discussion here on how to get the word out to girls that baseball is an option for them when they're looking for a sport. A kids TV show here in Australia, 'Totally Wild' recently filmed a girls baseball tournament and aired a segment on their show. Someone has posted it to the net and you can see it here on YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Miy1243ohE8 (It takes a while to download, so be patient.)
This was a tournament in two age groups, Under 14s and Under 16s. There were three teams in each comp from two different states. 45 girls travelled 500 miles from Sydney to compete in the tournament in Melbourne. There were about 90 girls total. They certainly got a buzz out of the TV cameras being there.
That's pretty cool! I will check it out. Too bad we can't get TV coverage here in the states like that. The 2006 Women's World Championship that took place in Taipei, Taiwan was broadcast on TV there. The Asian countries are also good about broadcasting women's baseball.
It took too long for the #1 ball-bat-base game country on the European continent, (the oldest fossil of Dutch baseball shows a coed game)
but ladies baseball has been started in the Netherlands about a year ago by Percy Isenia (and other(s)). At the moment there are just two women's teams: the Pink Panters and the Angels, members of those teams are part coed baseball players, softball lasses and even some with no other bbb-sport background.
It's still in the stating phase, the teams are not part of any regular competition yet, but the ultimate goal is a competitive national women's team.
(Addition: description of the background of the players may be wrong for the actual players, but it is the recruiting profile)
RightEGirl
09-04-2008, 12:50 PM
Hey ThW5!
That's FAN-TAS-TIC news! Are the teams associated with already established baseball/softball clubs? I never heard of it when I was there playing softball with the ladies and baseball with the 3e Klasse men. I am so happy to hear that Baseball is getting a start there with the women and girls! As you know, Dutch women are some of the tallest and most athletic in the world. I though when I was there that Dutch Women's Baseball would be a VERY good fit!
If they get to the point where they would like to contract for a player (pitcher/infielder) or a player/coach, let me know! I would LOVE to go back to the Netherlands for a season, work some more on my Dutch (Ik kann sprek een klein beetje Nederlands ), play ball, teach the girls what I know and help develop the sport, pitch for them and play infield, and see some more of Holland and Europe.
Best,
Tiff
Well, it's still in the gathering the troops stage, quite some time time before they need foreign professionals, I mean they have already an Olympic veteran involved :(
Of course as a lady baseball pitcher you would probably have heard if it was during season, but the founding date was September 28 for the first team, so perhaps you had left already?
As far as I understand it, there is at least some degree of association with clubs, as in sharing fields and the like. It's all a bit experimental still.
All that tall talk is quite overdone, in my opinion. I'm a somewhat short guy, that is I am as tall as the average fullgrown girl from the province I was born, or for that matter, my sister, just a mere 6ft :)
Theodore
Link (in Dutch)
http://dameshonkbal.hyves.nl/
NotAboutEgo
09-04-2008, 02:11 PM
I am also very glad to hear that women's baseball is starting in the Netherlands! Hopefully, they will develop a national team soon to play in the Women's Baseball World Cup and other international events.
Maybe it also will spurn other European countries to start women's baseball.
RightEGirl
09-05-2008, 02:00 PM
Hey all! (or to ThW5, Hoi!)
This is VERY encouraging! Here is a link I found to a video on YouTube showing the "Pink Panthers" from the Zuid Regio (Southern Region) of the Netherlands. The link is for "Dameshonkbal" -- which is really cool! The Dutch call baseball :Honkbal" and of course "Dames" is similar in English, and means "Women" or "Female" in this case.
The video is a clip of highlights from a game played vs. the guys (not sure what level... maybe 4th or 5th division?). Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cbsREWkHgI
If you put on the audio you'll get to heat Dutch language... you can figure out some things..mmostly it's just encouragement (Vel goed! or maybe Hel goed?- sounds like "fail good" -- and Goed zo! -- sounds like "good so"! The first is like "very good or all good" and the last is like "good job" or nicely done!
I'm sure Thw5, being Dutch can correct my language skills! : )
I'm really excited about this, and would like to find a way to go play there, maybe helping a team with some coaching and pitching! I loved the Netherlands and would go back in a heartbeat!
Best,
Tiff
"The Dutch call baseball :Honkbal" and of course "Dames" is similar in English, and means "Women" or "Female" in this case."
Well, "Ladies" actually, some standards of behaviour are assumed. I do grant you that Pink Panthers has somewhat naughty connotations, but still... :) I mean baseball is in the Netherlands a sport for gentlemen. In a confrontation like this in which the youngest players are merely 15, 16 years old, indicating them as ladies and gentlemen shows much better manners than throwing them in with their team mates who can be twice as old as women and men.
"The video is a clip of highlights from a game played vs. the guys (not sure what level... maybe 4th or 5th division?)."
The Saints (the only baseball and softball club from northern Rotterdam), Juniors (15-21 years old) 3e Klasse F (placed 2nd), fortified by players from the senior Saints (5e Klasse G, if they win next week they will be Champion and promoted) and Saints-2 (6e Klasse E, placed 2nd, one other team is simply playing too well for that Klasse, they claim). Agewise it is honest, Pink Panthers goes also from 15 up to 35 (no age limit). Low ranked, but all three teams are used to winning their fair share of games.
Ladies lost :18-14, BTW.
I leave it to Tiff to "translate" that back to US-levels.
If I listen to the voice I guess it may have been in favour of the Saints, BTW.
"If you put on the audio you'll get to heat Dutch language... you can figure out some things..mmostly it's just encouragement (Vel goed! or maybe Hel goed?- sounds like "fail good" -- and Goed zo! -- sounds like "good so"! The first is like "very good or all good" and the last is like "good job" or nicely done!
I'm sure Thw5, being Dutch can correct my language skills! : )"
Well, I would say that the first expression seems to be "Heel goed", which in this context I would rather translate as "Very well" (it seems to be comment on some action), and taking context in consideration "Well done" could be a fitting translation of "Goed zo!" as well.
The ladies...
http://www.iseniabaseballclinics.nl/kk_1400003.html
(The Coach/trainer is Percy Isenia, certainly not a lady :cap: )
RightEGirl
09-08-2008, 04:09 PM
Hoi Theodore!
I loved the pictures! De eerste Dameshonkbal spelsters! Nice! Heel goed!
I thought I should also ask you. Do you know how Ivette and Percy's English skills are? I wrote to Isenia Baseball Clinics in Engels. Are they from Curacao/Aruba/Surinam or? I'm just asking because I had a coach from Aruba who spoke papamiento and Dutch but hardly any English. I wanted to make sure they could understand my e-mail! : )
Dank je wel!
Ciao
Tiff
I'll bet he will know some English...
http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Percy_Isenia
I am willing to help if language would be a problem, but I don't think that will be necessary.
One important thing :candle: The Pink Panthers play in South Holland (Rotterdam area), not the region South of the Netherlands (the ladies team there is planned to be based in Eindhoven).
RightEGirl
09-09-2008, 12:16 AM
Thanks, Theodore.
I thought maybe he was Aruban, but it looks like he was born in Nederlanden, sooo...I'm sure he speaks "Engels." If not, though, thank your for the offer of language help. I read quite a bit of Dutch and can also understand a lot of it spoken, but I'm still working on the writing and speaking.
Groets,
Tiff