Baseball in the Netherlands: Not always a story about heroics, part 3

In the previous edition of Baseball in the Netherlands: Not always a story about heroics, I wrote about the upcoming special meeting of AdoLakers from the Hague. The club got into financial trouble and the members had to vote about the future of the club.

Well that special meeting was last night. The outcome? 2/3 of the members that attended the meeting voted for dissolving the club. But the required 3/4 of the members that was needed to make it legitimate wasn’t in the clubhouse. Now a new meeting will be called in March. Then a majority of the available members will be sufficient to dissolve the club.

It is clear now that the club will be withdrawn from the Dutch Hoofdklasse. Since 1986 this will be the fifth club that will disappear from the Hoofdklasse. The last few years the Hoofdklasse team had a hard time to stay afloat. It is not clear yet whether the KNBSB (Dutch baseball and softball federation) will place back a team from the overgangsklasse or that the 2015 season will be played with only seven teams.

With ADOLakers, Dutch baseball will lose another famed club. Founded in 1948 the club was a regular member of the highest Dutch baseball division. The club won the Dutch championship in 1992 and also won the European Cup for clubs one year later. Famed club members were manager/coach Leen Volkerijk and his son, pitcher Bart Volkerijk.

Personally I cannot imagine why the members have voted to dissolve the club. I wonder if it really was not possible to move on without Hoofdklasse baseball. A club without Hoofdklasse baseball is better than no club at all.