1900 hoofdklasse games for HCAW
Today, HCAW from Bussum will play its 1900th game in the Dutch hoofdklasse. In fact, the club will be the first one to reach this milestone. Unfortunately for the club, they cannot celebrate this feat at home as the team will head to Oosterhout to face Twins.
In 1967, HCAW debuted in the Dutch hoofdklasse. In a time when only two games per weekend were played, the guiding light of HCAW was Rob Hoffmann, a stellar pitcher that guided the team to the hoofdklasse, almost on his own.
Only after a poor season in 1982, the team was demoted to the overgangsklasse to return after one year in 1984. Since then the club has been part of the hoofdklasse constantly even though the club was on the brink of a demotion again in 1988. But due to problems at the Amsterdam based Amstel Tijgers, as that team could not field a hoofdklasse worthy team (at least, that is the official story) both clubs decided to merge. No player of Amstel Tijgers moved to Bussum so one may say that this merger was only a paper one. HCAW inherited the hoofdklasse spot and Amstel Tijgers’ scoreboard that is still in use.
The club made it to the Holland Series several times in the nineties. Newly attracted player/manager Craig McGinnis guided the team to two Dutch titles in 1994 and 1996 and also pitched a perfect game in those years, a rare feat in Dutch baseball, as he was the first to do so. As the club reached the Holland series several times but won only twice, fans from Neptunus Rotterdam disdainfully called the club HCAtwee (HCAtwo) as the team finished in second place several times.
After those successful 1990s, the results deteriorated and the club mostly finished in the second half of the standings. In the past two years the club made the playoffs again and this year the club has clinched a spot in it as well.
HCAW is one of the biggest baseball clubs in the Netherlands, member-wise as the club has 400 members of which 273 are active players.
From this side of the internet, I’d like to congratulate HCAW with this milestone of 1900 hoofdklasse games.