Personal Stories About Ball Caps: 2013 Dutch WBC Cap

This series is inspired by the must read book “All Caps, Stories That Justify an Outrageous Hat Collection” by Craig Colby. Craig wrote this book about the many caps he has and the stories behind it. Anyhow, this series will be about the caps I own and the stories behind them.

This episode is about the Dutch cap of the 2013 WBC, which I could buy thanks to my late dad.

In November 2012, my dad passed away because of Parkinson’s dementia. Unlike with the passing of my mom in 1992, when I didn’t want to know she would pass due to a liver disease, and it was a hard blow when that actually happened, I started to say goodbye when it became clear my dad had Parkinson’s disease. I didn’t want to have the same experience I had when my mom passed away. Sure, I was sad when my dad breathed his last breath, but I could cope with the loss, I thought.

Eventually, half a year later, I still got the blow. To get away from daily life, my wife proposed to go to the 2013 World Baseball Classic in San Francisco, to cheer for the Dutch national team in the semi-finals. A bit earlier, we received a payment of a life insurance of my dad, which we did not know about.

So I went to San Francisco with my brother-in-law, another baseball nut. During the warming up of both teams, I walked the concourse at AT&T Park, and there I bought the orange cap with black lid with an interlocking NL on the front. A few weeks before, I had bought the Dutch WBC jersey, so I supported my country in full fashion.

Unfortunately, the Dutch fell to the Dominicans 1 – 4 after the team had taken a 1-0 lead in the first inning on a groundout by Wladimir Balentien, which scored Andrelton Simmons from third base.

We had bought tickets for the final as well, in case the Dutch would win the semis. The Dominicans took on Puerto Rico, but since the weather was lousy (cold and a drizzling rain), we decided to leave in the sixth inning, with the Dominicans leading 3-0.

Even though the Dutch didn’t make it to the final, it was a great experience to attend the WBC and support my country. Thanks to my late dad, I was able to buy this cap and in a certain way this tournament was a healer, as it helped me to deal with the loss of my dad who infected me with the baseball virus.