Baseball Dreams in Curacao – NRC

dollar signs

It is a long road strewn with obstacles which, for many, prove insurmountable. Frank Curiel – de Godfather of baseball in Curacao – managed all the big stars in five decades. From Meulens to Yurendell de Caster and from Jurickson Profar to Andrelton Simmons. But much more often, he saw boys dropping out. Due to a lack of talent, too little effort, or the negative influence of parents with dollar signs in their eyes. According to “Maestro” Curiel, greed for money is the greatest danger to raising the current generation of baseball talent. It visibly hurts him.

Like Curiel, Meulens is old school. According to the head coach of the Dutch team of the Kingdom and hit the trainer from the Colorado Rockies, young pros only have a chance if they want to give it their all. Wanting to be the best on the pitch in every practice and every game. Because otherwise, according to Meulens, you have no chance in the jungle professional baseball in which strict unwritten rules apply.

In recent decades, following Meulens, fifteen Curaçao-born baseball players have made the leap to MLB. This season, four are active at the highest level. Unprecedented numbers for an island of 150,000 people, but Meulens’ claim that Curaçao has the most successful baseball professionals in the world by comparison, was not counted without San Pedro de Macorís. This city of 200,000 inhabitants in the Dominican Republic has provided more than a hundred professionals for the American Major League. Additionally, Aruba’s six MLB professionals (pop. 106,000) – including mega star Xander Bogaerts – are also worth mentioning. And is it a bit strange to portray the Netherlands as a country where baseball is “unknown”, while “Oranje”, with a mixture of players from different backgrounds, became world champion once and champion of Europe 24 times. In addition, around ten baseball players have been trained for MLB across the Dutch leagues. But that aside.

The documentary series Home run in Curacao is aimed at professionals who have almost all grown up in the fields of Willemstad and the surrounding area. Undoubtedly one of the most important pools of talent. With the popular district of Marchena under the smoke of the oil refinery as its epicenter. On the dusty streets, stars like Andruw Jones, Kenley Jansen, Jurickson Profar and Andrelton Simmons played in their youth with a stick for a bat and a beer cap for a ball. Bam Bam Meulens After. To put him in their shadow years later, both sportingly and financially. Jansen deserves like closer Boston Red Sox thirty million euros in two seasons. This makes him, along with Formula 1 driver Max Verstappen and Bogaerts, one of the highest paid athletes with a Dutch passport.

Current professionals such as Simmons and Profar tell on the show with a constant smile on their face the story of their special life in which they met as enthusiastic boys on a baseball field and then grew up together as professionals in the United States to become the largest. players of the Dutch team which, two months ago, led by Meulens, played in the World Baseball Classic. “Maybe there’s something in the water,” Simmons jokes. Profar: “A lot of people thought I would never make it. Because of my character. It only made me stronger. I wanted to show what I could do. No one could stop me. »

Baseball players like Simmons (as supposedly free agent still without a club) and Profar (left fielder for the Colorado Rockies) are now examples of a new generation of talented teenagers. Fifteen-year-old Curley Martha is seen as the future of baseball in Curacao and has signed a contract with the Texas Rangers which takes effect in 2024. This is by no means a guarantee of a successful professional career. Former pro Yurendell de Caster (43) knows that better than anyone. He made it to MLB but didn’t go beyond two at bat in three games with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Andre Jones

It’s kind of ridiculous that De Caster is being touted as a figurehead, when Andruw Jones (with 2,196 games for the Atlanta Braves and New York Yankees, among others) plays no role in Home run in Curacao. Jones (46)’s nickname in the United States is The Curacao Kid. Although De Caster’s commitment to helping new talent on the island is far more important than Jones, who lives in the United States, who is the father of mega talent Druw Jones (19).

The Caster is quite literal at times – he takes Curley Martha – a father figure to a generation of teenagers who have already made a name for themselves in the Little League World Series. It becomes clear that De Caster demands the maximum at home and as a coach at Baseball Academy Curacao. “As an amateur you play for your pleasure, as a professional for your money,” says De Caster. “He who does not give everything, will be next.”

On their way to MLB, many baseball players from Curaçao make a stopover, sometimes for several years, in the Dominican Republic. There they are placed by their American employers to gain experience at training clubs in a series of competitions. Only the best “survive”. Those who are not good enough return to square one disillusioned. According to De Caster, the Curaçaoans have to perform even better than the Dominicans or the Americans if they want to have a chance. “They take on their own people at the same time, and black-skinned people have to prove themselves even more as well. You always have to show up,” says De Caster. Or as Meulens says: “It’s a aerial combat. And that in the Major League 162 games per season. If you don’t play, someone else will be there.”

Home run in Curacao is mainly presented as a success for boys. The spectator receives the message that great talents can go far with a hard school and an iron discipline. Very far. It shows that those who make it to the top often proudly fulfill the dreams of others in Curaçao. They are the heroes of “our island” as the voiceover emphasizes over and over again. And “we” does not mean the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Home run in Curacao visible via NPO Start/NPO Plus. Part two (May 10) and part three (May 17) also via NPO 3.