The Netherlands national baseball team is the national baseball team of the Netherlands, representing the country in international men's baseball. They are currently ranked as the best team in the European Union, and the team is also ranked seventh place in the IBAF World Rankings.
The Netherlands participated in the Summer Olympic Games in 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008. The team has also participated in both of the other major international baseball tournaments recognised by the International Baseball Federation (IBAF): the World Baseball Classic (WBC) and the Baseball World Cup. In 2011, the team caused a sensation when it won the World Cup after beating 25-time champion Cuba in the finals.
The team is controlled by the Koninklijke Nederlandse Baseball en Softball Bond, which is represented in the Confederation of European Baseball. The Netherlands competed in the 2009 Baseball World Cup.
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“Greece is a sort of American vassal; the Netherlands is the country of American bases that grow like tulip bulbs; Cuba is the main sugar plantation of the American monopolies; Turkey is prepared to kow-tow before any United States pro-consul and Canada is the boring second fiddle in the American symphony.”
—Andrei Andreyevich Gromyko (1909–1989)
“The Federated Republic of Europe—the United States of Europe—that is what must be. National autonomy no longer suffices. Economic evolution demands the abolition of national frontiers. If Europe is to remain split into national groups, then Imperialism will recommence its work. Only a Federated Republic of Europe can give peace to the world.”
—Leon Trotsky (1879–1940)
“The talk shows are stuffed full of sufferers who have regained their health—congressmen who suffered through a serious spell of boozing and skirt-chasing, White House aides who were stricken cruelly with overweening ambition, movie stars and baseball players who came down with acute cases of wanting to trash hotel rooms while under the influence of recreational drugs. Most of them have found God, or at least a publisher.”
—Calvin Trillin (b. 1935)
“They’re two good old friends of mine. I call them Constitution and The Bill of Rights. A most dependable team for long journeys. Then I’ve got another one called Missouri Compromise. And a Supreme Court—a fine, dignified horse, though you have to push him on every now and then.”
—Dan Totheroh (1895–1976)