Win Remmerswaal, the primary European-trained Main Leaguer

The Pink Sox had been shedding, 4-1, to the Brewers within the sixth inning when supervisor Don Zimmer made the decision to his bullpen for a thin right-hander who had simply been introduced up from Triple-A Pawtucket.

Few among the many crowd at Milwaukee County Stadium acknowledged the title, Remmerswaal, stretching throughout the again of the 25-year-old’s jersey. His nickname, nonetheless — brief for Wilhelmus — was a phrase eminently acquainted to any baseball fan: Win.

It was an inauspicious second for a Main League debut, additional overshadowed by all of the baseball world had on its thoughts on Aug. 3, 1979. The tragic demise of Yankees captain Thurman Munson lined the entrance pages of newspapers, and Pink Sox followers had been counting down with bated breath as Carl Yastrzemski inched nearer to three,000 profession hits.

Win Remmerswaal wouldn’t come near reaching any such milestone in his temporary and injury-plagued large league profession. However by the point he induced a double play from the primary batter he confronted, he had carved out a spot in baseball historical past. Born and raised within the Netherlands, Remmerswaal had simply turn out to be the primary European-trained Main Leaguer.

Remmerswaal excelled at sports activities from a younger age. Rising up alongside three athletic brothers in Wassenaar, a suburb of The Hague, he performed soccer within the winter and baseball — or because it’s identified within the Netherlands, honkbal — in the summertime.

“Win was a very good soccer participant and performed till his 18th [birthday],” Wil Koot, a childhood good friend, mentioned in an e mail, “however he was enthusiastic about baseball.”

Remmerswaal and Koot’s homes lay simply 200 meters from the athletic fields. Their native baseball staff held apply a number of instances per week. Each Wednesday, they performed golf equipment from the American Baseball Basis consisting of youngsters of American expats. However that wasn’t sufficient for the baseball-obsessed Remmerswaal.

“Throughout our holidays we had been at all times on the sector throwing to one another or having batting apply,” Koot remembered. “Even after we went to highschool, he was ready for me afterwards to have some apply. … Just a few guys sometimes frolicked working towards after faculty or throughout holidays, however none of them had been [as] uniquely passionate and pushed as we had been.”

By the point Remmerswaal was in his late teenagers, his expertise had garnered the eye of the Storks, a staff belonging to the best degree {of professional} baseball within the Netherlands — the Honkbal Hoofdklasse.

“He was the most effective pitcher in Europe on the time,” mentioned Storks hurler Frank de Groot.

Regardless of being within the Dutch large leagues, the Storks remained largely a household operation. Gamers needed to buy their very own tools and uniforms, and fogeys helped out with laundry. However on sport days, hundreds of spectators stuffed the stands to look at the Netherlands’ greatest, together with the boy from Wassenaar whose arm awed each the crowds and his teammates.

de Groot recalled a time he was warming up with Remmerswaal:

“Simply previous to the sport, he says, ‘Frank, you stand on house plate, and I’m going to first base, and I begin throwing to you. And within the meantime, I’ll stroll backwards.’ … He ended up virtually on the fence within the outfield.”

Remmerswaal got here to be referred to as a lot for his idiosyncratic habits as his immense expertise. He chewed tobacco, extra like a Main Leaguer than a honkballer.

“That’s a particular one,” mentioned de Groot. “No one in Holland chews tobacco.”

Remmerswaal usually appeared to be off in his personal world, forgetting issues or arriving late to the ballpark. This tendency would take an amusing flip within the Majors. Remmerswaal as soon as overslept earlier than a sport in New York, hailed a taxi and located himself miles away from Yankee Stadium at Shea Stadium, the place the Jets had been taking part in a soccer sport.

One other time, based on Thomas Boswell’s How Life Imitates the World Sequence, Zimmer as soon as known as to the Sox bullpen to “get Win up” and was informed he was out within the stands shopping for peanuts. However Remmerswaal’s talents made up for his absentmindedness.

“He wasn’t the standard pitcher, listening to the coaches,” de Groot mentioned with fun. “However OK, he’s throwing 50 strikeouts per sport, so that you’re excused.”

Within the 1973 European Championship, Remmerswaal pitched for a Dutch nationwide staff that steamrolled its option to a 3rd straight title. After permitting simply two hits and two walks whereas hanging out 9 over 6 2/3 scoreless innings in a come-from-behind win vs. Italy, he was named the event’s greatest pitcher.

“He had … good shifting stuff, management, and his leg was very versatile,” mentioned de Groot. “Throwing this inside shifting stuff, going and breaking down.”

As Remmerswaal continued to play, he attracted consideration from exterior Europe, specifically Main League scouts. One in every of them was Pink Sox common supervisor Dick O’Connell, who signed him to an expert contract on Nov. 22, 1974.

This marked a big achievement for the boy who had dreamed of taking part in in America since his early teen years and for the nation that had educated him. Future Corridor of Famer Bert Blyleven, born in Zeist, Netherlands, made his MLB debut in 1970, however he had realized the sport in California. Now, a Hoofdklasse participant had an opportunity to play baseball on the most important stage on the planet.

“I didn’t assume a Dutchman would make it to the Main Leagues,” Koot admitted. “For us, this was solely a dream — the spare items we noticed on tv of Main League Baseball had been tens of millions of miles away.”

In his first three seasons within the Minors (1975-77), Remmerswaal climbed from Single-A Winter Haven to Triple-A Pawtucket, recording a 2.76 ERA with 296 strikeouts over 94 video games (47 begins). He attended large league Spring Coaching in ‘78 however spent the season in Triple-A, the place he went 8-6 with a 4.47 ERA in 34 video games (20 begins).

Regardless of his success, pitching within the Minors required changes for a participant educated in Europe.

“Each pitch I take advantage of has been modified prior to now three years, since I began taking part in skilled baseball,” Remmerswaal informed The Boston Globe in 1978. “They began me once more, from the start.”

Remmerswaal started the 1979 season in Triple-A, however in August he bought the decision. In line with his SABR bio, in typical Remmerswaal vogue, the right-hander stayed in mattress, ignoring the knocks on his door for thus lengthy that the staff needed to reschedule his flight to hitch the Pink Sox on their highway journey.

Two days after his debut, he recorded his first profession win in a 19-5 Sox blowout.

Remmerswaal wasn’t satisfied that anybody again within the Netherlands cared a lot, telling Peter Gammons of The Boston Globe that baseball was “such a small factor there, I don’t even know if I made the papers.”

“There was lots of effort and lots of information across the Netherlands,” mentioned Ton de Jager, a former Storks infielder and board member. “It was within the paper, it was on the radio, on the TV. And I feel it was opening doorways for the subsequent era to see if they’ll succeed within the States.”

Sticking within the Majors, nonetheless, is an altogether totally different beast than getting there. So efficient for a lot of his Minors profession, Remmerswaal struggled to a 7.08 ERA with 12 walks to 16 strikeouts over eight outings for the Pink Sox in his debut season.

The following yr, after skipping winter ball in Puerto Rico attributable to a shoulder harm, he posted a 2-1 file with a 4.58 ERA over 14 video games for Boston.

Remmerswaal was the final reliever to seem for the Pink Sox that season, getting two outs within the prime of the ninth on Oct. 5. It might be the 26-year-old’s remaining Main League outing.

Remmerswaal returned to Pawtucket in 1981, etching his title within the historical past books as soon as extra, this time as one of many pitchers in a 33-inning marathon that continues to be the longest recorded skilled baseball sport. Nonetheless troubled by shoulder issues, his frequent stints on the injured record exacerbated the loneliness he usually felt in America. He started to drink extra. Finally, he was outrighted by the Pink Sox and returned to Europe after taking part in in simply 22 MLB video games.

Remmerswaal discovered some success on an Italian staff and served as head coach for the Amsterdam Pirates in Hoofdklasse, however he continued to be tormented by well being issues and dependancy. After problems from pneumonia he contracted in 1997, the person who had spent the primary 4 a long time of his life on a baseball discipline was confined to a nursing house.

By the point Remmerswaal handed away in 2022 on the age of 68, few remembered the eccentric righty who had damaged new floor for Europeans within the Majors.

Amongst youthful generations within the Netherlands, curiosity in baseball has declined and Remmerswaal’s story has light into obscurity. It has been a while since a participant adopted in his footsteps from Hoofdklasse to the Main Leagues. Maybe the Cardinals’ No. 13 prospect, Sem Robberse, a Zeist native, is subsequent.

“You don’t see it too usually that any individual from the Netherlands has a shot at making it into the large leagues,” Robberse informed MLB.com. “It’s actually cool to additionally see, like, the previous gamers which are from there. It’s a small nation, and to have among the gamers go [from] over there’s fairly cool. …

“I might love to have the ability to signify indirectly. When I’ve the possibility and the chance to, I positively would like to develop the sport, particularly over there in Europe and within the Netherlands.”

There’s a symmetry within the two right-handers, separated by half a century, paving a path for his or her nation in Main League Baseball.