Mid 1990s, Netherlands, Europe. Late Spring. Unlike nowadays, it is probably a hazy day. Not cold, probably somewhere around 60 degrees Fahrenheit. Kinheim from Haarlem and Neptunus from Rotterdam are the teams that dominate Dutch (and European) baseball, but we are in Amsterdam, the Dutch capital, in the western part of the city. Eyes are focused on a game of the local Amsterdam Pirates, here in the tiny stadium of the Jan van Galenstraat.
The Pirates are one of the biggest clubs in the Netherlands, but without much success in these early 90s. The people that are watching the game, behind home plate, do not talk about local hero Dennis Bergkamp, who will fight with the Dutch national soccer team on the World Championship in the USA, but rather about Hensley Meulens, the first Dutch Antillean player ever who played in the MLB.