Ex-Korean league ace Van den Hurk to run for WBC this year

Ex-Korean league ace Van den Hurk to run for WBC this year. January. 06, 2017 07:12. by Kyu-In Hwang kini@donga.com. Chill runs down the spine for the Korean national team soon to take part in World Baseball Classic (WBC) as Royal Netherlands Baseball and Softball Federation (KNBSB) announced on Thursday that Rick Van den Hurk (aged 32, Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, photo) will participate in the WBC for the Netherlands. Born in Eindhoven, Van den Hurk used to run for Samsung Lions for two years from 2013 and led the team to the victory for two consecutive years, which made him famous among Korean baseball fans.

Moving up to the WBC semifinal in 2013, the Netherlands has emerged as a new baseball strong nation. Back then, Korea was a scapegoat as well since it was eliminated from the tournament after losing zero to five at an opening game. This year, Holland is in the same Group A with Korea, Thailand and Israel. Korea will have a match against Dutch players at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul on March 7. It is highly likely that Van den Hurk will be starting the game on the day.

The Netherlands has become even stronger compared to four years ago as active Major League players such as Didi Gregorius (aged 27, New York Yankees), Xander Bogaerts (aged 25, Boston Red Sox), Andrelton Simmons (aged 28, Los Angeles Angels), Jonathan Schoop (aged 26, Baltimore Orioles) are coming all together. Although the pitching staff was said to be weaker than fielder staff, joining of Van den Hurk has built up the team’s strength to a great deal. “Dutch team is really strong,” Kim In-sik, manager of the Korean Baseball Organization, expressed his feeling of wariness.

The Netherlands has become strong baseball nation as Curaçao, a small island nation in the southern Caribbean Sea, is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Called as an “island of baseball,” Curaçao has produced not a few rising baseball players such as Bogaerts, Simmons and Schoop.