In March this year the municipality hosted a press conference about the newly to be built stadium and the ambition to open it ceremonially in 2014 with the first official MLB games in Europe. MLB delegate in Europe Clive Russell came from his office in London to the Netherlands, in order to describe the plans in cooperation between Amsterdam and Hoofddorp as “pole position for the Netherlands”….

On Tuesday morning Mister Baseball spoke on the phone with Technical Director Robert Eenhoorn of Dutch federation KNBSB. He confirmed that to the purpose of this bidbook presentation, he will fly to New York on Tuesday next week. He will accompany the delegation from the two cities Amsterdam and Hoofddorp, headed by their sports eldermen Eric van der Burg, respectively Michel Bezuijen.

– Pim van Nes, mister-baseball.com.

That sounds like a pretty awesome idea. And like Craig Calcaterra points out, for an East Coast team a flight to Europe isn’t much further than one to the West Coast.

One question, posed to me by Ted Burke: If the Dutch call baseball “honkbal,” do they also call a walk a “honk on bals”? I sure as hell hope so.