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The last name Volkerijk is truly ingrained in Dutch baseball. Older fans might well remember the name of Bart’s father Leen, who was an important staple in Dutch baseball himself, but this Saturday afternoon the spotlights were placed on Bart Volkerijk, who played in the Dutch flagship league, the Honkbal Hoofdklasse, for 21 seasons.
He made his debut for ADO, from The Hague, in 1974 and would not leave that team until his retirement. It would be the start of an illustrious career, both nationally and internationally. Volkerijk was the best pitcher of his era and wound up owning a multitude of all-time Hoofdklasse pitching records, such as most games pitched (333), most wins (150), most strikeouts (1.948) and most complete games (202).
Volkerijk was a member of the Dutch national team for many years, starting in 1975. He was part of the squad for nine different European Championships, winning three, seven World Championships and the 1988 Olympic Games of Seoul. He ended his international career in 1991 and was rewarded with an award by the KNBSB, the federation he would later lead as the General Manager.
Together with Frans van Aalen, the longtime face of the most successful franchise in Dutch Baseball history Neptunus. Van Aalen played for the Rotterdam side himself, coached and is now the owner of Neptunus that has won 20 national titles since 1981. Van Aalen also had a seat on the board of the European and World Baseball Federation.
In his acceptance speech Bart Volkerijk announced his nomination for a position in the Executive Board of the WBSC Europe for the 2025 election: “It is a great honor to be inducted into the Dutch National Baseball Hall of Fame and I would like to thank the members of the Dutch National Baseball and Softball Museum for both this honor and all the hard work they do for preserving the history of our sports here in the Netherlands.”
“I would also like to congratulate Frans van Aalen on being inducted. I’m trying to follow in his footsteps as a board member in the European Federation as I will be the KNBSB’s nominee for the WBSC Europe election in 2025. I believe it is important that we, as the Netherlands, have a seat in the board of the WBSC Europe. We feel we can play an important role in helping grow the game across the entire continent.”
The 2025 election will take place during the WBSC Europe Congress in Zagreb, Croatia, on February 8th.
