July 19: I Love Honkbal

Miserable weather has limited my activities the last two days, but I saw blue skies for the first time yesterday. So, after two days of quick trips--a walking tour of Amsterdam from an American friend of Carole's studying there, multiple visits to T-mobile to figure out the prepaid sim card's issues, some window shopping, and a Dutch birthday party (just smiled, nodded, and ate cake)--we finally got to do something super fun and super Dutch: Honkbal.


And so, I give to you...


Top Ten Reasons Why I Adore Dutch Baseball:


10. The Name
       It's called Honkbal, for heaven's sake.  It actually sounds fun.


9. American Baseball Traditions
      They sing Take Me Out to the Ballgame and the YMCA.  They stretch at the 7th inning, and they do the YMCA.  There are peanuts and beer.  They will rock you.  There are Yankees hats (plus a few other pieces of MLB paraphernalia) throughout the small stadium.


8. Pass the Cheese, Please! 
      Fans are literally passing around containers of cheese to share with other fans in their section.  These people are so damn friendly.


7. Let's Just All Get Along
       There were children.  There were old ladies with backpacks full of oxygen.  There were a lot of people dressed in orange.  Everybody got along.  Everybody had fun.  And when they lost, they stood up and applauded their team and the other one, too.  This is what baseball should be like.


6. Are You Irish?
       There is a lot of singing...and a good amount of drinking, too.  Just when I thought these songs, belted by everyone of every age, were happy--like their rhythm and tone suggested--Michiel's friend Stijn would translate them for me.  "In this one, the man has a terrible wife...then he breaks his 'chains' and leaves her."  "This one is about a kite...that he attached a letter for his mother to and sent to heaven."  "This one says 'you're ugly when you get close.'"


5. Party Time
       There is a tented dance hall with a DJ right outside of the stadium.  Need I say more?


4. Rave, Anyone?
       Before the game starts, and intermittently throughout the game, the music guy plays lots of House music.  Everyone sings and dances.  If only it had been darker and they'd all had glow-sticks...


3. Song and Dance
       And they are constantly singing and dancing.  Imagine a Saints game, but a much smaller crowd of people in orange, where everyone is singing, entire sections are dancing (sometimes the same dance), and no police are being called because nobody is throwing punches, flinging insults, or cussing.  And the music is upbeat (but sad).



2. 3rd Base is Where It's At!
       Stijn found us four great seats in what I am told--and fully believe--is the 'rowdy section.'  People stand, they cheer, they sing, they dance, they fling ice at people (lovingly) and make fun of each other and themselves (lovingly), they pretend to be the ESPN America cheerleaders or those guys who shoot t-shirts at the crowd, they start the wave.  There are even impromptu poetry cheers: over the course of the game, multiple Dutch fans make up 4-line poems.  They get up in front of the crowd and shout their poem, line by line (the crowd echoes it back line by line), and then everyone erupts into singing.  [Right?!?!]



1. It's Baseball
       Same rules, same game.  In the end, it's an All-American, All-Dutch pastime.  What's not to love?