Sidney de Jong
From BR Bullpen
Sidney de Jong
- Bats Right, Throws Right
- Height 6' 1", Weight 200 lb.
- School College of Southern Idaho
- Born April 14, 1979 in Amsterdam, Noord-Holland Netherlands
Sidney de Jong has been one of the top players in Hoofdklasse in the early 21st Century. He has been on the Dutch national team on a few occasions.
In the 2001 European Championship, de Jong went 2 for 5 with a double and 3 walks as the backup catcher to Johnny Balentina on the Gold medal winners.
After playing college baseball in the US, Sidney returned to the Netherlands in 2002 to play for Honkbal Club Kinheim. He hit .357, second to Dirk van 't Klooster, scored 37 runs (third in Hoofdklasse), had 60 hits (third), banged 11 doubles (tying Evert-Jan 't Hoen for fifth), hit six homers (tied for second) and drove in 44 (leading the loop), earning MVP honors. In the 2002 Intercontinental Cup, he was 1 for 6 with 3 walks.
In 2003, he tied for 4th with 9 doubles and tied for 7th with 24 RBI after moving to the HCAW club. He won the Hoofdklasse All-Star DH. During the 2003 European Championship, de Jong batted .409/~.480/.409 for the winning Dutch team. In the 2003 Baseball World Cup, Sidney was 2 for 10 as the backup catcher to Chairon Isenia. In the 2003 World Port Tournament, de Jong hit .265/~.324/.441 with 8 RBI in 9 games to tie Harvey Monte for the most RBI in the event. In 2004, he had another big season for HCAW - his .361 average led the league, edging van 't Klooster and Greg Halman by .003; Halman had won the other two legs of the Triple Crown. de Jong was third with 34 runs, tied for 10th with 44 RBI, tied for 6th with 3 triples and was 4th with 29 RBI. He also represented The Netherlands in the 2004 Olympics. He made the Hoofdklasse All-Star team at DH.
At age 26, de Jong hit .308/~.434/~.378. He was 9th in the league in average, tied for 6th in hits (44), tied for 4th in doubles (10) and drove in 21. He again was a Hoofdklasse All-Star. He hit .462 in the 2005 European Championship to finish 4th and his .563 OBP ranked third. He scored 10 runs, tied for third. He was named to the tournament All-Star team at catcher, beating out Germany's Simon Gühring, as the Dutch team swept its way to Gold. In the 2005 Baseball World Cup, he batted .289/.449/.474 with 11 walks and 10 runs in 11 games. He drove in 17, third behind Michel Enriquez and Yulieski Gourriel.
Sidney played for the Netherlands in the 2006 World Baseball Classic and was their top performer, batting .455/.500/.455. In fact, he tied Jason Bay for the fifth-best average in the star-studded tournament. In the Hoofdklasse season, he hit .331 (9th-best)/~.459/.432 with 28 runs (tied for 9th) and 10 doubles (tied for 7th). He was second to Eugene Kingsale in OBP. He struggled in the 2006 Intercontinental Cup, hitting .242/.306/.242.
de Jong batted .322/.417/.507 in 2007 Hoofdklasse with 22 walks and 8 strikeouts in 39 games. He tied for fifth in the league in home runs (3), was 9th in runs (30), led in doubles (19), was 8th in hits (49) and finished 6th in slugging percentage.
In the 2007 European Championship, de Jong batted .333/.429/.417 to help the Dutch team win the Gold and qualify for the 2008 Olympics. He hit .348/~.400/.652 in the 2007 World Port Tournament. In the 2007 Baseball World Cup, de Jong was the All-Star catcher, hitting .314/.359/.429 and throwing out three of four attempted base-stealers. de Jong played well in big games, scoring one of two runs in the Netherlands' upset of the Cuban national team (the first European win ever against Cuba in a Baseball World Cup) and starting the 11th-inning rally to beat the host Taiwan national team in the quarterfinals.
Sidney hit only .105/.190/.263 in the 2008 Olympics, with the only bright spot being a 3-run homer in the Dutch win over China.
De Jong was the top hitter in the 2008 Hoofdklasse season. He hit .360/.489/.581 with 35 walks and 38 runs in 40 games. He was second in average (behind Mark Duursma), first in slugging (.059 ahead of runner-up Eugène Kingsale), tied for second in OBP (even with Kingsale, trailing Raily Legito), first in OPS, tied for the most home runs (6), first in runs, 10th in RBI (28), tied for 8th in doubles (10, even with Bryan Engelhardt, René Cremer and Mark Duursma), tied for second in total bases (79, 2 behind leader Bas de Jong), second in walks (1 behind Legito) and tied for 7th in hits (49, even with Wesley Connor). Sidney then hit .385/.550/.923 with 5 RBI in five games in the playoffs as Amsterdam upset DOOR Neptunus. In game one of the 2008 Holland Series, Sidney was injured in the first inning when Engelhardt came home on a hit by Roel Koolen. Amsterdam won their first title in 21 years despite the absence of their star batter.
De Jong was back in the field for the 2009 World Baseball Classic, going 5 for 10 with a double as the best Dutch hitter on a team which included three former major leaguers (Gene Kingsale, Yurendell de Caster and Randall Simon). He split catching duties with Kenley Jansen and also played some DH, batting cleanup on occasion. Sidney got his big hit in a make-or-break round one game against the Dominican national team. Down 1-0 in the bottom of the 12th, he pinch-hit for Jansen and doubled off Carlos Marmol. He scored the tying run on a hit by Kingsale as the Dutch went on to a 2-1 upset to eliminate the Dominicans.
De Jong was surprisingly Amsterdam's worst regular in the 2009 European Cup's Nettuno phase, going 2 for 13. He did draw 4 walks and score 4 runs and Amsterdam advanced to the Final Four. In the Final Four, de Jong was 3 for 7 with a double, walk and RBI (driving in their only run) as Amsterdam went 0-2.
Sources include 2003-2007 Baseball Almanacs, Marco Stoovelaar's page on Dutch baseball, Worldbaseballclassic.com, 2005 Baseball World Cup site, 2003 European Championship stats, 2008 Olympics, 2009 European Cup in Nettuno
