Win Remmerswaal
From BR Bullpen
Wilhelmus Abraham Remmerswaal
- Bats Right, Throws Right
- Height 6' 2", Weight 160 lb.
[edit] Biographical Information
A pitcher with a very apt first name, Win Remmerswaal pitched 22 games in the majors, going 3-1. He was only the 4th Dutch-born players and the first player born and raised there to make the majors. Others have followed at a pace of one or two per decade since Remmerswaal opened the gate - Rikkert Faneyte and Robert Eenhoorn in the 1990s and Rick Vanden Hurk in the 2000s.
He started playing baseball in Wassenaar, a little town next to The Hague. He also had three brothers who could play baseball very well, but they all died at young ages. Remmerswaal was the first player to go from Hoofdklasse to the major leagues; it would be 14 years before Rikkert Faneyte became the second.
Remmerswaal was a key performer for the Dutch national team in the 1973 European Championship, winning best pitcher honors in the tournament. He threw 6 2/3 shutout innings against the Italian national team for the victory in a come-from-behind 7-6 win that helped the Netherlands win Gold.
Remmerswaal was head coach of the 1989 Amsterdam Pirates. He went to Italy the next year, got pneumonia and wound up in a coma for a period. He never fully recovered and has lived since then in a nursing home.
