Guus van der Heijden

Guus van der Heijden was a longtime President, Netherlands Baseball Association and European baseball leader. For many years, he was a board member of the Royal Dutch Baseball League. He served in numerous capacities when the Koninklijke Nederlandse Baseball en Softball Bond (K.N.B.S.B.) merged with the Dutch Amateur Softball Association, from supervisory director from 1966-1970, vice chairman in 1971-72 and chairman from 1973-1986. In 1969, when the Netherlands and Italy were readmitted to the Confederation of European Baseball (CEB), van der Heijden was named Secretary General Treasurer. He was elected the CEB President from 1985-1986, succeeding Italy’s Bruno Beneck. Van der Heijden’s passing, led to the March 7, 1987 election of Aldo Notari of Italy as President, a position Notari held through 2004. Van der Heijden served as International Baseball Association treasurer. In 1970, in Peter O’Malley’s first season as Dodger President, he made arrangements to host Netherlands pitcher John van Westrenen at Dodgertown, Vero Beach, Florida for instruction and training. In July, 1977, Peter attended the European Amateur Baseball Championships in Haarlem, the Netherlands and watched Italy play the Netherlands for the championship. 

On September 20, 1979, van der Heijden writes O’Malley to express his appreciation of the Extraordinary Congress for the International Baseball Federation in Los Angeles. “I think that you yourself have done a tremendous good job for international baseball by inviting us and developing such a good program. As I have felt, it was in particular appreciated that you have spent so many extra hours outside the schedule items with us, for instance the breakfast time. May be there was sometimes a hip, hip, hurrah sphere, but anyhow there was the feeling amongst all of us that we are working on a project of common interest. As far as I can remember this was the first time in history that a man in your position took such an initiative…Let us hope that we succeed in bringing baseball at the Olympic’s program, of course with Holland as one of the participating teams.” Peter and van der Heijden spent time together from February 8-10, 1985 attending the executive meeting of the International Baseball Association in Seoul with the goal of advocating baseball as a gold medal sport in the Olympics, as well as a demonstration sport in the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Van der Heijden is included in the Hall of Fame of the Netherlands Baseball and Softball Museum. A special tribute to the longtime executive was established with an award bearing his name presented to the most talented baseball player under 23 who plays for the Netherlands National Team.