Tjerk Smeets
Dutch baseball player (born 1980)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tjerk Marten Smeets (born 3 June 1980) is a Dutch former baseball catcher who played for the Netherlands national team in the 2008 Summer Olympics and other international competitions as well as the Honkbal Hoofdclasse. He was the technical director of the Royal Netherlands Baseball and Softball Federation (KNBSB) and technical manager of AFC Ajax.
| Tjerk Smeets | |
|---|---|
| Kinheim | |
| Catcher | |
| Born: 3 June 1980 Amsterdam, Netherlands | |
Bats: Right Throws: Right | |
| Stats at Baseball Reference | |
Career
Smeets played his college baseball at Middle Tennessee State University in the United States. In 1999, he was one for two with a RBI.[1] In 2000, he hit a home run in his only at bat and drew two walks.[2] In 2001, he hit .159/.256/.304 with three home runs in 30 games.[3]
Smeets first played for the Dutch national team in the 2003 World Port Tournament, going 1-for-2 with a two-run home run. Because there were only two home runs in the tournament, he won the Home Run King award.[4][5][6]
In 2005, he hit .326 for the Amsterdam Pirates to finish sixth in the Hoofdklasse in batting average. He tied for third with three homers, trailing Ivanon Coffie and Dirk van 't Klooster.[7] He played for the Netherlands in the 2005 European Championship.[8]
Smeets moved to Kinheim in 2006 and batted .349/.446/.454 with 36 RBI in 41 games and fielded .996 at catcher. He was 7th in average, 6th in slugging, third in OBP (behind Eugene Kingsale and Sidney de Jong), tied Reily Legito for the RBI lead, was third with 13 doubles (behind Yuji Nerei and Fausto Álvarez), tied Kingsale, Roel Koolen and Evert-Jan 't Hoen for 5th with 27 walks and tied Nerei for 5th with 53 hits.[citation needed] He hit .482 with runners in scoring position. Smeets won the Hoofdklasse MVP award,[9] the fourth catcher so honored. He was 2-for-12 in the playoffs but 9-for-21 with 3 walks and five runs in five games in the Holland Series as Kinheim won the title.[citation needed]
Smeets was 0-for-2 in the 2006 Haarlem Baseball Week.[10] In the 2006 Intercontinental Cup, he was 1-for-4 with a walk and two runs for the silver medalists, backing up de Jong at catcher.[11]
In the 2007 Hoofdklasse campaign, Smeets hit .294/.379/.531 with 36 runs and 43 RBI in 36 games and threw out 14 of 30 attempted base-stealers. He hit .300 with a .391 OBP in the playoffs then batted .333/.333/.400 in the 2007 Holland Series.[citation needed] He scored their first run in their successful championship defense and had three hits in Game 1;[12] in Game 2, he was thrown out trying to score in a key play but Kinheim rallied to win.[citation needed] Smeets was 4th in slugging percentage in 2007, second to Alvarez in home runs (with 7), tied with Benjamin Dille for fifth in runs (36), first in RBI (six ahead of Martijn Meeuwis) and tied for 4th in doubles (13).[citation needed] With Kinheim, Smeets batted .263/.391/.316 for Kinheim in the 2007 European Cup, its first European Cup title ever. In the championship game, Smeets was 1-for-5 with two walks and a time hit by pitch.[13]
Smeets was 2-for-8 for the national team in the 2007 World Port Tournament but struck out four times.[14] In the 2007 Baseball World Cup, he was 3-for-6 with a homer, playing in two of the team's 10 games.[15] Smeets batted .421/.476/.526 to help Kinheim win the 2008 European Cup in Grosseto. His 7 RBI tied for the lead. He had the big hit of the competition: down 2–1 in the bottom of the 10th inning in the championship game, Smeets doubled in René Cremer and Dirk van 't Klooster with a shot off of Lincoln Mikkelsen.[16] Smeets had fouled off several pitches before the double.[17]
Smeets played for the Netherlands at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.[18] He went hitless in four at bat over three games.[19]
Retirement and post-playing career
Smeets retired from Kinheim after the 2010 season. In 2011, he became the manager of Dutch club RCH-Pinguins in Heemstede.[20] During this time, he also worked as a marketing manager for the KNBSB.[21] In October 2013, he became the technical manager of football team AFC Ajax.[22] In 2017, he became the technical director of the KNBSB.[9] He stepped down from that role in 2021.[23] He has also been a coach for the Netherlands national team at the 2011 Baseball World Cup,[24] 2013 World Baseball Classic (WBC),[25] and 2023 WBC.[26]
Personal life
During the closing ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics, Smeets proposed to his girlfriend, Dutch field hockey gold medalist, Minke Smabers, who accepted.[27] They has two sons.[28] His wife was teammates with her sister, Hanneke Smabers, when the Dutch won the bronze medal in the 2000 Summer Olympics.[29][30]
Smeets is the son of Dutch radio and television personality, writer, and columnist Mart Smeets.[31][4]
Smeets attended high school at Fons Vitae Lyceum in Amsterdam. He attended Middle Tennessee State due to his friendship with the school's basketball coach, former Dutch national basketball team coach Randy Wiel.[32]