Sidney de Jong
Sidney de Jong was a Dutch professional baseball catcher and coach. He played for the Netherlands national team in international tournaments, including the 2004 and 2008 Summer Olympics and 2006 and 2009 World Baseball Classic tournaments.
Career
de Jong played 15 seasons in the Honkbal Hoofdklasse from 1998 to 2011. In his debut season with Amsterdam Pirates, he played in 40 games and hit.450. He went on to play with Pirates, Kinheim, HCAW and again Amsterdam Pirates, winning championships with Amsterdam in 2008 and 2011. In 2001, de Jong played college baseball at the College of Southern Idaho in the United States, leading the team with a.358 batting average. In 2002, he was the most valuable player in the Hoofdklasse. He batted.300 or higher in 14 of his 15 seasons in the Hoofdklasse. After retiring as a player, he managed Pirates during the 2013 season.de Jong represented the Netherlands at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, where the Dutch finished sixth. Following the Dutch winning the 2011 Baseball World Cup, he and teammates, including Didi Gregorius and Xander Bogaerts, were knighted. He was named the best catcher of the 2005 European Championship, after hitting a grand slam in the championship game, and the 2007 Baseball World Cup.
During his international career, de Jong appeared in 203 games, including two Olympic Games, two World Baseball Classics, five World Cups, five European championships, and three Intercontinental Cups.
After his retirement as a player, de Jong was a coach for the Netherlands starting in 2014 under managers Steve Janssen, Hensley Meulens, and Evert-Jan 't Hoen. In 2017, de Jong acted as national team manager during the World Port Tournament. That year, he also became the coach of the national under-23 team, which he coached through 2024.