# Han Urbanus

Hendrikus Johannes Urbanus (22 June 1927 – 25 February 2021) was a Dutch baseball player who played most of his professional career as a pitcher. He is generally considered one of the best Dutch players of all time, and was inducted into the Netherlands Baseball Hall of Fame in 1983.

## Professional career

Urbanus debuted in the Honkbal Hoofdklasse with the OVVO Amsterdam club at the age of 19 in 1949, and would play with them for the next 24 years. He led OVVO to the Hoofdklasse championship five times in a row between 1949 and 1953.
In 1952, Urbanus accepted an offer to attend spring training with the New York Giants. The visit was arranged by Albert Balink, a Dutch-American journalist and magazine editor. His performance was decent; in an intra-squad game, Monte Irvin was reportedly the only Giant able to hit the ball out of the infield. However, he quickly changed his pitching mechanics when it was discovered that, due to a mistranslation in the rules used by Dutch baseball, Urbanus (and all other Dutch pitchers) had been trained to keep his feet on the pitching rubber during his delivery, which stunted his pitch velocity. He also learned how to throw a curveball thanks to the instruction of Giants ace Sal Maglie. Urbanus returned to Giants spring training in 1953 and was reportedly offered a contract, but turned it down.
Over the course of his Hoofdklasse career, Urbanus threw 11 no-hitters, was named best pitcher five times, and was honoured as the league's MVP three times. Despite his success in the domestic league, Urbanus worked a regular job outside of baseball, as an accountant at Klynveld Kraayenhof & Co. in Rotterdam.

## International career

Urbanus made his debut with the Netherlands national baseball team in 1949, and would continue to play with the national team through 1965. Initially, the national team only faced Belgium in annual games, as well as American teams from military bases in West-Germany. Urbanus appeared with the national team in a two-game exhibition series against Great Britain, held at De Meer Stadion in Amsterdam (home of AFC Ajax) in 1952. The Dutch won both games, and Urbanus was described in English media as the team's the most impressive player.
The Netherlands first made their appearance at the European Baseball Championship at the 1956 tournament, winning the title over Italy. It would be the first of a highly-successful period in international competition for the team, winning ten consecutive titles; Urbanus participated in seven of those titles, from 1956 to 1965. He also accompanied the Netherlands team to the Global World Series, played in the United States in 1956 and 1957. As the Netherlands and Italy were the two baseball powers of Europe, Urbanus often faced off against Italian ace Giulio Glorioso.
By the time of his retirement in 1965, Urbanus had earned 64 caps, a record number of appearances with the national team.

## Later life and death

After his retirement, Urbanus remained active as an executive with the OVVO club, which became the Amstel Tijgers in 1976; in 1988, Amstel Tijgers were absorbed by HCAW, which still exists in the Hoofdklasse. He remained active in the Dutch baseball federation and frequently visited tournaments like the European Championships and Haarlem Baseball Week. Along with his former archrival on the mound, Giulio Glorioso, he threw out the ceremonial first pitch before the 100th international game between the Netherlands and Italy on June 30, 2001.
He died on 25 February 2021.
His grandson, Nick Urbanus, played in the Texas Rangers system from 2011 to 2014.