Tempers have been flaring in the Dutch Hoofdklasse.  Mister-Baseball reports that the Corendon Kinheim and the Konica Minolta Pioniers had a bit of a brawl a couple of weeks ago following a bench clearing incident, with hefty suspensions being handed out to seven players as a result.  The two teams involved are clearly channeling that aggression in the right way most of the time, as they currently occupy the top two positions in the Dutch Major League, with Konica Minolta at 13-4 and Corendon one game behind on 14-5.

There is a photo from the Dutch brawl game on the New York times website (it’s not a photo of the brawl though) that accompanies a well-written piece about baseball in the Netherlands.  This includes the interesting tidbit that Johan Cruyff began his sporting career as a catcher.  The next time a football fan tries to criticise baseball, you might want to tell him that it was good enough for Cruyff.

And continuing with the Dutch theme, Braves pitcher Jair Jurrjens made a bit of history last night, although not in the way he would have liked.  Ken Griffey Jr struck career home run number 599 off the twenty-two year old from Curacao.  Did you know that he has already gained his own fan club among the Braves fans?  They go by the name of the Jurrjens Surgeons!