Sidney de Jong

Sidney de Jong played college baseball in the United States (for College of Southern Idaho) before returning to the Netherlands to play in the Dutch league (Hoofdklasse). As a catcher, he started at Kinheim (Haarlem) in 2002, then moved to HCAW (Bussum) the next year. He switched to Amsterdam Pirates in 2007, where he remained until his retirement in 2012. During this period, he won two national titles, both with Pirates (2008 and 2011).

After competing on a US tour with the Dutch team in 1998, Sidney de Jong was first included in the Dutch team for the 2001 European Championships as a backup catcher. He then gradually became first choice in that position. During his career, De Jong participated in two Olympic Games (2004, 2008), five World Cups, two World Baseball Classics and five European Championships. He closed out his international career by winning the last Baseball World Cup, defeating Cuba 2-1 in the 2011 final. This earned the team the title of “Sports Team of the Year” in the Netherlands. De Jong had also won gold all in five European championships he competed in (2001, 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2010) and had come fourth in the 2005 and 2007 World Cup.

De Jong remained in baseball as a coach, first for Amsterdam, later as a staff member for the Dutch team, and coach of the Dutch U23 team (from 2017). He died at the age of 46 in 2026.