phone call from the USA. The New York Giants had offered him a minor league contract. He refused, due to the fact that he preferred to teach his fellow countrymen what he had learned in the USA. From 1949 to 1953, Dutch baseball was dominated by OVVO from Amsterdam, which claimed five consecutive national titles. In 1955, the club won it for the last time, and would never win another championship again. The post-war help of the Americans helped the Dutch earn their first European title in 1956 in Rome, Italy. Han Urbanus was a defensive force and the Dutch batters performed very well. Because of the European title, the Dutch were allowed to go to the Global World Series. American coaches like Ron Fraser and Bill Arce helped the Dutch to improve their game. The number of baseball fields built around the country increased dramatically. In 1963, a real baseball stadium was built in Haarlem. This stadium would be the base of the Haarlem Baseball Week, a yearly event. Prior to 1963, baseball was dominated by teams from Amsterdam and Haarlem. But in 1963, Sparta from Rotterdam became the Dutch champion. From 1963 to 1974, Sparta clinched nine national titles, a record not exceeded until 1985 by the Haarlem Nicols. In the early sixties, each team played 14 games; one game every weekend. 1970 – present In 1970, a Dutch-born pitcher named Bert Blyleven made the Minnesota Twins roster. He had a very successful Major League career which lasted until 1992, and was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2010. He was, however, raised in California and never played in the Dutch league. The first Dutch Major League Baseball player who actually grew up and learned the game in the Netherlands was Win Remmerswaal, who pitched briefly for the Boston Red Sox in 1979 and 1980. Dutch baseball was dominated by Sparta from Rotterdam in the early 70s. The "magnificent three" from the Dutch Antilles were unstoppable: Hudson John, Simon Arrindell and Hamilton Richardson, who all had a big influence on Sparta, but by 1974, the era was over. At the end of the 1972 season, the football club Ajax decided to cut loose the baseball branch, ending the ball club. At the end of the 1977 season, there was some turmoil at OVVO from Amsterdam. This baseball club was also a branch of a football club.