sports

Friday night Milan and I went to see a Durham Bulls game.

We saw the Louisville Bats beat the Durham Bulls with 9-8, but it was a fun evening.

Milan at the Durham Bulls.

Durham Bulls stadium.

Dutch-American soccer player Earnie Stewart was elected to the National Soccer Hall of Fame on Tuesday along with three-time World Cup veterans Eddie Pope and Cobi Jones.

Stewart, who was born in Veghel, the Netherlands, was a regular midfielder for the U.S. national team from 1990s until his retirement in 2005. He played 101 full international games for the United States with the first against Portugal in 1990 and the last against Grenada in June of 2004. He played in 3 World Cups for the USA and he scored the game-winner in a 2-1 victory over Colombia that sent the Americans into the round of 16 at the 1994 World Cup in the United States.

His 111 goals as a professional in the Netherlands makes him the highest-scoring American in international club play. In 2001 he was named U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year. Stewart was born to an American father and a Dutch mother and holds dual citizenship.

Stewart is currently back in the Netherlands, where he is the Director of Football for soccer club AZ in Alkmaar.

Soccer club D.C. United announced that the club will play an international friendly against legendary Dutch Eredivisie side AFC Ajax on Sunday, May 22 at RFK Stadium. This will be the first-ever meeting between the two clubs from Washington, DC and Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

AFC Ajax played in the RFK Stadium once before, in a 1-1 draw against the U.S. Men’s National Team on May 12, 1990.

“We’re excited to kick off our 2011 schedule of international games with one of the most honored teams in European soccer, Ajax of Amsterdam,” said United President and CEO Kevin Payne. “This match will be the first of several matches this season featuring top quality European opponents and we’re pleased that our season ticket holders will have the opportunity to attend each of these matches as a part of their package.”

“We are truly honored to be coming to the US and playing the most storied franchise in MLS history,” said Ajax manager Frank de Boer. “We are fully aware of the passionate D.C. United fans and we look forward to show casing our unique brand of Ajax football as we visit the States for the first time in many years.”

Update: AFC Ajax will also play the Portland Timbers in Portland, OR on May 25. More info here (Thank you, Dutch Seattle.com).

D.C. United vs. AFC Ajax
RFK Stadium, Washington, D.C.
Sunday, May 22. Kick-off is set for 5:00 p.m. ET.

Netherlands-born baseball player Bert Blyleven was elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame today. Blyleven was born Rik Aalbert Blijleven in Zeist, the Netherlands, and he becomes the first Dutch-American to be inducted to the Hall of Fame.

Blyleven pitched in 22 seasons with the Minnesota Twins, Texas Rangers, Pittsburgh Pirates, Cleveland Indians and California Angels and compiled a 287-250 record with a 3.31 ERA, 242 complete games, 60 shutouts and 3,701 strikeouts in 4,969 1/3 innings. Often considered to have the toughest curveball of his time, Blyleven threw two different types, the "roundhouse" and the "overhand drop", according to the Hall of Fame press release. "He gripped both like a fastball and used a balanced, full follow-through to get movement".

In 1996 he became commentator for Minnesota Twins. Blyleven was a pitching coach for the Netherlands in the 2009 World Baseball Classic.

According to a biography by Professor Pegels, an expert on Dutch-Americans, Blyleven is a unique player: "Bert Blyleven was and still is the only native Dutchman to have made a successful career, as measured by quality of play, in American professional baseball".

Byleven and his colleague Roberto Alomar will be inducted into the Hall of Fame on July 24 at the Clark Sports Center in Cooperstown, N.Y., along with executive Pat Gillick.

http://www.bertblyleven.com/

This morning I ran the Cannonball Half Marathon in Greensboro, NC. It was my first half marathon in 18 months, and given my lack of training while we were traveling earlier this year, I wasn't sure how this would go.

I'm so happy with the result! My time was 2:06, only a few minutes short of my P.R. and I felt great. I really should do this more often.

In fact, I only decided on Thursday to sign up for this race. I hadn't ran since last weekend -- lots of obligations this week made running in the evening impossible -- and I decided to take advantage of this unplanned tapering.

Early in Greensboro

Greensboro is an hour driving due west of Durham, and I got up at 5.00 am to make it to the start line. The race was well organized, and I liked the fact that they had mile markers on every mile. It was great weather for a run -- at the start it was 45 degrees, two hours later about 58 degrees. After the race there was a band playing Blues Brothers music.

Negative splits

I really tried to control my pacing this race. Usually, I start a little too fast in the first two miles, for which I'd pay the price later on. I set myself the goal to finish within 2:15, which is pretty much a 10 minutes per mile, but with the understanding that if I felt strong half-way the race I could speed up. It has been 18 months since my last race, so I didn't want to start too fast.

Theoretically, if I did 10:00 minutes per mile the first 7 miles, I could finish the race in 2:00 hours if I'd speed up to 8:12 minutes/mile in the second half. (Once, I want to be able to get under 2 hours for the half marathon).

The first miles I ran beautifully on schedule: 10 minutes per mile, and I passed the 4 mile marker exactly after 40 minutes. I did feel strong, and 8:12 minutes/mile is a little too ambitious for me (see past results), so I decided to speed up from the fourth mile marker. From the until the 10th mile marker I ran an average of 9:20 minutes/mile. Unfortunately, the last 2 miles were uphill, so I did slow down a little bit at the end. From the 10th mile marker to the finish I ran an average of 9:42 minutes/mile.

I'm quite happy with the result which is only 4 minutes slower than my P.R. from Raleigh's City of Oaks, two years ago. A next time, I can be more ambitious from the start. To break the magic two hour limit, I could for example start at 9:00 minutes/mile, slowing down to 9:20 after mile 7. I did like the negative splits though, perhaps I should switch them around. In any case, running 7 miles in 54 minutes will require quite some training...

The start area around 7.00 am.

The start.

Yours truly, when I just got home.

The 2010 FIFA World Cup will start on June 11 in South Africa. The Dutch team starts the first round with games against Japan, Cameroon and Denmark.

The World Cup games will be broadcasted by ESPN and ABC. Check with your local Dutch club or NLBorrels.com to find other Dutch soccer fans watching the game.

Schedule for Group E:

• June 14, 2010 @ 7:30 AM ET: Netherlands vs. Denmark
• June 19, 2010 @ 7:30 AM ET: Netherlands vs. Japan
• June 24, 2010 @ 2:30 PM ET: Cameroon vs. Netherlands

The timezone difference means that West Coast viewers will have to get up really early -- some of the games start at 4.30 am Pacific Time.

"A long history of self-destruction"

Not everybody is convinced that the Dutch will become World Champions this year. The Los Angeles Times writes: "The Netherlands has the personnel to make a serious run at the world championship, but Coach Bert van Marwijk's team will have to overcome the Oranje's long history of self-destruction in the biggest matches". ESPN has the following to say: "The same way Germany can be relied upon to overachieve, the Dutch can be trusted to eventually implode. They always do, without fail. Whether they succumb to penalties, arrogance, bad luck or simply run into a better opponent while having a bad day, things will end unhappily. Like death and taxes. The Netherlands will be loaded with offensive talent but find a way to screw it up".