Shannon got some first hand accounts that she shares here...
Early Tuesday morning Greg Halman will be laid to rest in Driehuis, about five minutes from the town of Haarlem where he grew up. Along with team representatives Bob Engle, Wayne Norton and Peter Van Dalen teammates Mike Carp, Alex Liddi, Dan Cortes and Matt Mangini have made the trip and will attend the funeral services.
Included in Shannon's post is the copy from a truly heart-breaking blog entry by a father about how he broke the news of Greg's death to his son, Luuk, who followed Greg's career, moment-by-moment and looked up to Greg - his "dream friend".
It is indeed heart-warming to discover the huge impact Greg had on youth baseball in Holland, as Jim Caple shares here...
Most everyone else who commented on Monday mentioned Halman's ever-present smile, and I vividly recall it as well. Halman was friendly and could communicate with just about anyone -- he spoke five languages, and he pretty much needed to. He played all over the world before he ever played in the United States. Touring with various Dutch teams, he played baseball in Spain, France, Germany, Poland, Taiwan, the United Kingdom and Italy. But he always knew the country where he wanted his career to finish.
"Learning about the United States and the major leagues and the minors and seeing older guys go over there, that's the only thing I wanted to do. That was the only thing I strived for," Halman told me one evening in the Mariners dugout. "Even being from Holland. I had an idea how hard I had to work and what I had to do. And to be able to come to the U.S. and play, I knew it was going to be a lot of hard work."
Halman told me that, "Coming from Holland, you haven't played that large amount of baseball yet before you come over here. The first couple years for me was really about adapting and getting to know baseball and getting to know myself as a player before I was even close to playing in the major leagues. The guys from Holland have to realize it's not going to come overnight."
He told me he wanted to inspire other Dutch players and grow the game in Europe. And earlier this month he was doing exactly that while with Rick VandenHurk's European Big League Tour, along with several other players such as Prince Fielder. Johnson said he met recently with several people who had seen the tour when it passed through Prague.
"Several people commented to me how impressed they were with how enthusiastic and personal Greg was with the kids," Johnson said. "He wasn't the biggest name in the lineup that day, but his presence and charisma dominated yet another piece of real estate.
"I'd imagine that Greg Halman's impact on me was far greater than my impact on him. That is what big leaguers do, they make an impact, and Greg Halman was a big leaguer."
Goodbye, Greg. You deserved SO much more time but, hopefully, your family can take some comfort in knowing that you lived your dream, inspired young athletes in your homeland and beyond, and became a great role-model in your short, sweet time on this earth.
UPDATE:
Funeral for Greg Halman draws 2000....
"It was really special," Van Dalen said. "We had to walk up a bit of a hill to get to the service and when you looked back down again, you could see all the people lined up ready to come and listen as well. It showed you just how important he was to so many people."
Huizinga agreed, saying Halman's legacy in the Netherlands is only fully being realized after his death.
"You can't imagine the loss here," he said. "Nobody, until now, realized what a big guy he was. Baseball is a small sport in Holland and in a way, he brought the entire Dutch baseball community together. He will be greatly missed."
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