The 'future of baseball' came to play at Haarlem's Honkbalweek 

Paul Skenes took the mound and fired strike after strike past batters who were seemingly helpless to hit him. Dylan Crews, his teammate at LSU, was in right field and Florida's Wyatt Langford was in left. Fellow first-round Draft picks Jacob Wilson -- the A's -- and Kyle Teel (Red Sox) slotted into the lineup, too.

This wasn't a college All-Star game, nor was it a particularly star-studded Minor League game. This was 2022's Haarlem Honkbalweek, Europe's biggest baseball festival. (For those curious, "Honkbal" is the Dutch word for baseball.)

"It is the biggest baseball tournament [in Europe] -- obviously outside of the London Series at the moment," Joost Belonje, Head of Marketing and Communications for Honkbalweek Haarlem, told MLB.com recently. "But in terms of the amount of spectators that we attract, the teams that we attract, and also the spin-off for a lot of the teams that we see who deliver players to the highest leagues after playing in Haarlem is something that I would say is unique and also really cool."

Originally founded in 1961, Haarlem's Honkbalweek is an event that should be permanently marked on any European baseball fan's calendar. Hosted every even year since 1972 save for the 2020 COVID season, Honkbalweek is a time when some of the best national teams in the world come to the Netherlands for a tournament in front of packed stands and a festive atmosphere.

While club teams -- including the five-time Honkbalweek champions the Grand Rapids Sullivans -- have taken part, the last 20 years have primarily featured national and collegiate national teams. That includes the Netherlands' national team -- Team Kingdom of the Netherlands -- who get to display their skills in front of a joyful home crowd.

"At first, it was where American soldiers from both France and Germany would come out and entertain people and showcase baseball," Belonje said. "The national team was, I believe, always present. That was also a great means for Dutch fans and Dutch spectators to see all these guys in action because of the vicinity to the stadium."

The tournament helped fuel baseball's growth in the country, as the "tight-knit network of people and families who were interested in baseball started developing more clubs and started building a Haarlem legacy," Belonje noted.

"I think per capita, there's no other Dutch city that comes even close to how many clubs and baseball and softball players are here," Seb Visser, head of marketing for KNBSB (or the Dutch National Federation), added.

Similar to Austria's raucous Finkstonball and the Czech Republic's heavenly Prague Baseball Week, Honkbalweek is historically where the highest level of talent will be found on continent during the summer.

Nine players including Skenes were drafted in the first round following the summer that their USA Baseball collegiate team traveled to Haarlem, with stars like Kris Bryant, Carlos Rodón and Trea Turner just a few of the current big leaguers who have also played in the tournament in previous editions. It's not just MLB stars, either: Out of the 40 players that Japan sent in 2018 and '22, 31 of them were later drafted by NPB clubs. If you want to see the professional stars of tomorrow while spending time in the heart of Holland, this is the place to be.

This summer, the Netherlands were joined by Italy, Spain, Chinese Taipei's U-23 team and a team of Japan's collegiate stars -- each of whom had just finished playing in Prague -- as well as an NJCAA All-Star team from the United States.

"It's an honor to get invited for the Honkbalweek," Belonje said.

It's often a family affair, too. Veteran Dwayne Kemp -- who played briefly in the Cubs system in 2008 and has played in over 150 national team games -- was joined on the Netherlands national team this year by his younger brother, Tyriq, who just finished his junior season at Baylor University. Their father, Adonis Kemp, also played for the national team, representing the Netherlands in the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.

"It's just a family sport here," Visser said. "If your dad or mom plays, that's how you start playing as well."

That family environment is extended to the stands and the full schedule of events.

"Something that the fans and also the participating teams always say is that the atmosphere in Haarlem is a very distinctive, electric feeling, a type of ambience that they have never experienced in any other ballpark or any other event," Belonje said. "It's hard to quantify because it's not tangible, but it's something that people really look forward to."

In addition to the national teams on display, this year's tournament featured demonstrations and games of wheelchair softball, Baseball5 -- a form of the sport that features a smaller field, fewer players, and no equipment save for the ball to help make it accessible to more players across the world -- and baseball for the blind, which has its own International Cup in Great Britain at the end of September.

"It's something that we work on as a federation as well: Be inclusive," Visser said. "We always say baseball and softball is for everyone, but with baseball for the blind and wheelchair softball, it's really become very inclusive. It really is for everyone.

"We had pickup games for the kids, we had a full on E-zone with 28 game stations, whether it was PlayStation 5 and MLB: The Show, but also VR experiences, augmented reality experiences. We had entertainment on the field, off the field, mascots, fireworks, the whole shebang," Belonje said.

"We had a new slogan this year: 'The future of baseball,' Belonje added, "which embraces all these different sort of approaches of the game, how we want to bring the game further."

Even with all the fun, the stakes are high, too: After the Netherlands finished third in the 2023 European Baseball Championship -- the worst-ever result for years in which they participated -- the national team lost its Olympic A-status and the players their stipend payments. They needed to reach the finals of Honkbalweek for those to be reinstated.

Unfortunately, after holding a 1-0 lead late in the game against the United States, the U.S. tied the game with a sacrifice fly in the ninth inning and took the lead on a throwing error from Dwayne Kemp in the top of the 10th. Despite a push in the bottom half, the United States won and advanced to the finals, where they would lose to Japan. Team Kingdom will now look to finish in the Top 8 at this fall's Premier12 tournament to earn that status back.

That's for the future, though, which the festival organizers are already gearing up for.

"As a tournament, we would really like to grow out our existing fan base, try to cater to different audiences -- not necessarily solely baseball fans, but also people who, for example, enjoy a festival atmosphere, great food, just a great outing during the summer holidays," Belonje said. "Hopefully then turn them into fans, and also cater to more sports enthusiasts, people who are interested in different sports, but have never really had the chance to visit a baseball game.

"I think the closest thing to the atmosphere and excitement that you find in an American baseball stadium is at the Honkbalweek."