One year ago, the entire baseball world seemed to be in
Oliver Roosmalen's hands. He had just arrived in Seoul, South Korea for the first World Baseball Championship and was the
very first player to be quoted. Optimism ruled the day. You could hear it in his voice, the excitement of the event and the season to come.
What a difference a year makes.
Roosmalen is home now, and it feels like the first thing that's gone right in a long time. This year's WBC is taking place in his native country, the Netherlands. Games will be played in Amsterdam, which is about ninety minutes north of his hometown of Roosendaal, near the Belgian border. After a tumultuous 1960 season, he relishes the opportunity to thrill his home fans.
"Last year was just..." his voice trails off, like he still can't put it into words. Not words he wants re-printed, anyway. "It was bad, the worst of my life."
Despite Roosmalen's 1.044 OPS, his Netherlands team was eliminated in the group stage of the WBC, finishing a game behind the United States and Germany. When the regular season started, his first series was against the Amsterdam Valley Foxes, in the very same stadium this year's WBC will be played. He went 0-4 and his Berlin Knights lost.
Things got better, at least for a month and a half. He had found his groove at the plate and entered May 29th batting .404/.439/.627, each of those numbers a season high. He'd collected three hits apiece in his previous two games to push his batting average over .400, and his team had won four of their last five games to pull to 19-20. That was only good for 6th place, but they were within sight of the rest of the pack.
"I was feeling good," he recalled. "I was seeing the ball really well and we were starting to come together as a team, so I figured we'd keep that up into June."
Then, disaster.
Roosmalen was covering second base on a seemingly-routine double play. But he had to bend to a knee to receive the low throw right at the same time that the runner was sliding in hard to break it up. He fell to the ground clutching his knee and had to be helped off the field, unable to put any weight on it.
"I think I knew right away it was bad, but I didn't want to believe it," he said of the moment. "I wanted to think I'd give it a week or two and be back but coming off the field I kind of knew deep down that was it."
Three days later, following a bevy of medical tests and x-rays, the news was confirmed: a broken kneecap with no possibility of returning to the field that season. He'd collected one hit in three trips to the plate before the injury occurred, setting his batting average to .402, where it was doomed to remain. The same day the diagnosis was confirmed, he was named Player of the Month for May.
"One of my goals was to hit .400 this season," Roosmalen said on
June 1 when he met with reporters. "I guess this is a lesson to be careful what you wish for."
The bottom dropped out almost immediately for the Berlin Knights without their best player. They lost the game he got injured in. Then they lost again, and again, and again. They were one game under .500 when he broke his kneecap. The finished
32 games under .500, at 50-82. Roosmalen could do nothing but watch as his team slid down the standings, into last place, falling further and further behind, finally sealing their fate: relegated to the Silver League.
"It was all just..." he trails off again, the right words escaping him. What do you say when you're doomed to baseball purgatory, kicked down a level when you quite literally couldn't do anything to stop it? He lets out a deep breath and tries to recapture the optimism of last March. "Well, it's a new year, right?" It's not convincing.
If there's one consolation to the Knights being relegated, it's that he's now slated to be a free agent after this coming season. World Baseball Alliance rules stipulate that players in the upper leagues become free agents with six years of service. But because they want talent to funnel into the upper leagues more quickly, Silver League players become free agents after five seasons worth of service. Roosmalen will hit that mark this year.
While he hasn't issued any statements on his situation, it's no secret he's ready to move on from Berlin. There were reports he requested a trade, though his agent has downplayed those. The Knights, of course, had little desire to offer him up. He's their ticket back into the European Premier League. Trading him away would've likely meant an extended stay in the Silver League.
So Roosmalen will suit up for the Knights again this season. His interests and the team's may not align, but everyone is rowing in the same direction. Roosmalen wants to post the best possible numbers as he enters the free agency market. Berlin wants their shortstop to perform the best he can so they have a chance at being promoted back up to the EPL. At the end, they'll go their separate ways. (In another rule intended to funnel talent upwards, Silver League teams cannot offer contract extensions. So even if Roosmalen was interested, it couldn't happen)
For now, he's simply happy to be back on the diamond, working out with his Dutch teammates as they prepare for pool play. It's been a long road of rest, rehab, and recovery.
"It's fantastic to be back out there," he said. "And I get to play in my home country, with all my friends and family there, which is incredible."
He says it with a wide smile, and this time the optimism seems genuine.
One scout who got a look at the team's practices thinks he's as good as ever.
"He hasn't missed a beat," the scout said. "At the plate, everything was a frozen rope, great contact. He's maybe only going 90% in the field but all the movements look fluid. Only problem I can see is him being too aggressive, trying to make up for the lost months."
After the year Olivier Roosmalen has gone through, having only one problem must feel pretty good.