TESTIMONY: Continuation of the story of Alex Richardson

Born August 29, 1963, Alex Emmanuel Richardson played baseball with many friends in Sint Maarten before moving to Holland and joining the Haarlem Nichols team in 1983, the best at the time. The first part having been broadcast in a previous edition, here is the second part of its story.

Freshly arrived in Holland in 1983, I was looking forward to playing baseball there. I decided to apply for my Dutch passport. The week after my application was approved, I was drafted into the military for two years. I nevertheless joined the Haarlem baseball team Nicols in the summer of 83. The following year, I was recruited into the Hoofd Klasse team, the best team in Holland at the moment. My uncle, Robby Kort, invited me to a party in April 1984 and that's where I met his daughter, Germaine Kort. We started dating with the blessing of her parents. At the end of the season and while being in the army, I joined another team, the Herons in North Heerhugowaard, to get closer to Germaine who was in the North for her studies. In 1986 I decided to return to Haarlem and play baseball for a team called Terravogels. I lived next to my friend Nico Adam, an excellent pitcher who taught me to be even more disciplined in the game. We won most games when he pitched. It was a pure pleasure to play baseball alongside him. I learned that he became a lawyer in Amsterdam. I left the Terravogels team to join the Birds team in Zoetermeer with Mickey Huggins and Franklin Richards. We didn't win the championship that year, but we played in the final. I started throwing in that final, won the first game but lost the first leg. Once the competition was over, I joined a team in Delft that Mickey Huggins was playing with and stayed with them until I got home. My last year, in 1987, was the most difficult in Delft.