Honkbal Hoofdklasse
 |
|
| Sport | Baseball |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1922 |
| No. of teams | 8 |
| Country | Netherlands |
| Most recent champion(s) |
Neptunus (14th title) |
The Honkbal Hoofdklasse (Dutch for Major League Baseball) is the highest level of professional baseball in the Netherlands. It is an eight-team league that plays a 42-game schedule and is overseen by the Royal Netherlands Baseball and Softball Federation (KNBSB).
Games are played principally on weekends. The season runs from April to September and is followed by the playoffs among the four best teams, which culminates in the Holland Series. Both of the playoff rounds are best-of-five. The league follows a promotion and relegation system with the Honkbal Overgangsklasse so that the composition of both levels changes from year to year. Many of the official team nicknames contain the name of the club's corporate sponsor.
The two best teams participate in the European Cup.
The 2013 Honkbal Hoofdklasse season began on April 11, 2013. Mampaey The Hawks from Dordrecht competed in the Hoofdklasse for the first time. Sparta/Feyenoord, the relegated team from the 2012 season, was declared bankrupt by the Rotterdam court on November 22, 2012 and did not compete in the Overgangsklasse.
Eight teams will participate in the 2015 season. DSS was promoted from the Honkbal Overgangsklasse after defeating Mampaey The Hawks in the relegation series at the end of the 2014 season. Despite losing the relegation series, Mampaey The Hawks were reinstated into the league in February 2015 after AdoLakers withdrew and dissolved. DSS, UVV and Mampaey The Hawks are the only three current clubs to never have won a Holland Series.
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