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As the oldest baseball club in Europe, Quick has an glorious history.
The history of the club is well preserved in the archive. It even goes back to before the foundation of the association with a photo of an occasional baseball game being played on the ‘IJsclubterrein’, today’s Museumplein in Amsterdam. The archive has been supplemented with stories from former members, which has resulted in the anniversary book ‘100 years A.H.C. Quick’.
The MLB recognises Quick as the oldest club in Europe. Read the article here
The Dutch Baseball Federation was founded on February 12, 1912. Quick pioneer Emile Bleesing soon joined the board. At the time of foundation, there were three baseball clubs in the Netherlands: the A.H.C. (Amsterdam Baseball Club), the J.H.C. (Young Baseball Club) and Hercules.
The latter soon dies. Messrs Knip, Kieft, Poster, Prior, Leih and Stam continued the club on March 1, 1913 as the A.H.C. Quick. Until after the 1st World War, A.H.C. Quick and the Dutch Baseball Association are actually one and the same concept.
The cradle of our club history is located on the former ‘IJsclubterrein’ (Iceclub site) opposite of the ‘Concertgebouw’. This photo was taken on July 10, 1911.
The photo below is the absolute highlight of the club’s history. The photo dates from 1913 and is of the first baseball team.
Also in 1913 a baseball team consisted of nine people but the ninth man (Knip) had to operate the photographic device.
Quick Amsterdam has been growing steadily since the 1990s. In 1993, an anniversary tournament was held in honor of 90 years of Quick.
Subsequently, both Women’s Softball 1 and Men’s Baseball 1 became champions in 2008.
In 2013, the 100th anniversary of A.H.C. Quick celebrated extensively with anniversary activities such as tournaments and parties. On Quick’s birthday on March 1, Quick’s sports field was renamed ‘Pim Adriaanszpark’, which was unveiled by honorary chairman Pim himself. A day later, during the reception in the Park Hotel in Amsterdam, Quick received a photo of Emile Bleesing (founder of baseball in the Netherlands and co-founder of Quick) from the KNBSB (Dutch Baseball Federation) on canvas. The Municipality of Amsterdam presented Joost Comperen, then chairman, with the Jubilee Medal for the milestone that Quick has achieved. As a permanent document of the first 100 years of Quick, the jubilee book, made by Eelke Kingma and Jos Schoonis, was presented.
In the 1930s, Quick started playing in real baseball outfits. Only the referee continued to wear his Sunday clothes for a long time.
In 1935 Quick became national champion for the third time.
On the right is the magazine of the Baseball Association in which the championship game of Quick (23-1!) was described.
In the 1940s, Quick still played in the first division and in the 1950s, Quick plays at the Olympiaplein in Amsterdam. Softball was introduced in the 1970s.
For the 75th anniversary in 1988, the club reveived a surprised from oversees. A letter of congratulations was sent on behalf of President Ronald Reagan, a baseball fan nicknamed ‘Dutch’.
