SYDNEY – You can run into all kinds of interesting people at the Olympics. I have run into the 1993 Columbus Clippers. I guess that is why they call it the International League.
Hensley Meulens, Robert Eenhoorn and Mark Hutton, who all came and went as pleasant men and failed prospects with the Yankees, are competing in these Games. Which might go to prove, if you can’t make it there, you might make it here.
Meulens and Eenhoorn are members of the Dutch team that shocked Cuba 4-2 yesterday, with Meulens’ three-run double being the key blow. Hutton is pitching for the host nation, which is struggling to make it to the medal round. I am keeping a wary eye out for Sam Militello, Jeff Johnson and Andy Stankiewicz.
In the early 1990s, before Derek Jeter was on The Bronx radar and when the Yankees were still Stump Merrill’s teams, this is what passed for prospects. And no one stood out more in this way than Meulens, who was supposed to provide the Yanks power for a decade.
Instead, Meulens has become the truest definition of journeyman. He played for major league teams in the United States (Yankees, Braves) and Canada (Expos). He has the distinction of being the only man to play in the Winter Leagues of Mexico, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. Meulens played three years in Japan, winning that country’s World Series in 1995. This year began with him playing in Korea before he moved to Mexico and then joined the Netherlands’ Olympic team.
Meulens has been in his Corral Springs, Fla. home 18 days since last October. He speaks five languages. His motto: have glove, bat and passport, will travel.
“It shows that I have not given up my dream even though things did not work out in New York,” Meulens said.
To this day Meulens believes his Yankee washout was due to him not getting a full chance to prove himself. He played with the Yankees in parts of each season from 1989-93. He came with the great nickname (Bam-Bam) and a winning personality. But he did not have a game to match.
He was a man without a position, not gifted enough to play third and not productive enough for the corner outfield. Perhaps Meulens would have been better served without the buildup and in a locale outside New York. However, his inability to stick elsewhere – he has just 13 games played with teams other than the Yankees – indicates he does not possess major-league talent.
Still, even at 33, he is not giving up. He sees that Luis Polonia made it back from a couple of years in exile in the Mexican League, and wonders why not him? He is hoping the Olympics gives him a boost. He notices that the stands behind home plate are filled with scouts from major-league teams, though most are here to watch the covert Cubans.
“I’m hoping that I open eyes,” said Meulens, whose bases-clearing, third-inning double enabled the Netherlands to end Cuba’s 21-0 run in Olympic play. “If you are not part of the majors, this is the ultimate, to be at the Olympics.”
Meulens nearly did not make this date with history. His Mexican League team, Saraperos de Saltillo, finished with the best record and was the top seed in the playoffs that began Aug. 25. But Saraperos was eliminated in five games by eighth-seed Monterrey, and that upset provided an opening for Meulens. He arrived in Australia Sept. 7, having never played with the Dutch national team. But he arrives its biggest star with the most major-league time. Such is life in European baseball.
He is eligible for the team because his home island of Curacao is a colony of the Netherlands and Meulens has duel citizenship. He plans to go to Holland after this tournament, and he will be a hero there for his hit vs. Cuba. But he will wait to hear about playing somewhere else, hoping it will be a shot at the majors.
“My options are open,” Meulens said. “Hopefully this will bring something good for me. If not, I still plan to play as long as I can. You give me a job and I’ll keep playing.”
