The Sporting Life: The Dutch Years

Sport in Holland is dominated by soccer. The Dutch are a great sporting people and they always punch above their weight in the Olympics and stuff but in the end it all comes down to soccer. It's almost like having a lot of friends but one of them is really famous like say, Mick Jagger. If Mick calls you up to go to a party but you were supposed to play poker that night with your normal friends, what are you going to do? Of course, you party with Mick! To carry this analogy further, Mick Jagger is to rock and roll as Johan Cruyff is to soccer.
I got to Holland about 1991, but didn't start following soccer until about 1993 so I was a bit spoilt that the first team I ever followed was probably the best team I'll ever see. Learning to watch soccer from Ajax of the mid-90's was probably unfair. They were just so good. Van Der Sar, Reizeger, Davids, The De Boers, Rijkaard, Kluivert, Overmars and my favourite Jari Litmanen. They were all homegrown talent and probably should have won more in Europe than they did. I remember them absolutley dismantling Real Madrid in 1996. I think the score was 2-0 but a fair score would have 6-0. They were just so dominate. The Boswell decision(basically free agency) would come few years later and the team would be broken up and the players went to the bigger European clubs). Anyway, soccer peaked for me right here. One of the great sporting moments for me ever, right down to Jack Van Gelder going all Peter North on his call.
Like I said, there are other sports and there is a great club system for people who want to play. If you want to play a sport, join a club, it's that easy. I even got to play American Football for a couple of years while I was there. The same club also had a baseball team. It's a lot easier to play these sports in Holland than even in America! The only other sports that I really did was volleyball and skating. Skating is great and there is no better place in the world to skate than in Holland. Because of all the canals you can skate anywhere. From the middle of your city, out to the country and onto the lakes. If soccer is a religion than skating is like yoga. It's a release, if you like or an exatentennsial experience. Of course you don't race or compete in Yoga but the Dutch do and the Grandaddy of all skating races is the Elfstedentocht. It's a 200 km race through eleven cities that anyone can enter (as long as your pre-registered with the club). The only problem is that the race only happens if the ice allows which isn't very often. When I watched there had only been 11 races run in the last century. I got up at 0430 in the morning and watched until midnight when the last rider came in. In a cruel twist, if you were to skate the 200 kms and came in at 1 minute after midnight you weren't allowed to finish or get your stupid medal. I think the rules may have been written by a German.