September 19, 2012
By ROBERT NIEDZWIECKI
WINCHESTER — Goodbye Belgium. G’day Australia.
Former James Wood High School and Shenandoah University baseball star Greg Van Sickler — who finished his first professional baseball season in Belgium three weeks ago — will head to Australia on Sept. 30 to play for another professional team.
Van Sickler said Australia will likely be the last stop in his playing career. After his enjoyable experience in Belgium, he’s looking forward to continuing his international experience.
“I realize the chances of me signing a million-dollar MLB contract are likely impossible,” said Van Sickler, who returned to the United States two days before attending his alma mater’s football game against Ferrum College on Sept. 8. “But if someone’s going to pay me to play overseas practically for free, I’m going to take advantage of it.”
In Australia, Van Sickler will pitch and likely also play some second base and outfield for the Carine Cats, a member of the eight-team Provincial League. The 45-game season, which is mostly played on weekends, starts Oct. 7 and runs through the end of March.
Van Sickler, a 2007 James Wood and 2011 SU graduate, said he sent out more than one hundred emails to various professional teams, and of the few who replied Van Sickler said Carine was definitely the best deal.
Van Sickler will be paid a regular stipend to go toward his accommodations, he already has a work visa for use toward a side job, he’ll be able to receive pay for giving baseball lessons, and he’ll have use of a car.
Van Sickler will also be able to play in a league that should be a little more competitive than the solid competition he faced in Belgium, which he equates to the NCAA Division II-level. If Van Sickler does well enough, he could earn promotion to the Perth Heat of the Australian Baseball League. The ABL is partially sponsored by Major League Baseball, and a number of its players play for United States Minor League teams.
Van Sickler latched on with Carine thanks to the recommendation of his one American teammate on Belgium’s Namur Angels, Jake Hummel, a former player for Division I Pacific University. Hummel will also play for Carine.
While sporting a Washington Nationals jersey at the Ferrum game, Van Sickler said one of the other big draws of Australia was the fact that he would be able to speak English. The language barrier was about the only thing Van Sickler didn’t enjoy during his five-month stay in Belgium, which saw him experience memories on and off the field he’ll never forget.
For Namur, Van Sickler pitched and hit much like he did during his All-American career at Shenandoah, and he helped the Angels finish third in the Ligue Francophone Belge de Baseball et Softball. Over approximately 35 games, Van Sickler hit about .385 with a team-high seven home runs, and went 5-2 with about a 3.00 ERA.
Unfortunately, Namur ended the season on a run the likes of which he’d never seen, and they missed the playoffs.
“It was kind of like a Red Sox collapse,” said Van Sickler, a reference to Boston losing 21 of its final 29 games last year and missing the playoffs despite holding a nine-game lead in the wild card race with a month to go. “We lost 10 of 12 games by two runs or less. We were up 8-3 in the bottom of the ninth in one game, and we lost 9-8 on a walk-off grand slam.”
It was a disappointing ending, but Van Sickler couldn’t have asked for a better overall baseball experience. He particularly enjoyed the six-team international tournament Namur played in during June, which saw the Angels face teams from Portugal, Russia, France, Finland and Sweden.
“It was great meeting so many different people from different backgrounds who grew up enjoying the same game I love 10,000 miles away,” Van Sickler said.
One of the players from Portugal that Van Sickler met at that tournament hailed from Landover, Md. He was playing in Portugal as a result of marrying a Portuguese woman, and had taken up residence there.
Encounters with Americans were a nice change of pace for Van Sickler. Though he said nearly all of his teammates spoke perfect English, they didn’t get everything that was coming out of his mouth.
“They didn’t really understand American sarcasm, and I’m a guy who likes to use a few puns,” Van Sickler said. “So I’d say things and there’d be silence, but then I’d look over at Jake and at least he was laughing.”
Van Sickler said being able to live with and spend time with Hummel made a huge difference for both of them in making the adjustment to Belgium.
Van Sickler played a big role in helping some young Belgium players make adjustments. Part of Van Sickler’s contract required him to coach a youth team, He coached a team of 12-14-year-olds and worked with players on other teams as young as 5.
Most of the children couldn’t speak English, but he was able to demonstrate through actions what he wanted to see them do, and they were enthusiastic learners.
“A lot of them needed work with the fundamentals,” Van Sickler said. “Some of them had questionable arm movements that I thought could lead to injuries.
“There was one 14-year-old who when he was coming from the stretch had his hands too low, and he was bringing his arm back toward first base instead of back toward second when he threw. He was throwing a million miles an hour before, but when we made that adjustment he was lights-out.”
Van Sickler said one of the big benefits in going to Belgium was that he would finally be able to travel after having hardly done any in his life.
One of the more memorable trips involved going to Germany to see his aunt and young cousin, a trip that Van Sickler’s mother also made. Van Sickler saw the picturesque Cologne Cathedral, and while he was in Dusseldorf, he finally got a sense of what a big deal soccer could be when he saw how passionate the city’s residents were anticipating and watching Germany’s Euro 2012 match with Portugal.
After spending a few weeks in the states, it’s time to enjoy more of the world.
“Everybody I’ve talked to who’s lived [in Australia] or visited there have told me it’s amazing,” Van Sickler said. “I’ll probably be looking for some other type of job after this, but I’m glad I get to do something like this while I’m still young.”
— Contact Robert Niedzwiecki at