With baseball increasing the amount of international viewers every year, the amount of international players has tended to grow as well. Every four years we get to see baseball on an international stage with the World Baseball Classic and it gives us a chance to admire the opportunities that a game can bring to players from around the world. Baseball has provided one of the Winter Garden Squeeze’s own the opportunity to be in the states to continue his baseball career.

Winter Garden’s catcher, Mees Robberse, is originally from the Netherlands and has spent his childhood playing the game he loves in his homeland. The number 33 European prospect in the class of 2022, according to Perfect Game, was a member of the Scimitars Baseball Academy in the Netherlands. Robberse was chosen to represent the Netherlands in the U18 European Championship in 2021 after also being a member of the U15 team in the Netherlands.

In 2021, Robberse and the Netherlands team were able to capture the European championship that took place in Macerata Italy. Now a member of the U-23 Netherlands team, Robberse was able to take home his second European championship in Austria in 2023, as the Netherlands went back-to-back last August.

Looking to play collegiate baseball in the states, Robberse attended a prospect combine in Arizona. At that combine is where he was given the opportunity to attend Allen County Community College in Kansas to start his collegiate journey in the states. This past spring, the freshman backstop hit .273 and drove in 26 runs for the Red Devils. Robberse also hit six doubles, two home runs, a triple and was able to score 22 times himself. 

Robberse is looking for a new home this upcoming baseball season, but for now he will call Winter Garden home in the summer. In the short campaign this summer, Robberse has already made an impact for the Squeeze, driving in the tied-third most runs on the team so far with four.

For it to be “just a game,” baseball gives countless opportunities to players to see the world, meet new faces and grow an education, while just playing “a game.” Mees Robberse is another example of how special this game can be and the impact it can create in one's life.