Rick VandenHurk — along with Oriole teammates Adam Jones, Jeremy Guthrie, and some other players — is, in the giant Dutchman’s words, “on a tour of Europe to promote the game and help kids realize their dreams.”

The selfsame Dutchman is chronicling his adventures abroad via his blog, and the results are joy-ridden.

Some observations regarding VandenHurk and his prose stylings:
• He uses the words “Wauw,” “Bitterballen,” and “Appelflappen.”
• He capitalizes words in a way that, while not necessarily representative of “Standard English,” is nonetheless pleasing. For example, discussing Mariner prospect Greg Halman’s hometown, VandenHurk writes, “Haarlem is the City Were [sic] Gregory Grew up…” Also: “Baker and Gregory answered a lot of questions from the kids and helped them with their catching and Outfield Skills.”
• Seriously, though: “Bitterballen”? That’s gross, Rick VandenHurk.

H/T: Kate Wheeler of MASN

The greatest challenge, as an American, to announcing the debut of the Australian Baseball League (ABL) is restraining oneself from making even the offhandedist of references to criminals, Vegemite, or 1986 box office smash-hit Crocodile Dundee. So, instead, I’ll mention all those things, slyly, while making a great show of how I’m totally above doing such a thing.

Sound like a plan? Good.

In any case, it’s not a lie: Australia has a professional baseball league now. The six ABL teams are as follows: the Adelaide Bite, Brisbane Bandits, Canberra Cavalry, Melbourne Aces, Perth Heat, and the Sydney Blue Sox.

The first game, played on November 6th, saw Sydney beat Canberra 1-0 in what must have been a rousing pitcher’s duel. (As an aside, note the unorthodox pitcher usage from Canberra manager, ex-MLBer Steve Schrenk: four pitchers, two innings each. That’s exciting in the nerdiest way.)

Americans will recognize some names, like Travis Blackley and Justin Huber. Former awesome Brewer Dave Nilsson (i.e. Ryan Doumit before Ryan Doumit) manages the Brisbane team. Brave reliever Peter Moylan will join Melbourne in January.

H/T: Ash Vasudevan

Recently, Chicago White Sock and Constant Villain A.J. Pierzynski announced that he will be growing a mustache as part of a month-long fundraiser for prostate and testicular cancer awareness.

Sadly, not all players receive as much attention for their charitable acts. Here are a few true facts about lesser-known gestures from MLB players past and present.

1887: Phenomenal Smith changes name, for one day only, to “Pretty Good” Smith in effort to improve self-esteem of opponents.

1912: Ty Cobb resolves only to badly maim, but not actually kill, spectator.

1957: Mickey Mantle offers to become organ donor. Awkward silence follows.

1983: Ozzie Smith does a back flip. An angel gets its wings.

2010: Jeff Francoeur vows to participate in Swing Wildly for Hunger after disputing the value of the Walk.