Hensley "Bam-Bam" Meulens was the first native of Curacao to make it to the major leagues. He played for the New York Yankees from 1989-1993, and spent the next three years in Japan before joining the Montreal Expos in 1997 and the Arizona Diamondbacks, the final stop of his MLB career, in 1998.
Since Meulens' debut, 12 players from the small island in the Caribbean Sea have suited up in the majors. Each has had a role in cultivating the baseball culture on the talent-rich island, probably none more so than Andruw Jones.
Jones is easily the most well-known player from Curacao, a constituent country of the Netherlands, and his influence will be hard to miss Monday, when he leads the Netherlands, a team with a number of players who grew up idolizing him, against the Dominican Republic in the semifinals of the 2013 World Baseball Classic.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.