Chicho Jesurun

Chicho Jesurun

Arthur Benjamin (Chicho) Jesurun (10 July 1947 in Willemstad, Curaçao – 16 December 2006 in Almere) was a Netherlands-Antillian baseball player and coach who reached worldwide fame.

During his playing career he played for several teams. He started in Curaçao with the Korporaal Cardinals, later, in the 1960s he was one of the founders and players of the Caribe from Groningen in the Netherlands. In that period he also started his coaching career as a coach at the Rayon Het Noorden team.

In the 1970s and 80s he was working as a baseball coach in his native Curaçao with the Wildcats Felipe II and the Curaçao national baseball team. With this team he reached the second spot in the national league, before winning the league in three consecutive years. Later he also became a referee in the sport. He also featured as a scout for several Major League Baseball teams like the Atlanta Braves and the Florida Marlins.

Chicho Jesurun

During his time at the Braves he brought fellow Antillean Andruw Jones to the team. He also worked for Venezuelan professional team Los Tiburones de la Guairia, where he managed to become "assistant to the owner". Other teams he managed were the Amsterdam Pirates and Almere '90.

He also worked in other functions at Dutch clubs Pioniers and SV ADO. In the years prior to his death he was a bench coach at Mr. Cocker HCAW. The period in Amsterdam came after he worked for the Montreal Expos. The two teams became partners and the Pirates changed their name temporary to Amsterdam Expos, managed by Jesurun for four years. Besides Jones for the Braves he contracted players like Vince Rooi, Danny Rombley, Tim van Pareren, Roger Bernadina (all Expos), Rick VandenHurk, Kenny Berkenbosch and Jeffrey de Vrieze (all Marlins).

As of 1977 Jesurun also worked for the radio, starting as a baseball reporter, but later he presented the news for Radio Netherlands in the papiamento language. During the 2005 Baseball World Cup, which was held in the Netherlands he featured as a reporter in the famous Dutch sport broadcasting program Langs de Lijn.

Chicho Jesurun died at the age of 59 due to a myocardial infarction.

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