ODIZ Frogs organiseert laatste Mix Softbal, afscheid op Kalverhoek

ODIZ Frogs will open Sportpark Kalverhoek one last time for Mix Softbal 2026, with the final edition of the tournament set for Sunday 24 May from 10:00 to 17:00. The club is making the end point clear: this is the allerlaatste editie ooit, and space is limited to 20 teams.

That keeps the event in the format that made it work for so many years. Mix Softbal has always been one of the most accessible and social fixtures on the ODIZ Frogs calendar, drawing teams, supporters and friends into a full day of softball, a big cup and a relaxed atmosphere along the lines. The club is again pushing the practical side of the day hard: sign up quickly, bring your people, and come for a mix of competition and club feel rather than a purely elite tournament.

The timing gives the farewell an extra edge. ODIZ Frogs has been based at Sportpark Kalverhoek in Zaandam since 1958 and organizes honkbal, softbal, beeball and petanque. For honkbal and softbal, the club normally trains and plays from January through October, so a late-spring mix event has long sat comfortably in the middle of the season’s social rhythm. This year, though, the club says the day carries a different kind of weight because 2026 is also its final year.

That broader backdrop is impossible to separate from the tournament. In the Voorjaarsnota 2025-2029, Gemeente Zaanstad floated a possible move from Kalverhoek to sportpark De Omzoom in Assendelft as a savings measure, describing the Kalverhoek complex as dated and arguing that renovation would not be affordable. ODIZ Frogs rejected that route as unrealistic. De Orkaan reported that Zaanstad estimated possible new lease income from the ODIZ Frogs land at €45,500 and put the total savings target at €94,000. Kort Zaans later reported that the club would stop in 2027 and would mark 8 May 2026 as its last birthday, its 68th. Against that backdrop, Mix Softbal 2026 is more than a tournament. It is a final club ritual at Kalverhoek, and one of the last clear markers of a community that has been part of Zaandam’s baseball and softball life for nearly seven decades.