Curaçaoan Heritage on a Kachi Glove

Curaçao has roughly 150,000 people. Per capita, it is one of the most productive baseball islands on the planet — an outlier in the Dutch Caribbean that has put a striking number of players into the major leagues.

The country in baseball

Curaçao is a constituent country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and its baseball pipeline runs through a strong youth and amateur system that has fed the Dutch national team and, increasingly, MLB rosters. Curaçaoan teams from Willemstad have been regulars at the Little League World Series — Pabao Little League won the 2004 LLWS, defeating Conejo Valley Little League of Thousand Oaks, California, 5–2 in the championship game. That 2004 squad alone produced multiple future MLB players. The Dutch national team — built largely on Curaçaoan and Aruban talent — has been a serious WBC contender, reaching the semifinals in 2013 and the second round in multiple editions. The country's MLB representation skews heavily toward defensive specialists up the middle.

A moment that defined the country in MLB

The defining stretch is Andruw Jones's run of ten consecutive Gold Gloves in center field for the Atlanta Braves (1998–2007). Jones, born in Willemstad, came up at 19 and homered twice in Game 1 of the 1996 World Series at Yankee Stadium — the youngest player ever to homer in a World Series game and the first to hit two in a single Series game in his first two career Series at-bats. The Gold Glove streak, by Defensive Runs Saved, is one of the most dominant defensive runs by any outfielder in the modern era and is the moment Curaçao's reputation as a defensive island took shape.

Notable players

• Andruw Jones — five-time MLB All-Star, ten-time Gold Glove center fielder for the Atlanta Braves, 51-home-run season in 2005.
• Andrelton Simmons — multiple-time Gold Glove and Platinum Glove shortstop, widely regarded as one of the best defensive shortstops of his era.
• Kenley Jansen — multi-time All-Star closer, 2020 World Series champion with the Dodgers, member of the 400-saves club.
• Jonathan Schoop — All-Star second baseman, member of the 2004 LLWS-winning Pabao Little League team.
• Didi Gregorius — long-tenured MLB shortstop who succeeded Derek Jeter with the Yankees and homered to win the AL Wild Card Game in 2017.
• Jurickson Profar — multi-time MLB outfielder/infielder, All-Star, member of the 2004 LLWS championship team.
• Wladimir Balentien — MLB outfielder and NPB single-season home run record holder (60, 2013, with the Yakult Swallows).
• Ozzie Albies — multi-time All-Star second baseman, 2021 World Series champion with the Atlanta Braves.

The Kachi flag option

The Curaçaoan flag — blue with the yellow stripe and the two stars — is embroidered on the wrist strap or pinky of your custom glove at no extra cost, in matched colors. Curaçao is also one of the few baseball countries where the same Little League team produced multiple MLB All-Stars from a single 2004 roster; the configurator option exists in part because of how disproportionate the island's contribution is to the modern game.