A Family Dream Realized from Over the Pond

“For almost everyone back home, coming to America is like a dream, or at least on the bucket list.” That’s what Darryl Collins, the Columbia Fireflies left fielder says of his first impression of the states.

The first time Collins, a 19-year-old, came here from overseas, he was 15-years-old and played in a tournament in Indiana. A year later, he signed a deal with the Royals during the International signing period and by 2019, the Dutch teenager was playing rookie ball in Arizona.

The start to his career in America was nothing short of remarkable. The lefty reached base safely in his first 24 games and got a hit in 23 of those contests. During the stretch, Collins slashed .398/.472/.548. To put that in perspective, the Major League average slash line in 2019 was .247/.320/.419. In other words, Collins, who was nearly three years younger than the average player he faced in 2019, was getting a hit and reaching base safely 15 percent more often than the average Major Leaguer, and he was adding extra-bases a similar amount of the time when compared to the average Major League player. In other words, the kid can swing the bat.

It’s almost as though Collins was destined to play in the states. His parents named him Darryl, after New York Mets star Darryl Strawberry, who helped bring a World Series to the Big Apple in 1986, 15 years before Collins was born. That was the first of four championships that he won, the latter three with the New York Yankees in 1996, 1998 and 1999.

Victor Collins is a Yankees fan and when his son was born September 16, 2001, and was wearing a Darryl Strawberry shirt. It seemed an easy choice to name his own son, Darryl. What he wouldn’t know until years later is that his son would become a top corner outfield prospect for the Kansas City Royals.

Darryl views his dad as his greatest influence growing up. “The most credit has to go to my dad, he really taught me everything I know about baseball.” Collins says. His father was a well-regarded teen prospect, who gave up on the game to work a job that would allow him the flexibility to spend more time around his family. Now he can live his dream of playing professionally through his two sons, Darryl and Darnel. Darnel also plays in the Royals organization. The 17-year-old is currently in the Arizona Complex League.

The Fireflies outfielder is choosing a path closer to his grandfather, Jan’s career though. After growing up in Aruba and welding in Holland early in his life, he was signed by Neptunus Rotterdam to play baseball beginning in 1978. He has now played and coached for Neptunus for over 45 years. In 1989 he was a player-manager prior to completing his playing career following the 1990 season.

Darryl grew up close with his grandfather, and in the offseason, he still works out with Neptunus. The Royals’ prospect even played for Neptunus during the pandemic-lost season, working 16 more games than any Minor Leaguer was able to during the summer of 2020. Darryl played two professional seasons for Neptunus, who are in the Honkbal Hoofdklasse League, which is the top professional league in the Netherlands. In the 2018 season, when Collins was nearly 10 years younger than the average player in the League, he hit .418 in 79 at-bats.

The greatest lesson Darryl has learned from years of being molded by his Grandfather is, “You have to love the game if you want to complete your dream. You have to love the game, because it’s not going to love you back. It’s a lot of hard work to get to your dream.”

Now Collins is closer to his dream than he’s ever been. He’s in his first season of full-season professional ball and has played a career-high 58 games in 2021. The Fireflies are 34-24 with Collins in the starting lineup and 4-20 in games where Collins has the night off this year. In his time in Columbia, we’ve gotten to see his unbridled potential first hand.

The Netherland’s product has produced career-highs in most power statistics, with four homers and 33 RBI while in the Low-A East League. He’s also shown the Fireflies a clutch-gene that Royals’ fans are going to love for years to come.

The best example of this gene is on June 26 when Collins hit the Fireflies first-ever walk-off home run, this one a grand slam, to beat the Myrtle Beach Pelicans in the 10th inning. You can see in the video below that Collins pulled the ball over the right field fence on the first pitch he saw in the at-bat.

It’s easy to celebrate the outfielder and all the success the teenager has had navigating professional ball in a new country that speaks a different language than the Netherlands. Just as impressive as his playing career though, Collins is fully bilingual, speaking both English and Dutch. If that weren’t enough, his Spanish is rapidly improving as he continues to make new friends from the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Colombia and other Latin-speaking countries.

Of course, the language barrier is just one hurdle that Collins had to hop over. “The American game is a lot faster than back home and we are playing everyday baseball. Back home at the most we play four or five times a week, but in The States we play every day.”

Sometimes the grind of playing every day makes Collins feel a bit tired in the morning, but once it gets around game time, Collins says the adrenaline rush that kicks in makes him forget about everything else. That’s the love of the game and the joy of having the opportunity to play kicking in and driving Darryl to his goals.

A big part of his routine every day is calling family back home before the game. The entire family, his Mom, Dad, Grandpa and Uncle, all love the game dearly. Soccer, or football, is the biggest sport in the Netherlands, and the popularity level isn’t close, but this family chose baseball, which has brought Darryl here to Columbia. It doesn’t mean the 19-year-old doesn’t miss being back home though. He still follows along with Feyenoord soccer when he can. The team out of Rotterdam is only about 30 minutes from Collins’ hometown Spijkenisse.

One thing he really misses is the food back home. The outfielder’s favorite dish is role, a tortilla topped with chicken, eggs, green beans and potatoes. Collins will be sure to talk to you about the sauce on top of it, which he says is incomparable to anything here in America.

Just like the sauce on Collins’ favorite dish, there aren’t many outfielders in the league that can compare to him. Columbia fans, and soon enough, Royals fans, are going to be lucky to watch him put on the uniform for years to come.