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Hensley Filemon Acasio Meulens (; born June 23, 1967), nicknamed " Bam Bam", is a Curaçaoan professional baseball coach and former player. He most recently was the hitting coach for the Colorado Rockies of Major League Baseball (MLB). Meulens was also the longtime manager of the Netherlands national baseball team, from 2013 to 2023.
A native of Curaçao, he played from to in MLB, Nippon Professional Baseball, and the KBO League. He was the first Curaçaoan to play in both MLB and the Dominican Professional Baseball League.
Hitting home runs left-handed while playing softball as a teenager earned Meulens the nickname "Bamm-Bamm Rubble" when his friends compared his power to the The Flintstones cartoon character.
His bat rebounded in 1990 for Columbus as he helped lead the team to the 1990 International League championships (where they ultimately lost to Rochester), hitting .285 with 26 HR and 96 RBI, and was named the 1990 International League MVP. Meulens' impressive 1990 season earned him a spot on the Yankees roster in 1991, but he was back in Columbus in 1992 to help lead the Clippers to the Governors' Cup Championship.
Unable to secure a contract with a major league team in 1999, Meulens signed with the Newark Bears of the independent Atlantic League. He made one last stop in Asia, playing 14 games with the SK Wyverns of the KBO League, batting only .196, before heading his professional playing career to the Mexican League with the Saraperos de Saltillo in 2001 and finally retiring, in 2002, after a mid-season injury while playing with the Pericos de Puebla.
Meulens also played for the Dutch team in the 2001 Baseball World Cup in Taichung, Taiwan and 2002 Intercontinental Cup in Havana, Cuba.
Meulens also runs the Dutch Antilles Baseball Academy in Curaçao. He is reportedly interested in starting a baseball league in Curaçao in association with Major League Baseball's RBI Program.
Meulens was named bench coach of the New York Mets on December 8, 2019, for the 2020 season. Meulens was fired after the season and was replaced by Dave Jauss.
Meulens returned to the Netherlands national team as a coach for the 2004 Summer Olympics and the 2009 World Baseball Classic. Meulens was named to serve as manager for the team during the 2013 World Baseball Classic. Meulens managed the Netherlands in the 2020 Olympic Baseball Qualifier, where the Dutch team failed to qualify to the Olympics. After a disappointing showing at the 2023 World Baseball Classic, Meulens was dismissed as the Netherlands manager in December 2023.
On February 28, 2022, the New York Yankees announced that Meulens would serve as assistant hitting coach.
On November 7, 2022, the Colorado Rockies announced that they had hired Meulens as their hitting coach starting with the 2023 season. The Rockies fired him on April 17, 2025.
Meulens speaks five languages: English language, Spanish language, Dutch language, Papiamento and Japanese.
On April 27, 2012, Meulens was awarded the order of Knight in the Order of Orange-Nassau by Queen Beatrix. A ceremony was held at Oracle Park on July 13, 2012, where he was introduced as 'Sir' Hensley Meulens. The award ceremony highlighted his role in victory by The Netherlands in the 2011 Baseball World Cup.
In April 2024, an investigation was launched by the Federal Aviation Administration for unauthorized entry to the cockpit of a United Airlines flight Air charter by the Colorado Rockies en route to Toronto on April 10. Meulens had posted (and later deleted) a video on Instagram in which he was shown in a pilot's seat while the plane was on autopilot, and included a caption thanking the captain and first officer. Meulens later issued an apology to the Rockies organization and to United Airlines.
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