Team Israel Is a Hit, but Barely Registers in Tel Aviv
Although Team Israel has been a quirky success story in the World Baseball Classic, baseball has yet to catch on in the country
Team Israel’s emergence as a big story in the World Baseball Classic has sparked boatloads of media coverage and prompted plenty of Jewish Americans to wake up at 4:30 a.m. to witness its unlikely run.
But here, in the country this group of players ostensibly represents, Israel’s success has been met with one collective reaction: Huh?
“You ask the average person in Israel on the street, they’ll have no idea what baseball is,” said Peter Kurz, the president of the Israel Association of Baseball. “They’ll have no idea that it’s being played in Israel.”
In an event typically dominated by traditional baseball powerhouses like Japan and the Dominican Republic, Team Israel has been a quirky surprise. Buoyed by the “Mensch on a Bench”—the team’s life-size mascot doll and good-luck charm—Israel won four straight games to open the tournament, beating the heavily favored Dutch and Cuban squads before losing a rematch with the Netherlands on Monday. If Israel continues its miracle run by upsetting Japan in Tokyo early Wednesday, it could advance to the semifinals in Los Angeles next week.
In the U.S., this has been a pretty big deal. But in Israel, it’s barely on the radar. The entire country has only about 1,000 children playing the game—half of whom are of American descent—and only one quality baseball-specific field. Israel’s attempt at a professional baseball league lasted just one season in 2007.
Israel is benefiting from the WBC’s lenient rules, which allow players to compete for a country if they are eligible to become a citizen there. In the case of Israel, that extends to anybody with at least one Jewish parent or grandparent. As a result, Team Israel is comprised almost entirely of American minor-league players with a bit of Judaism somewhere in their bloodlines.
Most native Israelis wouldn’t know which way to run to first base.
“They’ll say, ‘I don’t get it,’” said Leah Rosen, a bartender at Mike’s Place, an American sports bar on the Mediterranean beachfront in Tel Aviv. “I’m like, ‘Listen, they’ve got to get around all the bases. If they get touched by the ball or someone catches it, then they are out…I can’t really explain to you baseball in 30 seconds.”
Rosen, who originally hails from Chicago, spoke on Monday afternoon in Israel at the bar, where just a handful of Israelis and Americans sipped beers and ate burgers during Israel’s contest against the Netherlands. Most of the people there were dual citizens.
Mike’s Place is one of the few sports bar in this city. At the chain’s sister bar in Jerusalem, roughly 50 Israelis watched the game, staff said. Both bars are often jam-packed with both Israelis and tourists for major soccer matches involving one of the country’s teams or superstars from the Spanish and English leagues.
But that’s certainly not the case for baseball. In Israel, soccer and basketball are by far the most popular sports. In terms of games imported from America, football has caught on quicker. Later this year, a sports campus featuring a regulation-sized football field will open in Jerusalem, thanks to a $6 million donation from New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft.
“I’ve been looking for the last seven or eight years here in the States for a Bob Kraft for baseball,” said Kurz, who has spoken with the owners of the Washington Nationals and New York Mets in search of support.
Enjoyment of Israel’s success is tempered by confusion over who’s on the squad. Last week, when asked if she knew Israel had a baseball team, sports minister Miri Regev admitted she wasn’t exactly up to speed on the intricacies of the game.
“I may be the sports minister, but I don’t pretend to know every player and every team in detail,” she told Army Radio.
Israel's manager Jerry Weinstein, right, and “Mensch on a Bench”—the team’s life-size mascot doll and good-luck charm, in the dugout.
But here, in the country this group of players ostensibly represents, Israel’s success has been met with one collective reaction: Huh?
“You ask the average person in Israel on the street, they’ll have no idea what baseball is,” said Peter Kurz, the president of the Israel Association of Baseball. “They’ll have no idea that it’s being played in Israel.”
In an event typically dominated by traditional baseball powerhouses like Japan and the Dominican Republic, Team Israel has been a quirky surprise. Buoyed by the “Mensch on a Bench”—the team’s life-size mascot doll and good-luck charm—Israel won four straight games to open the tournament, beating the heavily favored Dutch and Cuban squads before losing a rematch with the Netherlands on Monday. If Israel continues its miracle run by upsetting Japan in Tokyo early Wednesday, it could advance to the semifinals in Los Angeles next week.
In the U.S., this has been a pretty big deal. But in Israel, it’s barely on the radar. The entire country has only about 1,000 children playing the game—half of whom are of American descent—and only one quality baseball-specific field. Israel’s attempt at a professional baseball league lasted just one season in 2007.
Israel is benefiting from the WBC’s lenient rules, which allow players to compete for a country if they are eligible to become a citizen there. In the case of Israel, that extends to anybody with at least one Jewish parent or grandparent. As a result, Team Israel is comprised almost entirely of American minor-league players with a bit of Judaism somewhere in their bloodlines.
Most native Israelis wouldn’t know which way to run to first base.
“They’ll say, ‘I don’t get it,’” said Leah Rosen, a bartender at Mike’s Place, an American sports bar on the Mediterranean beachfront in Tel Aviv. “I’m like, ‘Listen, they’ve got to get around all the bases. If they get touched by the ball or someone catches it, then they are out…I can’t really explain to you baseball in 30 seconds.”
Rosen, who originally hails from Chicago, spoke on Monday afternoon in Israel at the bar, where just a handful of Israelis and Americans sipped beers and ate burgers during Israel’s contest against the Netherlands. Most of the people there were dual citizens.
Mike’s Place is one of the few sports bar in this city. At the chain’s sister bar in Jerusalem, roughly 50 Israelis watched the game, staff said. Both bars are often jam-packed with both Israelis and tourists for major soccer matches involving one of the country’s teams or superstars from the Spanish and English leagues.
But that’s certainly not the case for baseball. In Israel, soccer and basketball are by far the most popular sports. In terms of games imported from America, football has caught on quicker. Later this year, a sports campus featuring a regulation-sized football field will open in Jerusalem, thanks to a $6 million donation from New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft.
“I’ve been looking for the last seven or eight years here in the States for a Bob Kraft for baseball,” said Kurz, who has spoken with the owners of the Washington Nationals and New York Mets in search of support.
Enjoyment of Israel’s success is tempered by confusion over who’s on the squad. Last week, when asked if she knew Israel had a baseball team, sports minister Miri Regev admitted she wasn’t exactly up to speed on the intricacies of the game.
“I may be the sports minister, but I don’t pretend to know every player and every team in detail,” she told Army Radio.
Israel's manager Jerry Weinstein, right, and “Mensch on a Bench”—the team’s life-size mascot doll and good-luck charm, in the dugout.
Critics say baseball’s support in Israel is confined to American Jews who pine for their previous life, spurring questions among Israelis about whether Americans should be representing them in sports. Much of the team had never visited Israel until a team trip here in January.
“There’s controversy over whether they are actually Israelis,” said Yair Galily, a sports sociologist at Israel’s Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya.
To the Israeli baseball federation, relying on American mercenaries in the WBC is an important means to an end. Just by making it this far, Israel is guaranteed $1 million in prize money, to be split 50/50 between the players and the federation, a Major League Baseball spokesman said. Kurz said his annual budget is typically $300,000.
This financial windfall will aid in the construction this year of two new baseball fields, one in Beit Shemesh and another in Ra’anana. Kurz already has agreements with the municipalities to acquire the land, but he needs to raise $2 million to finish the job. That is now a lot closer to a reality.
In the next few years, Kurz’s goal is to have 5,000 kids playing baseball in Israel, ultimately starting a pipeline to American college teams. He dreams of an Israeli in the major leagues one day.
“The exposure of the WBC is hugely important for us,” Kurz said. “More and more Israelis are getting involved in the game because they’re seeing it.”
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