The Golden Age of Jewish Baseball Next foe for the Israeli nine is Cuba. Lee Smith
http://www.weeklystandard.com/the-golden-age-of-jewish-baseball/article/2007174
After going 3-0 in the first round of the World Baseball Classic, Israel moves on to the second round of pool play this weekend in Tokyo when it squares off against international powerhouse Cuba Saturday (10 p.m. EST). The other two teams in Pool E are the Netherlands, whom Israel defeated Wednesday night 4-2 in the preliminary round, and Japan, the 2006 and 2009 WBC champions. The pool winner and the runner-up will move on to Los Angeles for the semi-final round starting March 20. If the Israeli nine makes it through, it might be the first time a Chavez Ravine crowd gets to the park early and stays till the end.
The club’s success, Israeli ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer told me, “is a real home run for the Jewish state.” Some credit the team’s undefeated run to mascot “Mensch on the Bench,” while more seasoned baseball observers note that the lowest-ranked club in the 16-team tournament is stacked with current or former major leaguers, like pitcher Jason Marquis, catcher Ryan Lavarnway, first baseman Nate Freiman, designated hitter Ike Davis, third baseman Ty Kelly, and centerfielder Sam Fuld, while the rest of the roster has plenty of minor league experience.
It’s not a star-studded lineup, like the Dominican Republic’s, for instance, but they play good baseball. They’re also playing role of lovable underdog. One broadcaster read aloud from the promotional material concerning Israel’s slick-fielding shortstop during Wednesday night’s game like a mother boasting about her son. In high school, “Scott Burcham was selected top defensive shortstop in the Southland by the Los Angeles Times prior to his senior season.” We are all very proud of Scotty.
Yes, even people who aren’t normally baseball fans are pulling for Israel. Even before the U.S. team has taken the field (the Americans open Friday night against Colombia), the Israeli squad has generated an unusually high level of interest in the WBC. Initiated in 2006, followed by the 2009 and 2013 tournaments, the WBC is roughly modeled after the FIFA World Cup, held every four years. Previously, the WBC seemed to get lost in that strange gre -zone of spring training, somewhere between catchers and pitchers first reporting the second week of February and opening day. For scouts and baseball executives, it’s an opportunity to get a closer look at foreign talent, especially Asian players and the Cubans. In past WBCs, Cuban stars who eventually signed major league contracts after fleeing the island, like Aroldis Chapman and Jose Abreu, showed they could more than match up with big leaguers.
But for most casual fans, the WBC is essentially a string of exhibition games. Sure, you’re watching some of the game’s greats go against each other, but it’s not clear why Robinson Cano working Daisuke Matsuzaka to a 3-2 count is super exciting just because they’re in the uniforms of their national teams. It’s still March.
It’s different for fanatics with immigrant backgrounds from the Caribbean baseball powers, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the 2013 WBC championDominican Republic. Here some of the Dominican players celebrate “plátano pride,” and Baltimore Orioles star Manny Machado explains why he’s playing for the D.R. rather than the United States. The U.S. third baseman and star of the Colorado Rockies Nolan Arenado, whose mother’s family is Puerto Rican and father’s family comes from Cuba, remembers that his family made it “clear that I should be proud to live in this country because so many of the freedoms we have here do not exist in Cuba. But despite the negative views of the Cuban government, my family members still root like crazy for the Cuban national baseball team.”
I suspect there’s something similar going on with the Israeli club. American Jews are thrilled to see Jewish ballplayers take their place among the nations of baseball. Most of the Israel roster is made up of American ballplayers whose family history qualifies them for Israeli citizenship, but only two active players are Israelis. There’s veteran pitcher Shlomo Lipetz, and Dean Kremer, a right-handed pitcher the Los Angeles Dodgers selected out of the University of Nevada Las Vegas last year in the fourteenth round. He’s the first Israeli drafted by a big league club.
First base coach Nate Fish is also an Israeli citizen, having made aliyah in 2013. I spoke by Skype with him as he and the club prepared for their game with Cuba. Fish, who tweets under the handle @KingofJewishBaseball, told me that “it’s the golden age of Jewish baseball. There were always good Jewish players in the past, but it was spread out. So you have Koufax and others. But now you have numbers.”
Fish has a good vantage point. In helping assemble the Israeli team, he scoured the professional and college ranks for Jewish ballplayers. “In 2012 when we were putting together the 2013 team, there were 14 Jewish players in the big leagues, and lots of guys in the minors. You go to the winter meetings and there are Jews everywhere—writers, scouts, in the front office, everywhere.”
Indeed, some of the best-known Jewish ballplayers are playing with the American WBC team, infielders Ian Kinsler and Alex Bregman. Another great Jewish ballplayer, now retired, was a teammate of Fish’s at the University of Cincinnati. “I went there as a third baseman,” says Fish. “But Kevin Youkilis was there, so I converted to catcher.”
After making aliyah in 2013, Fish was eligible to represent Israel’s domestic national team, which competes in tournaments in Europe and elsewhere. He was the twenty-ninth man, essentially an alternate, on the 2012 World Baseball Classic team, which failed to make the 2013 finals. When the current club won its qualifying round in Brooklyn this past fall, Fish moved back to New York, where he plays in local Dominican leagues.
I asked him if Israel’s success was helping promote the game in Israel. “When I lived in Tel Aviv,” said Fish, “I spent a lot of time trying to explain that there is this sport, baseball. But now this team’s success is getting through. Prime Minister Netanyahu tweeted a nice message, so did the IDF. People are jumping on this story even in the Hebrew-language press, so we’re penetrating Israeli culture.”
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