Team Israel is expected to face Puerto Rico on Monday night followed by the Dominican Republic on Tuesday and Venezuela on Wednesday.

By Shiryn Ghermezian, Algemeiner

Team Israel got off to a strong start in the 2023 World Baseball Classic (WBC) with a 3-1 win over Nicaragua on Sunday at loanDepot Park in Miami, Florida.

In the Pool D matchup, Israel went through seven innings without scoring while facing four Nicaraguan pitchers before the odds turned in their favor during the eighth inning, when they went up against Nicaragua’s pitcher and former Yankees reliever Jonathan Loáisiga. Team Israel hitter Spencer Horwitz tied the game 1-1 with a one-out RBI single and soon after Garrett Stubbs put the Israeli team in the lead with a two-run double off Loáisiga.

“He’s obviously a big league pitcher and he’s been in big situations before and he’s an unbelievable reliever,” Stubbs said about Loáisiga, according to MLB.com. “But in this situation, I just got a good pitch to hit and capitalized on the opportunity.”

When asked how Team Israel managed to succeed against Nicaragua’s star pitcher, manager Ian Kinsler joked, “I have no idea what happened. That’s what I expect from my team, to play all 27 outs and fight until the end. Today we were lucky enough to be on the right side.”

Team Israel is expected to face Puerto Rico on Monday night followed by the Dominican Republic on Tuesday and Venezuela on Wednesday.

“We have just as good of a shot as anybody,” Kinsler added, according to MLB.com. “We’re going to give it our best shot and try to make things interesting in Pool D.”

During the 2017 WBC, Israel won its first four games and made it to the second round. The team’s roster this year for the WBC features several current and former MLB players including San Francisco Giants outfielder Joc Pederson, former Giants outfielder Alex Dickerson and Orioles pitcher Dean Kremer.

Some of the athletes on the team this year also created customized cleats to wear on the field. Pederson will sport silver Nike cleats that feature blue Stars of David while Alex Katz, a pitcher for Israel at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and at this year’s WBC, will don cleats that include an image of Mensch on a Bench, the mascot of the Israeli baseball team.

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A record-setting 52 athletes, including Israel’s first baseball team, will have to wait until 2021 to compete due to pandemic.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Israel’s hopes for more Olympic medals will now have to wait until 2021 as the Tokyo Summer Games have been postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Who are some of the 52 athletes of the largest contingent the country has ever gathered for the most prestigious sports competition in the world?

Some of them are familiar names, having recently medaled in various championships or represented Israel before at the Olympics.

Of the latter, Artistic Gymnast Alexander Shatilov will now have to wait to don an Israeli uniform for an impressive fourth time in the men’s individual all-around and apparatus events.

Israeli shooter Sergy Rikhter just won the gold medal at the 2019 European Games in the men’s 10-meter air rifle competition.

The 2008 Olympic bronze medalist in sailing, Shahar Zubari, and World Championship bronze medalist Linoy Ashram of rhythmic gymnastic fame also have realistic hopes of success when the Games finally do take place.

Perhaps those to make the biggest splash this Olympics are those representing Israel as a group for only the second time in history – Israel’s baseball team. (The first was its soccer team, in 1976.)

The mixture of mostly American college, amateur, Minor League and former Major League players qualified by beating the best European and African teams in round-robin tournaments last year.

Considering that only six teams are going to play for three medals, Israel’s chances of gaining a spot on the podium were considered high when they won in Europe. Those odds only increased when just-retired Ian Kinsler joined the team earlier this month.

During his 14-year career, the greatest Jewish second-baseman of all time was a four-time All Star, two-time Gold Glover (awarded for defensive play), and one of only 12 players in major league history to have had multiple 30-30 seasons (30 home runs and 30 steals).

He also won a World Series with the Red Sox as recently as 2018.

Five Israelis of African extraction are to represent Israel in long-distance running. Three men were set for the marathon, Girmaw Amare, Haimro Alame, and Marhu Teferi.

Two women won a place in the 5,000-meter qualifiers, Selamawit Dagnachew and Lonah Chemtai Salpeter. Salpeter was to run in two additional races – the 10,000-meter event and the marathon.

Israel has also qualified for the group all-around in rhythmic gymnastics, three classes of boat races, and several individual swim events.

Israel has also secured spots in women’s cycling and surfing, and the equestrian team jumping competition.

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Israel’s men’s national baseball team has qualified for the Summer Olympic Games.

By Josh Hasten, JNS

Israel might be known globally as a high-tech juggernaut, but the “Startup Nation” is on the verge of being a superpower in diamonds as well. No, not the kinds that shine, but the kinds you use for pitching, catching and batting — as for the first time in history, the Israel men’s national baseball team has qualified for the Summer Olympic Games to be held this summer in Tokyo.

This past September, Israel stunned the competition by winning the “A” pool Olympic-qualifying tournament in Italy, where the best teams in the Europe/Africa regions were competing with a chance to move on to Japan.

Jordan Alter, the new president of the Israel Association of Baseball (IAB) — the organization that oversees all official baseball activity in Israel — tells JNS that reaching the Olympics was nothing short of astonishing.

“It was a wild dream just to get to Group ‘A,’ ” he says. “To get to where we are, to the Olympics, is a dream come true. Europe is in shock” that we won the tournament, he adds.

Alter explained that out of the 24 members of team Israel, four are native Israelis. The other 20 are Americans who became Israeli citizens for the purpose of being eligible for the games, as players must have citizenship in the country they are representing.

Team Israel celebrating after their 11-1 win over South Africa, Sept. 22, 2019. (IAB/Margo Sugarman)

The players must also not be currently on the roster of a Major League Baseball team in the United States/Canada, the top league in the world. Some of the players do have experience in the Majors, while many are currently playing in the Minor Leagues.

Bostonian Jeremy Bleich, 32, is a left-handed pitcher on the team. He is currently an MLB free agent who has played for various teams in the league after being drafted in the first round by the New York Yankees in 2008. He tells JNS that playing for the Oakland A’s in 2018 was “the highlight of my career.”

He got involved with Israel baseball in 2017, when the team competed in the World Baseball Classic in South Korea/Japan exceeding expectations with a sixth-place finish.

Bleich says that he welcomed the opportunity to represent Israel on the mound internationally.

“Being a Jewish American, I grew up in a Conservative Jewish environment and was always in touch with my Judaism.”

He shares that it has extra meaning for him to play for Israel, as he is the grandson of two Holocaust survivors. “When the IAB gave me the opportunity, I jumped at it quickly,” he says.

In terms of his expectations for the team in the upcoming Olympics, Bleich says “we just want to continue to complete and do some damage in the tournament.”

But more importantly, he notes, “the more successful we are, the more attention we can bring the State of Israel [in baseball], and can help provide confidence, desire and hope for young Israeli kids to step out of their comfort zone and want to play baseball.”

He stresses that “it’s an honor to represent the State of Israel and the worldwide Jewish community on such a large scale.” He also says now that he has citizenship, he would consider living in Israel full-time one day.

‘Try to get more kids involved’

The team’s manager and coach is Eric Holtz, 54, who lives in White Plains, N.Y. He has coached college baseball in the United States for the past 20 years, and also owns and operates a strength- and conditioning-training facility for athletes who play baseball and softball.

He served as a player/coach in the short-lived Israel baseball League in 2007 for the Beit Shemesh Blue Sox. In 2017, after guiding Team USA to a Gold Medal in the Maccabiah Games in Israel, he was quickly scouted and asked to coach Team Israel, which he accepted.

When asked by JNS if Team Israel has a shot to stand on the medal’s podium this summer, he doesn’t have a definitive answer.

“Look, nobody gave us a shot anywhere we went,” says Holtz as he lists Israel’s impressive tournament results on the long road to Tokyo. “This is how I live my life and coach baseball and father my kids: one day at a time. And the fact that no one gave us a shot makes this even sweeter for us.”

He concludes by saying, “I worry about us [Team Israel], handling our business. If we handle our business, then we are going to be just fine.”

Israel’s national baseball team. (IAB/Margo Sugarman)

Similar to comments made by Bleich, Holtz says that at the end of the day, “we are trying to build awareness, and love and passion [for baseball], and bring that to Israel. After wins and losses, our job is to try to get kids more involved.”

While Alter is certainly excited about the Olympic bid, he seems equally proud of the fact that 800 youth currently play in organized baseball leagues and clinics throughout Israel. He hopes to double that number as a result of upcoming plans to construct a professional-level baseball stadium in Beit Shemesh.

“What’s personally important to me is Israel baseball,” he says. “We are about to build a field and complex in Beit Shemesh, thanks to the help of our partners JNF-USA, which will become Israel’s national baseball stadium. My focus is to bring awareness that we are building baseball here. The Olympics is a big opportunity to get the word out.”

Holtz says he team will begin training for the Olympics shortly at a facility in New York. In large part due to the 24-member baseball squad, Israel will be sending its largest-ever delegation to the Olympics with around 85 athletes competing in 18 different sporting events.

The opening ceremony for the 2020 Tokyo Games is set for July 24, with the baseball competition slated to begin July 29, and the Gold Medal Game scheduled for Aug. 9.

Holtz says “for us, nothing could be greater than having the Israeli people behind us.”

And while baseball has yet to overtake soccer or basketball as the most popular sport in the Jewish state, there’s no doubt that Israelis will get behind all its Olympians, baseball hopefuls included.

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Israel takes first place in the Baseball Europe/Africa qualifying event, booking its first-ever appearance in the 2020 Summer Olympics.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Hugs, smiles, and shouts of joy erupted Sunday afternoon in Parma, Italy, as Israel’s baseball team blew out South Africa 11-1 to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics next year for the first time in its history.

Team Israel, made up of homegrown players, Jewish college players, former major leaguers and current minor leaguers – all of whom have Israeli citizenship – led the round-robin series of the Europe/Africa Olympic Qualifier event in Parma, Italy from the get-go.

They handily beat Italy, Spain, and the former European champions, the Netherlands, with the only defeat marring their record being their fall to the Czech Republic in Saturday’s game.

Israel’s starting pitcher, Joseph Wagman, was brilliant as he gave up only one run in seven innings of work. That run was in fact the only one he gave up in two games, as he shut out the Spaniards 3-0 in a complete game on Friday.

Joseph Wagman pitching against South Africa., Sept. 22, 2019. (IAB/Margo Sugarman)

That was an especially sweet win, as Spain had defeated Israel the last time they met – just a few days earlier, in the last game of the Pool A European Championships. Although that loss had affected their place in the standings, it did not prevent Israel from making this final qualifier event for the Olympics.

According to the announcer, with a minuscule earned run average of 0.56, 14 strikeouts and no walks over the two games, Wagman will be a leading candidate to win the Most Valuable Player award for the series.

The big hit of the game, and the one that put it on ice, was Israel’s last, a three-run homer in the eighth inning by a veteran former MLB player and shortstop, Danny Valencia. It was his third home run of the series and gave him nine RBI’s, which makes him the series leader in those two all-important categories.

In his only appearance in the series, senior member Shlomo Lipetz, a 40-year-old pitcher who has played baseball in Israel for decades, had the honor of getting the last batter out for the clinch.

After a fielding error put a South African on base, he calmly induced a routine fly out to center field, and the announcer cried out, “Next year in Tokyo!” It was a clear reference to “Next year in Jerusalem,” which is said by Jews all over the world when they read the Haggadah on Passover.

A very short ceremony followed the game in which Israel was presented with a certificate and the official announcement was made that “Israel is going to the Olympics!” A team picture followed, with the Israeli flag prominently displayed in front by the happy players, coaches and staff.

Unlike when the Italian team took the field, the stands in the small Parma stadium were nearly empty for the historic game. But some 1,000 fans tuned in online, as the game was broadcast live on YouTube.

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The blue-and-white squad beat France 8-2 to earn the right to play for the Europe/Asia berth in the Tokyo Olympics.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

The Israeli national baseball team took a huge step forward to qualifying for the 2020 Olympics by beating France on Friday in Germany.

The 8-2 victory gave them the last slot in the 12-team 2019 European Baseball Championship series, which will be played in Parma, Italy from September 18-22. The winner of this tournament gets to represent Europe and Africa in the Summer Olympics next year.

“For months it’s been a dream for us to reach the Olympic Games qualifiers alongside the very top teams in Europe, and today this dream came true,” said Israel Association of Baseball (IAB) president and general manager of Team Israel Peter Kurz in a statement. “We still have more games to win, but our players are motivated to go all the way to Tokyo 2020.”

Team Israel had to defeat quite a number of teams in order to get to the three-day round-robin series that will be played in Italy this week. In July, they won the Confederation of European Baseball’s European Championship’s Pool B Tournament by going a perfect 5-0 in Bulgaria. They overcame Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria, Ireland, and Russia — twice.

They then swept Lithuania, the winner of the other Pool B group, 2-0 in the best-of three championship, which enabled them to advance to the Pool A tournament that just concluded. There, the blue-and-white squad first went 4-1 in the initial round, only losing to current European champions the Netherlands.

This put them in second place, as they handily beat the Czech Republic, Sweden, Germany, and Great Britain. Defeating France, a European powerhouse, in the quarterfinals, gave them the top-5 finish they needed to get to the Olympic qualifiers.

One of the biggest stars on Team Israel is up-and-coming power hitter Blake Gailen, who is currently playing on the Los Angeles Dodgers AAA affiliate, one step below the major leagues. There are several former major leaguers on the team, as well as Jewish American college players.

But a point of pride for IAB’s Kurz is that “Israeli” Israelis are also on the team and acquitting themselves admirably.

“The best thing for me was to see five native Israeli kids who grew up in the IAB program play crucial roles,” he told The Jerusalem Post after the win in Bulgaria. “Bringing in ‘new Israelis’ like Blake Gailen, like Zach Penprase, is important for our organization, but I think having those homegrown players playing such crucial roles is fantastic.”

For the Olympics – and even for the qualifying rounds – players must be citizens of the countries they are playing for. Fifteen of the Team Israel players officially made aliyah in 2018 and 2019 in order to be able to don the blue-and-white uniform and get the chance to play in the Olympics.

This is in contrast to 2017’s World Baseball Classic, where the players only had to be eligible for citizenship. Israel finished a surprising sixth in the WBC with such luminaries as Ryan Lavarnway and Ike Davis, who are former Major League baseball players now in the minor league system.

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