Tradition of ‘improbable winning streaks,’ Team Israel says ahead of World Baseball Classic

San Francisco Giants outfielder Harrison Bader, a Gold Glove winner, will play center field for Team Israel.

By Jonathan D. Salant, JNS

It was almost a decade ago that Team Israel came seemingly out of nowhere to reach the second round of the 2017 World Baseball Classic as higher-ranked teams fell short.

The Israeli team’s leadership is hoping for another taste of success this time around.

“At this point, we have a habit of winning, and we have a tradition of winning,” Nate Fish, manager of the Israeli national team and CEO of Israel Baseball Americas, told JNS.

“We’re going in expecting to find our way out of the first round and into the second round. It’s not like an impossible dream,” he said.

“We’ve made it through the first round before. We made it to the Olympics and we won a silver medal in the European Championships. So there’s a tradition of going on improbable winning streaks for this team.”

Israel enters the tournament ranked 12th of the 20 teams. That’s higher than Nicaragua (18) but below the other teams in its pool: Dominican Republic (2), Venezuela (4) and Netherlands (11). The top two teams advance to the next round.

“We just have to play well,” Fish told JNS. “We have to hit. We gotta pitch. We gotta go play baseball. You know, we can’t pray for a miracle. We just gotta go play better than the other team. It’s that simple.”

The team isn’t just looking at this tournament but future years as well. The better Team Israel performs, the more other players will want to wear the blue and white, according to team officials.

The best Jewish ballplayer in the Major Leagues, Chicago Cubs third baseman Alex Bregman, is playing on Team USA. The best Jewish pitcher, Max Fried, isn’t playing in the tournament.

“Basically, you don’t think about that stuff,” Adam Gladstone, chief operating officer of Israel Baseball Americas and Team Israel baseball operations director, told JNS.

“You love the guys that you got. You try and support them and have them go out and perform,” he said. “It would never even cross anyone’s mind that Alex Bragman could be on the field or Max Fried could be on the field.”

“We’re going to be so focused on the 30 guys that we have out there,” he added. “That’s the team, and everyone just comes together, and you roll.”

Members of Team Israel’s front office touted that roster at an evening event last week at a country club in the Washington, D.C., suburbs over kosher hot dogs, popcorn and brownies.

San Francisco Giants outfielder Harrison Bader, a Gold Glove winner, will play center field for Team Israel. Baltimore Orioles pitcher Dean Kremer, an Israeli citizen, will headline the pitching staff. CJ Stubbs of the Philadelphia Phillies will catch. The roster also includes Spencer Horwitz of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

“It is important for where we are as a group to build credibility among the teams,” Simon Rosenbaum, the Israeli team’s general manager, told JNS.

“Having established major leaders like Dean, like Harrison, like Spencer, I think, starts building that foundation of a team that other players really want to play with and be a part of.”

And there is outfielder Assaf Lowengart, the only Israel-born member of the team.

“Here’s a guy that watched us as a kid and then had the opportunity to learn the game in Israel and has put himself into the position where he’s the first Israeli-born professional baseball player, and he’s made the club,” Gladstone told JNS. “That’s why we’re doing what we do.”

Rosenbaum told JNS that some players are asking to join Team Israel instead of the other way around.

“One of the coolest parts about this cycle has been how much interest in playing for Team Israel has grown organically from players talking to their teammates, players talking to their agents, their agents talking to other players who are eligible to play for us,” he said.

“I still think about 2017 and how inspiring that is for us, and I think about the players who are leaving their Major League camps to come and play for us, and what it would mean to them to get the opportunity to move on, playing the quarterfinals, the semifinals, finals,” he told JNS. “That’s definitely what we’re going to try and do.”

This enthusiasm comes even as antisemitic incidents have spiked since Oct. 7, 2023.

As the war raged, American sympathies shifted towards the Palestinians. In an August Quinnipiac University poll, 37% of U.S. voters said their sympathies lay more with the Palestinians—an all-time high—while 36% said the Israelis, an all-time low.

The World Baseball Classic offers a unique opportunity to stand with Israel.

“How amazing is it to have proud Jewish ballplayers with Israel on their chest saying, ‘I’m not backing down?’” Ari Ackerman, a part-owner of the Miami Marlins, told JNS.

“I’m going to be unapologetically Jewish, I’m going to be unapologetically Israeli, and I’m going to make sure the world sees that I’m not some wimp,” he said. “I’m a guy who’s playing ball, who’s living a very loud, proud, strong Jewish life.”

Rosenbaum, the grandson of a Holocaust survivor, said that “people looking around and seeing a group of Major League Baseball players wearing ‘Israel’ proudly across their chest today more than ever is something I’m proud to be a part of.”