As the clock ticks closer to the death of all hope for professional baseball in Israel in the summer of 2008, another standout from the inaugural season of the former Israel Baseball League has returned to his roots and gone back to where he started before he was lured by the dream of hardball in the Holyland.Josh Matlow will be playing in Canada.
Matlow was working the outfield for the independent Barrie Baycats of the semi-pro Intercounty Baseball League in Ontario when he was drafted by the IBL at the end of the 2006 season. He's back with the Baycats for 2008.
He spent last summer with the Tel Aviv Lightning and finished as an all-star, third in league hitting with a .381 average.
The Barrie Examiner reports that Matlow moved on from Israel to play in Australia from October until last month, "where... he led his Australian team in all hitting categories, including a team-high .351 average.
“Although Matlow was offered a playing position in the Holland Pro League for this season, he wanted to return home to Thornhill and complete his last year of a post secondary degree at Canisius College in New York, and play once again for the Baycats.”
The Baycats’ schedule runs through July. Read between the lines and see that despite reports that the upstart Israel Professional Baseball League is scrambling to get its act together in time for the summer, the all-star did not get an offer to return to Israel.
2 comments:
Why doesn't someone here (read STAR REPORTER) list ALL the IBL players that have furthered their career and are now being paid to play in another league. There seems to be an effort here to list one by one only some of the players and what they are doing now....about a comprehensive list!
I agree there are other players that are playing in overseas pro leagues this season. 3 others I know about are Sam Faeder who is playing pro ball in Belgium and also Justin Prinstein and Adam Crabb who both played I believe in Australia with Josh have signed pro contracts with different teams in Holland
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