You remember Leon Feingold. He was the professional competitive eater who pitched for the Netanya Tigers during the Israel Baseball League's first season who became the foremost post-season apologist for the IBL management malfeasance and, along with self-professed "Peter Pan" Eric Holtz, a leading critic of Our Man Elli in Israel's reportage of the real story behind the IBL facade, hurling insults much harder, but equally as inaccurately, as his 33-year-old arm could muster.
Now Leon's back, and his fellow IBL players who've seen their paychecks bounce, their hard work gone unrewarded and their dreams urinated on by secretive back bay business, can't be too happy by what he has to say about the plans of the IBL's successors, the Dominican Republic of the Middle East Baseball League, to replace its four-team, 20-game, three-week momentum-keeping mini-season with an exhibition tournament in August.
And neither will native Israelis. Because now he's blaming them-- not Elli and not IBL founder Larry Baras for the failure.“It will be the Israelis against the world, which is sort of what it is in real life,” the Long Island weiner-chomper tells the Jewish Star of Nassau County, Long Island.
“The reason the league didn’t do nearly as well as it should have last season was because those who live there haven’t grown up with baseball. How can we expect to succeed with a product when no one in Israel has ever tasted it? Getting the kids involved is always the first step.”
The pie-eater said he and other players will run "youth clinics" coinciding with the beginning of the tourney at the Yarkon Sports Complex in the Baptist Village of Petach Tikva on Aug. 14.
“We’re also going to be doing a lot of PR work which, in my opinion, we should have been doing all along, with clinics and outreach programs in different cities in order to bring in more fans.
“I am very much looking forward to going, both in terms of going to Israel and in terms of playing at (the professional) level again,” the six-foot-six bean slurper said. “I am sure the experience will be different because the structure of the league has changed so drastically, but anytime I get to play baseball and travel to Israel, that’s a good thing.”
29 comments:
I say good for Leon, who seems like a great guy who is deeply committed to making baseball succeed in Israel.
It's totally disingenuous for TabloidBaby to spin this as Leon "blaming Israelis". He is not criticizing Israelis in any way, rather he is stating an undeniable fact, which is that at this juncture baseball remains a mystery to most Israelis. Do you disagree with that fact, Mr. Tabloid Baby?
I say "You go, Leon."
And to TabloidBaby, you would have a lot more credibility if you didn't show such obvious bias in your "reporting."
While I have enjoyed Elli's reporting here, I have to say it seems quite clear from the tone at TabloidBaby that the author of this blog really wants baseball in Israel to fail.
Congrats to Leon for stepping up and putting his heart into this.
And boo to TabloidBaby for sitting back and offering nothing but criticism. While others try to build, all you do is try to tear things down.
I couldn't agree more with anonymous above. Usual TB BS spinning 1 statement in a totally different way than intended. Good for Leon. Have a great tourney Leon and best of luck getting baseball off the ground in Israel.
Oh and if Leon is going back I guess those at the IBL must have really treated him like shit last year.
Who else is going?
Is Leon playing with himself?
Do Israelis know of these plans?
Is he paying the airfare?
Is he getting rubber checks?
Get these answers TB
Now
Give it up there will be no baseball in Israel.
Larry fu-ked it up for everyone!!!
Tabloid Baby-
You have completely ruined me. Won't you stop now? Please!!!!
Can't you go to jail for bouncing check after check?
I thought that was illegal.
I have a question for Eric Holtz.
How come you have not answered the peoples questions?
By the way I have a huge chubby thinking about you in the shower.
I can't comment now Larry and I are busy.
Leon has been nothing but an ambassador for the league since day one. As has Rootenberg. Since I first learned about the league, those were the two most commonly referenced names. They were at all the public events with a smile and promoting the league.
I personally had a chance to get to know Leon as one of his roommates in Israel. He is a good guy. Sure he is quirky and likes to punt his glove, but that's what makes him Leon. He loves Israel and baseball
TB keeps twisting his words and making bad puns about food and his eating competition past. Yeah Leon eats a lot. Everyone knows that. The man is 6' 6", of course he needs to eat a lot.
TB is quick to knock someones batting average or performance in the league last year.
So before you go off and saying something bout me or my stats from last year, let me pull a B Rabbit from 8 mile and say, yeah I had a horrible ERA, struck out and didnt get a hit in my seven at bats. I am in California so I meet you on a field in the LA era and pitch to you and see how well you fare. Oh yeah, I was also among the league leaders in hit batsmen and led the league in HBP/IP.
"Now tell them something they dont already know bout me" -B Rabbit, in 8 MILE
Hey F A
Leon is great but don't you realize ?
This is not baseball it is some sort of scam!
Baseballs bounce ,not checks!
FA, you need a sense of history.
The reason why Tabloid Baby rags on Leon Feingold is because in November, while Their Man Elli was out breaking the story and exposing the IBL scam for what it was, Leon wrote that Tabloid Baby and Elli were
"mudslinging,
smarmy, sensationalist,
no-talent
gossip-column rejects."
So I can understand why "Fat Mouth Feingold" is a target of fun.
Tabloid bullshit-i mean baby posted a private email from Larry to Elli in which you can clearly see the man was asking for mercy. This site might be right once and a while but there is no filter for absurdity for accuracy. This site has no standards.
Larry was only pleading for mercy because he wanted to be left alone to steal more money from more people and not pay us players or anyone else owed money. We're damn lucky to have Tabloid Baby, otherwise the whole scam will have gone unnoticed. Read the Jeusalem Post article today and you'll see how long this has been going on. Why won't Larry tell anyone how much money came in and where it went? WHY??
Larry is a fat fuck who is a liar of the worst kind.
I encourage anyone who actually sees him to tell him shame on you to his face.
He should be hounded like the scum he is.
I love tabloid baby. They keep me in the news.
"I say good for Leon, who seems like a great guy who is deeply committed to making baseball succeed in Israel." Really? How exactly is he making it succeed when players from last year haven't been paid. And not only not been paid - the checks sent last month have bounced!!! BOUNCED! AGAIN!! So is he really doing anything "to making baseball succeed in Israel," besides kissing ass so he can get a free trip back to Israel?
"All i wanna do is go back and play ball and forget about it." - Shoeless Joe Jackson, "Eight Men Out"
He was thrown out for life, Fat Mouth, and he didn't take any money. And all you want to do "is go back and play ball and forget about it?" Won't work, Feingold, you have teammates to answer to - you may have gottten paid in full, but your teammates have been stiffed. Don't cross their picket line, scabs are not welcome to play.
I am really shocked that David Kramer and Jason Bonder are going along with
this scheme. I thought they were decent guys.
Well if there is no union in place, then there can't be a picket line to cross correct?
If the anonymous person who made the comment about the scabs is indeed a player, why don't you fess up your name and talk to the players who have allegedly committed to go back? Instead of talking smack anonymously on this blog, hit them up on facebook or on their phones. I have most of their contact info. If you give up your identity, I can get you in contact w/them so you can make your plea like a man instead of hiding behind this blog.
To the last commenter, maybe the guy who wrote it isn't good enough to play anywhere else and/or simply doesn't give a sh*t about his brother players. Maybe some of the guys who were in the league last year are simply self-centered, egotistical and immature and don't care what the rest of the picture looks like even as simple as it is to figure out by now. They will stand up and be counted if and when they go to Israel or, if they get posted on the IBL website and are then dealt a dose of reality when the Festival falls flat. Or when they get stuck there because the return tickets aren't paid for.
They will eventually learn that what goes around comes around. It's too bad, but it is what it is.
Ask anyone from last season if they would go back. 95% will say yes, paid or not paid.
your number is way high, bro. and those who would go back, knowing now how these guys operate, just don't get it...to just not care about your mates and the other blokes who ain't been paid and to want to work for lying trash who will not help the game grow there is immature and selfish. it's time for some of our mates to grow up.
Wow, looks like I'm late to the game here. Sorry I missed so much quality journalism while I was out.
First off, has anyone else noticed how no named person has ever had a legitimate gripe about Larry? With perhaps one or two exceptions, virtually every single comment about how "Larry stole money," and "Larry is f__ing over the players," and so on, is either Elli or the TabloidBaby staff posting anonymously or under a pseudonym (TB staff: you can look that one up online if you don't recognize such an unusual word, as it's obvious none of you have ever taken any journalism classes), and those who do have legitimate concerns and have posted them under their names, have been more confused and wishing clarity, rather than vitriolic and hateful.
(By the way, very classy with the gustatory insults, over which the TB staff must have enjoyed much sniggering in between their Internet porn surfing and looking up multisyllabic words in the dictionary. I imagine they took you at least a week to come up with, so I assume you've been saving those up for the next time I was mentioned in the news. You guys are nothing if not dedicated.)
Next, as has been accurately pointed out, I don't see anywhere where I blamed Israelis for anything other than not being introduced to the game, which was a failure of LARRY and his initial organizational team.
You fail to recognize (or rather, conveniently fail to acknowledge) I am not an IBL apologist; I place blame where it's due. Larry and the IBL messed up a lot, and were way over their heads. But if I were them, and had nothing better to do with my time rather than take the high road, it wouldn't be hard to hit up the TB staff and Elli for libel and a few other choice tortious claims.
As far as my characterization of your collective staff as "mudslinging, smarmy, sensationalist, no-talent gossip-column rejects," I stand by it. I mean, it seems pretty spot on, doesn't it?
Leon Feingold
I would pay to see the lawsuit between Larry and Elli. It should be a pay per view. The proceeds could pay the debts of the IBL.
No legitimate claims?
How about not revealing finances,bouncing checks?
Why is that permissible?
Once again, for Fat Mouth Feingold, it's all about him, and fuck the players. He's ready to come back and play, and to hell with everyone else who has not been paid. To hell with them.
You guys keep posting that you havent been paid and Leon should stick up for you guys. I know I wouldnt stick up for some anonymous person. For all everyone else knows, its someone on the tabloid baby staff or IPBL group posting that said person hasn't been paid.
If you are going to post and accuse him of not giving a shit, then proceed to tell him to choke on a shnitzel at least put your name and email address to your post. With that said, why would he give a damn about you if you want him to choke on some Kfar meat?
yeah, like Fat Mouth Feingold and the other scabs coming next month don't know that fellow players have STILL NOT BEEN PAID FOR LAST SUMMER, and had checks bounce only last month. But hey, a free trip to Israel is a free trip, so fuck those other players and let's play two.
Just ask Justin Cardinal if his check bounced again Leon. Or Jake Ayers
Leon Feingold is the man. He can pitch/eat for my team any day. That's all I have to say.
-ZBH
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