Holy Land Hardball's tribute to Our Man Elli

Holy Land Hardball, the documentary about the optimistic, hopeful start of the Israel Baseball League in 2007, got its first nationwide U.S. audience last night, thanks to an airing on the MLB Network and proved to be a great, feelgood work of art about a group of men who became young again by carrying out an innocent, naive dream in a foreign land. Yet to those who know how the story played out, the film proved to be a poignant, even anger-making document as the cheerful, seemingly guileless businessmen behind the scenes were revealed to be charlatans, liars, scamsters and worse.

Experiencing Holy Land Hardball without the real-life epilogue of deceit and failure that followed would be like watching a lump-in-the-throat doco about Mark McGwire's chase of baseball's home run record later tonight, with no knowledge of his overdue shameful, tearful steroid admission on the very same MLB Network earlier this evening.

Yet for us, there was a high point to Holy Land Hardball, and that was the quick tribute given to Our Man Elli in Israel early in the film. As disgraced IBL founder Larry Baras is profiled affectionately as a bagel-making bumpkin blustering his way through the baseball business, there is a brief moment when he is shown being interviewed by Our Man Elli.


There he is, Elli Wohlgelernter, the journalist who would expose the moral and financial corruption of the IBL days after the final pitch, shown interviewing Baras months before the first pitch, Elli towering over the self-styled baseball exec, the no-frills professional, holding a large, makeshift hand microphone, wearing a tie, kippah in place, unmistakeably an Israeli, unquestionably a Jew, asking Baras:

"And how fearful are you
that you could end up
being called 'a colossal failure'?"

Baras does not answer.

The filmmakers, baseball historians that they are, were sitting in their editing room doing post production on the film at the same time that Our Man Elli's reportage was spooling out from this site and other publications, day after day, month after month. They saw that Larry Baras was being called many other things beyond "colossal failure." They realized that Elli was onto something from the start, and knew that history would prove him right.

So they gave him that tribute.

Nice job, boys. We're only sorry it took us this long to see it!

Click here to read the complete year-long coverage of the rise and fall of the Israel Baseball League and much more of Our Man Elli's reportage at Tabloid Baby's special Baseball in Israel archive site.

Israel Baseball League doco on television

Our Man Elli in Israel offers a programming note: Holy Land Hardball, the documentary feature about the startup of the Israel Baseball League in 2007, can be seen on television tomorrow evening on the MLB Network.

Our Man Elli's got a cameo in the doco, so we'll be sure to tune in and go for a screen grab, although the world now knows that the story of the Israel Baseball League was not told until the day after the final out of the first and only season, and led to a solid year of Elli Wohlgelernter's independent, exclusive, groundbreaking coverage of seamy deals, athlete-endangering nincompoopery and arrogance that exposed the dream introduced in Holy Land Hardball as an international scandal and nightmare, and won Elli and Tabloid Baby, where his coverage appeared exclusively, a place in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.

Holy Land Hardball, a film by Brett Rapkin and Erik Kesten, makes its national television premiere this weekend, airing on the MLB Network Sunday, Jan. 10, at 10 p.m.

Click here to read Our Man Elli and Tabloid Baby's complete coverage of the Israel Baseball League successes and scandals at our Baseball In Israel archive site.

Holy Land Hardball: Watch the movie about the Israel Baseball League for free online

One of the many highlights of our solid year covering the foibles of the fledgling, floundering and flummoxed Israel Baseball League was the release of the film Holy Land Hardball. The entertaining and exciting doco about the league's startup was called "socko!" by Variety and, Our Man Elli in Israel has emerged to inform us, is available for viewing online through Thursday on the SnagFilms website.

Click here to watch Holy Land Hardball.

And click here to see our complete Pulitzer Prize nominated coverage (oy, Sig Gissler, you putz!) of the Israel Baseball League.

Exclusive! Boston businessman continues raising funds for 2009 Israel Baseball League season that sources say won't be allowed to take place

Yes, we went cold turkey on coverage of the scandal of the Israel Baseball League after a solid year of intense, exclusive, controversial and Pulitzer Prize-nominated reporting. And in light of that Pulitzer nod, we’ll be checking in occasionally with updates provided by the tenacious and world-beating reporter Elli Wohlgelernter—known here as Our Man Elli In Israel-- who carried this story singlehandedly and reported recently that there will be no professional baseball in Israel until 2010 at the earliest.

Our Man Elli’s reportage apparently stirred up a reaction from the Boston-based businessman who's now heading the putative league-- and apparently still drumming up money from American investors for the battered IBL. He sends along this latest, exclusive report:

It appears it ain’t over for the non-existent Israel Baseball League, which continues to squeeze the American Jewish community for money and solicit unsuspecting American Jews and Zionists for an Israeli baseball season that’s already been blocked by Israeli officials.

I obtained an email sent by David Solomont, who took the reins of the IBL from embattled Boston bagel baron Larry Baras (and was immediately tagged with the sobriquet “El Presidente of the Dominican Republic of The Middle East Baseball League”) stating his intention to play professional baseball in "the summer of 2009 and have a winter season Nov to Jan 2009/2010”:

From: David Solomont
To: ***** ****************
Cc: ****…
Sent: Tuesday, December 16, 2008 7:39:24 PM
Subject: Re: Baseball In Israel
Unfortunately, there is no baseball next week.
We expect to kick off the 2009 season in late June and play the summer of 2009 and have a winter season Nov to Jan 2009/2010.
David Solomont
(617) ***-****

As I reported on December 3rd, sources tell me that one thing is for sure: the Israel Association of Baseball, which governs the sport in the nation, will not negotiate with David Solomont.


The controversial Boston businessman and de facto head of the IBL is persona non grata, ever since he announced a twenty-game 2008 IBL season ... make that seven-game… er, six-game... would you believe a five-game "festivus" that never took place?

Even so, the front man for disgraced IBL founder and former president Larry Baras continues raising cash for a pro baseball league in Israel in 2009.

Every source close to the Israel sports establishment tells me that Solomont may have a chance kicking off a 2009 season in Santo Domingo starring Chico Escuela, but has little chance of running a season in the Holy Land.

There will be no sequel to the rousing documentary Holy Land Hardball, because the Israel Association of Baseball is not, and will not, negotiate any deal with the league that survived a single season in 2007.


Solomont is also urging potential investors to sign up on the IBL website for news. When we last looked, there hadn't been a new posting since the infamous July 24th, 2008 announcement that stated explicit plans for:

"…a week-long baseball festival starting on August 17th that will pit an IBL All-Star team against a team made up of premier Israeli players.

“Details of the baseball festival, which will run from August 17th through August 21st, will be announced on this site in the upcoming days.

“Players have already begun to arrive in Israel for the event, which will also feature clinics during the week in Hashmonaim and Bet Shemesh. Photograph sessions will be available before and after every game with your favorite IBL star. Tickets will be sold at the door with all proceeds to benefit JNF's Project Baseball."

As of today, December 20th, there is no update on the now-legendary Festivus.

And speaking of Larry Baras-- remember my report of December 3rd, I asked:

“Why is the JNF in bed with the IBL? “And how much money is stuffed inside the mattress of that bed?”

Now, it turns out they've pulled up the sheets to snuggle even closer:

Larry Baras is now on the board of the New England branch of the JNF.

Stay tuned…

(And catch up on all our coverage of the Israeli Baseball saga here, at our Baseball in Israel website.)

Eric Holtz wants your Israel baseball questions

Eric Holtz will answer your questions if you give your name.

Opinions from the 41-year old New York City businessman who left his business, wife, children and responsibilities behind to chase a boy's baseball dream in far-off Israel are of interest because he's been a cocky, controversial figure in the Israel Baseball League long before his family discord was immortalized in the IBL documentary film, Holy Land Hardball.

In the weeks following the IBL’s first season, as the façade was being methodically stripped away by the intrepid reporting of Our Man Elli in Israel and the stink of corruption began to ooze from the Middle East, across Europe and back to Boston, Eric was not only the main player apologist for embattled IBL founder Larry Baras, he shockingly became the IBL management’s attack dog against the reporter who was revealing a rats nest of wrong.

Eric wrote on this site's comment pages:

“In life it is always easier to pick apart what someone did wrong (Monday morning quarterback) Like this Elli guy from Israel who could be the lowest level of Human Life in a reporter that I have ever seen, rather than to Look at the Positives and try to recover from them. I myself have always prided myself on being a Glass Half-Full Guy but again -That is Me!"

This Glass Half-Full guy has yet to apologize to Elli. But when his former league mate Dan Rootenberg was forced to walk away from what turned out to be a ceremonial role as “in-coming President" of the "new and improved" IBL, Holtz jumped onto the public stage to again declare himself some kind of leader, writing in the comments section of this site:

"I am very disappointed and disturbed at how things have transpired. I had been planning great things with Rootenberg in the hopes of resurrecting the league, but only if it would have been done correctly and responsibly. There is for sure a future for Baseball In the Holyland, however there needs to be a Group to come in and right the wrongs-save face if you will and move on in a positive and right way. Financial responsibility and paying previous debt is paramount to the future of Baseball. Putting an ample product on the field will never be the issue at hand, rather being Businessmen is the foremost task at hand. I for one will attest to the Hard work, dedication and undying attempts to get this done correctly by Dan Rootenberg who I take my hat off to. The last month has been tough and believe me, he has tried to get things done only one way-The Right way! Thanks for your hard work and attempt at advancing Baseball in Israel..."

Eric’s grandstanding led to immediate ridicule and hard questions from commenters like "Anonymous":

"Disappointed and disturbed? Only now? Where've you been? Walking around with your head up your butt? Or Larry's? Or Martin Berger's? Maybe the people who somehow believed that the IBL leaders would change their ways should start explaining why they believed this. You all have empowered them to keep their operation going when it should have been steamrolled months ago. So, Mr. Holtz, after all that went on last summer right in front of your eyes, why'd you sign on with them? What did they tell you? What proof did they show you? What financials did they show you? What empty promises did they make to you about what they were going to do for the league? About what role they were going to give to you? To others? And what made you, after all this time, so disappointed and disturbed? The people deserve to know. The young players who followed your lead deserve to know."

Eric responded this morning:

"I don't respond to anonymous questions. You have something to say, step up and be a man. I'm easy to find."

So, gentlemen-- and ladies--we offer you a chance to “step up and be a man” and ask Eric Holtz a question.

Send your questions here-- and be sure to be a man and include your name.

Who wants to be first?

“I’ll start. Sam Peters is the name. I do PR and occasional research for this here site. And I got a question for Mr. Holtzman. Do you still blame Elli for the downfall of the IBL and for the state of baseball in Israel? And are you man enough to step up like a man and man up and apologize? There’s my questions. The name’s Sam Peters. Alto-Nido Apartments, 6350 Franklin Avenue, Hollywood, California. I’m easy to find, too."

"I've got one too. I'm Shmuley. I work in research. Question, Mr. Holtz: You were so big on the IBL-- past and present-- but were you really willing to stick your neck out? Is it true, Mr. Holtz, that you were supposed to deliver the uniforms for this season, but refused to do so until you got paid?"

That's a start. Now back to work you two. Hey, someone submit the 20 questions we'd sent Dan and El Presidente Solomonte! let's see what Eric Holtz really knows!

Israel Baseball League pitcher subject of biopic

If the Israel Baseball League looked better on paper than it worked out in real life, it certainly looks even better on the big screen. The rousing documentary Holy Land Hardball certainly showed how a filmmaker's touch can hone the ragged edges of reality into sharp, compelling drama-- and now, new inspiration is about to be wrung from the IBL desperation as a standout IBL player is about to get the documentary biopic treatment on his own.

Columnist Mike Sullivan reports on Seacoast Online, the website for the Portsmouth, New Hampshire Herald, that local Ari Alexenberg, the 45-year-old southpaw pitcher for the Petach Tikva Pioneers, "could be headed for Hollywood":

"Steve Sanger of Portsmouth-based Sanger Communications is making a movie of Alexenberg's story, which has been well documented in these pages. Alexenberg pitched professionally overseas at the age of 45 after not playing competitive, organized baseball until he was 23 — and that's just one part of his odyssey. Alexenberg is Jewish — his parents and a brother live in Israel — and fiercely proud of his heritage. The film will explore both his Jewish heritage and love of baseball. According to Sanger, 'the film is "in the can'" and currently being edited.'

"...Alexenberg also reported that he was contacted recently by a literary agent about a book deal."

Ari has tracked his baseball progress on a well-written blog. We reported last month that he says he won't be returning to Israel for the four-team, 20-game, three-week, momentum-keeping mini-season that may or not get underway on July 27th.

BARAS SURFACES

Larry Baras, the beleaguered Boston bagel baron who founded the Israel Baseball League, then left Israel while the final game of the first season was still being played, leaving behind a million dollars in unpaid bills and riding into a future of lawsuits, acrimony, accusations and chaos, has come out of hiding to bask in the new, folksy, heroic image he's been given in the new IBL documentary, Holy Land Hardball.

Baras, whose name is not used in the launch of the "new" IBL's four-year, 20-game, three-week, momentum-keeping "mini-season," emailed Giants baseball fan Jay Roberts' Jaybird's Jottings site, in response to a Hardball review that painted Baras as a dreamer facing an "enormous challenge":

The Boston entrepreneur, reflecting on his faith, wanted to do something special for Israel. A lover of baseball, he was inspired to put together the Israel Baseball League, which made its debut season last summer... Giants fans will be interested to know that at the beginning of the film, when Baras was at his home, he talked about his father Hyman who was a Giants fan. Baras pulled out a well-worn Giants SF hat out of a drawer, worn by his Dad and a momento of the times they shared...

Roberts writes that Baras emailed the site with even more recollections:

"I'm not precisely sure how my father became a Giants fan, but I know he was a fan of the team his whole life. Even during World War II, when he served in the Philippines, he maintained a correspondence both with one of the players and with a reporter who covered the Giants.

"In my house, the Giants were treated as if there was some sanctity attached to them. For the first ten or fifteen years of my life, I would often listen to Giants games with my father via a green transistor radio that he had bought me that got games clearly even from as far away as Chicago, Cincinnati and St Louis. When there were games that ended after I was asleep already but had a dramatic and fortuitous ending, he would come into my room, wake me up, and recreate the ending for me as if it were taking place live.

"In the mid-60s (I think I am correct on the period), NBC started to broadcast the Game of the Week on Saturday afternoons. Sometimes, the Giants would be on. This presented a problem in our household because we were Sabbath observant and couldn't turn on the television. For the first time, my father went out and bought a timer, connected it to the TV, set it for 2 pm on Saturday, and we would actually watch television on the Sabbath, albeit in strict conformance with the rules of the day."

Baras last surfaced in April, when he was quoted in an article about Fenway Park hotdogs. Before that, his last public comment was recorded on November 20, 2007, when, amid our exclusive revelations of an IBL-related federal security fraud lawsuit filed against him, he wrote to Our Man Elli in Israel, accusing the journalist of “destroying” him because of the IBL-related stories he had broken.

Blogger reviews Holy Land Hardball

Blogger Jay Roberts, a longtime Giants fan who started up the Giants Journal in 1999, offers the latest review of Holy Land Hardball, the independent documentary on the Israel Baseball League.

From Jaybird's Jottings:

Holy Land Hardball

Imagine, if you will, what it would be like to start up a professional baseball league from scratch. Now, throw in the difficult task of doing so in a country eight time zones away, a place that has never had such a league and whose people know very little about the game.

That's the enormous challenge Larry Baras presented to himself two years ago. The Boston entrepreneur, reflecting on his faith, wanted to do something special for Israel. A lover of baseball, he was inspired to put together the Israel Baseball League, which made its debut season last summer.

The story of this unlikely new chapter in baseball history is told in Holy Land Hardball, a documentary by Brett Rapkin and Erik Kesten. We saw its second showing on Sunday at the AFI Theater in Silver Spring. The film, one of 45 chosen out of 2,000 submissions, is being shown as part of the annual SilverDocs Film Festival.

After the film was over, Kesten, Rapkin and a half dozen players answered questions. The filmmaking pair said they were thankful to have complete access to the players and Baras and his team of executives that included Dan Duquette, former GM of the Red Sox.

The film produced moments of laughter from the audience of about 75, as well as some tears as the league finally came together on Opening Day. Obstacles were many and, especially in the beginning, supporters few.

Giants fans will be interested to know that at the beginning of the film, when Baras was at his home, he talked about his father Hyman who was a Giants fan. Baras pulled out a well-worn Giants SF hat out of a drawer, worn by his Dad and a momento of the times they shared.

The New York Giants always wanted a Jewish star player, or even a pretty good Izzy Goldstein. If the Heavenly League would send such a player to Baras, he would be most grateful.

The timing would be good too. The Israel Baseball League starts its second season in a couple of weeks.

Just as interesting as his Holyland Hardball review is Jay Roberts' biography, which begins with:

Jay Roberts has been cutting his teeth on the Giants since the mid-60s. He first started writing about the orange and black in February 1999 at his website The Giants Journal.

Jay is a member of The Society for American Baseball Research. SABR (sabr.org) published his article, “Juan Marichal: An Opening Day Dandy,” in their annual Baseball Research Journal (Volume 30/01).

Jay and his wife Roberta live in Alexandria, Virginia. He is retired from the Air Force but is very active in the pet care industry.

Email is jaybird926@aol.com

...and continues here.

Exclusive! The "new" Israel Baseball League's new backer brings his own scandals to the game

Move over, Boston bagel baron, here comes the Boston business bigshot brother. Our Man Elli in Israel reports that the new bright and shiny Israel Baseball League, crouched behind its player-turned president Dan Rootenberg, is being bankrolled to a large extent by controversial businessman David Solomont, best known in Boston for a 2004 lawsuit in which he was accused of siphoning more than a million dollars in funds from a software firm while he served as its CEO.

In an uncanny similarity to a federal lawsuit filed against IBL founder Larry Baras, the start-up scandal lawsuit stated: “Solomont has become overextended, and is robbing Peter to pay Paul..." (See our teaser story.)

Our Man Elli reports that his sources have mentioned the 56-year-old Solomont as the "money "behind the league. And that Solomont has been contacting some IBL creditors, telling them they won’t be seeing any money for a month. “This could be another syndication deal, with Solomont fronting a little money to make some payoffs needed to get off the ground or licensed by the IAB,” says a source .“And he could be raising the bulk of the money from other investors.”

Solomont himself has been hinting at his involvement online for weeks, on his “Twitter" page:

working on the "best" deal ever, other than my family:) 02:10 PM May 20, 2008 from web

Humming, "take me out to the ballgame" 10:16 AM May 25, 2008 from web

Humming "Take me out to the ball game", and soon you will know why:) 06:27 PM May 30, 2008 from web

Planning to be in the big apple tomorrow, Thursday, still humming "take me out to the ballgame" Can't wait to share:) 12:47 PM June 04, 2008 from web

working on a baseball deal, if you hadn't already figured this out from my humming:) 03:32 PM June 11, 2008 from web

Holy Land Hardball, http://holylandhardball.com, engaging documentary telling amazing story about IBL, http://israelbaseballleague... 0:36 PM June 19, 2008 from txt

Solomont’s brothers have also made the news. Younger brother Jay Solomont was reportedly in jail in Israel for misappropriation of funds. Other brother Alan Solomont is a wealthy businessman and major Democratic fundraiser-- in fact, he's the former finance chairman of the Democratic National Committee, which is yet another link between the IBL and the next President of The United States.

IBL vet Leon Feingold reviews Holy Land Hardball

One of the most colorful characters to emerge from the troubled first season of the Israel Baseball League was Leon Feingold, a pitcher for the Netanya Tigers-- and in the offseason, a real-life professional competitive eater. Leon's never been a fan of our coverage, but we've always been a fan of his, and we're happy to find that he took a break from shoving hard-boiled eggs and (we hope kosher) weiners into his gaping maw to give us the first IBL player review of the acclaimed (Variety: "Socko!") IBL documentary film, Holy Land Hardball. Unfortunately, he uses the occasion to take an unnecessary cheap shot at Our Man Elli in Israel and the Tabloid Baby staff, completely misunderstanding the role and obligations of a hard-hitting journalist, which is not to sniff the jocks of nudniks like Leon, but to ask the tough questions that if others had followed suit, may have resulted in a happier sequel to the inaugural IBL season than a four-team, 20-game, three-week "momentum-keeping" miniseason. In fact, Leon should be wiping the yolk from his lips and thanking us not only for finding his review tucked away all by itself on our archive site, but for providing him and his fellow IBL vets and fans with the only one-stop shopping site for all the news and comments, not to mention the forum for him to air his views... and to print this latest rave for Holy Land Hardball!

Take it, Leon...

"The IBL documentary 'Holy Land Hardball' made its world premiere in the prestigious Silverdocs festival in Washington DC this past weekend; the movie itself was great, and *extremely* well received by both audiences - it was universally hailed as one of the top films of the festival.

"It was also an evenhanded picture of the plusses and minuses of the events leading up to last season - and many of the players in the audience were able to enjoy the view from management's perspective as well as be reminded of some of the events which made last year so special. This was a completely independent documentary done by Eric Kesten and Brett Rapkin, beholden to no one other than the audience - and they did an exemplary job putting together the kind of newsworthy piece Elli only imagines in his wettest of dreams.

"Speaking of whom, it was brilliant watching Elli try to trash the league from BEFORE day one - so much for his claims to legitimate journalism. What a tool!!!

"Oh, and now that the league is back, it will be nice to have the rest of the world to turn to for news on the IBL rather than TabloidBaby. For nothing else, they've been good for keeping alive some degree of buzz about the league and baseball in Israel. So... thanks! I guess there really is something to the saying that even bad publicity is good publicity.

"I'll be back this year, and the arm feels great - looking forward to seeing who else will be."

Leon Feingold, Netanya Tigers

IBL: Meet the new boss, same as the old boss

Get the joke with picture? Good.

No? Then go to our archive site and figure it out.

So here we go again: a group of American businessmen with dollar signs in their eyes rush into a season of baseball in a country thousands of miles away, and they do it secretly, ducking questions, refusing to step into the sunshine and simply brush the dirt off home plate.

Secrecy. Arrogance. Nastiness. Something so simple, so refreshing, so steeped in tradition-- baseball, for G-dsake—brings those words to mind because of the manner in which the business men behind the Israel Baseball League chose to make their return: restarting the countdown clock on the IBL website, leaking anonymous, teasing comments on this website, sliming Our Man Elli in Israel and then timing an announcement to the premiere of a feelgood documentary about the leagues’s 2007 start-up.

The undercover operatives of the IBL even sullied their greatest marketing tool, that acclaimed Holy Land Hardball documentary, by insinuating that the film was edited to further discredit the reporter who's covered the historic story singlehandedly:

“When you get to see the movie, watch the utter joy in Elli's face as he asks a typical leading question forshadowing the failure of the IBL before the season even starts. Don't tell me he is an unbiased reporter... now it's forever on film for everyone to see and a picture is worth 10,000 Elli Wanabergers words!!!”

How different the reception to the new bright and shiny Israel Baseball League would have been, had new “president” Dan Rootenberg and his older, experienced colleagues announced the return with a news conference, or an interview with Our Man Elli, and answered-- or at least addressed the questions on everyone’s minds.

But they didn't. And a poke through the comments section of this site shows that while there's pride and excitement over the news that Israel may indeed host a four-team, twenty-game, three-week, momentum-keeping “season” next month, the smirking secrecy of the league management has also caused confusion and anger:

When are the debts being paid? Has anybody been paid yet?
Who is still owed money???
T his might be the last time you can come forward and make a claim.
 Dan what are your plans?

I would want to be paid for last season and this season BEFORE I got on the plane to go anywhere with the IBL!!!

Dan is also a fool because he now exposes himself to the possibility of being party to the fraud which is the IBL.

 Before you agree to be president of a league you better make sure the books are clean.

You better make sure you know who Larry took money from and who is owed money. 

Larry took money from many people and had many side and individual deals with people.

There is a long trail of emails to support this. 

Larry has ruined himself and the people who go into business with him will either be taken by Larry or subject themselves to covering the fraud.

It's great to see how the players have manifested their selfish motives. How can they dream of playing if their teammates have not been paid?

1. The IBL has not paid its debts for last year.
 2. There are claims that they will take care of their debts but these claims should be looked at with a great deal of doubt.
 3. Investors in the new entity should no that they are in danger of investing in a scam and they may incur liability in doing such.
 4. I hope that the ibl management knows that if they come to Israel there is a good chance that they might not get to leave the country and return to the states until their debts are cleaned up.

I look forward to going to the games and booing Berger and Baras for the scam artists they are.

So let the questions begin:

Is Larry Baras the Paul Winchell to Rootenberg’s Knucklehead Smith?

Is Baras, the Wizard hiding behind the curtain?

Why did they wait so long to announce their plans (thirty-eight days before Opening Day? Was it because they didn't know if they would have a league, or because they didn't want the media—especially Our Man Elli-- asking questions?

Why did the IBL 10 quit? Why were they wrong to do so?

Even if all debts are paid tomorrow, why has there has been no disclosure of how much money was raised last summer and how much was spent?

With 35 days to go, and no announcement of how to buy tickets, where the games will take place, who’s playing and managing, who are the games being played for? Certainly not the native Israelis who ignored the league last year.

Is this mini-“season” being jerryrigged in order to fulfill a contract with the IAB?

The anonymous boobirds and IBL operatives can slam us they want. We want professional baseball in Israel as much as anyone else. But we'll continue doing our job, which is to ask questions. And find the answers.

And seriously, why's everything so hush-hush?

By the way, the “clock to nothing” on the IBL site has been reset, and now the Opening Day game is scheduled for 6:03 pm on July 27.

Exclusive: Israel Baseball League star Nate Fish says he'd "consider" returning for second "season"!

Nate Fish, one of the standout players and personalities of the Israel baseball League's inaugural season (and a star of the Holy Land Hardball documentary about the IBL's startup), says he'd consider returning to Israel for its four-team, three week, 20-game season supposedly opening on July 27th. Fish, 28, who hit .347 with 32 runs and 24 RBI in 40 games for the Tel Aviv Lightning- and shared the IBL's best infielder award-- is now playing for the Haar Disciples of German's Baseball-Bundesliga.

Our Man Elli in Israel: When does your season end, and would you come play here?

Nate Fish: "Depending on if we make the playoffs - our season is done at the end of July at earliest or end of September at latest. Not sure if I could play in Israel - pretty beat up right now, but I'd consider it if the timing was right."

Israel Baseball Notebook-- LITERALLY! We post the leftover notes we've gathered today so the "mainstream" media can claim them as their own!

The Israel Baseball League has gotten itself back into the news with a curveball press release picked up by the Associated Press and copied by the Jerusalem Post that spread the news around the world that the disgraced, debt-ridden league was resurrected like Lazarus and back for a miraculous second season with embattled founder hiding in a bunker and a fresh young IBL player stuffed into a suit and paying president.

The news spread, the fans rejoiced, the anonymous commenters said "Nyah nyah!" to us-- before we even had our coffee and had a chance to sort a few things out: like the fact that this spurious announcement came on the morning of the premiere of the lauded IBL documentary film, Holy Land Hardball, the second "season" is more like a barnstorming exhibition of 21 days, and the league does not have permission to set up shop in Israel. We gathered all those details by midmorning, and a few hours later the Jerusalem Post printed a clarification article-- again failing to give credit where we feel it's due: to Our Man Elli in Israel.

We're calling it day, but have a notebook full of information we will spill out so all the paid mainstream journalists can take it and call the work their own:

...the original contract with the IAB from last June 21st stipulated from the beginning that there would be a second season. Although the agreement was nullified by the IAB's January 9 termination letter, Larry Baras might be protecting himself by attempting some kind of season,
a) in order to show he tried to abide by the contract, and/or
b) then turn around if need be and sue the IAB for not allowing him to fulfill the contract...

...sources on the new lineup of IBL executives: they've marginalized Baras, because he became the No. 1 liability. Is he getting paid by the league?

...Rootenberg invested $25,000 in the IBL last year. (REDACTED) and (REDACTED) say his involvement is an attempt to recoup some of his money. One former IBL official said called him an "asshole, because for him to align himself with Larry, and being an ex-player and knowing that ex-players have not been paid-- that's more than just being an asshole."

...Non-involved fan quote: "Nothing like a drawn-out spring training season"...

...Another ex-IBL official: "I suspect the announcement may be more show than substance, as I can't imagine how they can afford to operate a professional league. Perhaps this is more about a group of players trying to do their own thing."

Same official: "Just heard that Berger is claiming that a group of 'Boston bankers' will rescue the IBL and pay off its debts, but I'll believe it when I see it."

...IBL insider: "We've heard the IBL has not been licensed by the IAB, which I doubt would license them without assurances of debt payment and a requirement that the league post a bond to assure that future Israeli obligations would be paid. That's not to say it couldn't happen, but the IBL's reputation precedes itself and there is considerable skepticism all around. The Boston 'bankers" or 'businessmen-- we've heard both terminologies-- haven't yet been identified to others, and if Larry in fact has been successful in persuading others to invest, it may be that he doesn't want people able to contact them with information that might not have been disclosed to them. Speculation, but it's quite difficult to understand how savvy bankers or businessmen would invest, given the history and circumstances of the IBL."

... Political pundit: "The whole thing is so bizarre-- the website announces a new season, but has no schedule, no place to buy tickets, no announced venues to play, no names of players or managers, no merchandise to purchase - what the hell are they doing? and what kind of season is 20 games? and what kind of league is four teams?"

... IBL website had been updated today
a) the items in the front are out of order...
E-Rod signing from April 29 is on top
b) below it is:
“Holyland Hardball” Has World Premiere -- self promotion
New IBL Store Makes Its First Appearance -- only selling stuff from last season
2008 IBL Season Announced! -- second time the season is announced (we had it before).

This gives us the details on who is playing...

...that last one is very interesting, might want to post with this graph: "By working with such organizations as the Jewish National Fund, the Jerusalem Foundation, Maccabiah, the Israel Association of Baseball and the Israel Softball Association, along with local community groups, the IBL hopes to support the programs in Israel that already exist and to generate excitement throughout the country as only baseball can..."

Where have we heard that before?

..."Announcements will appear soon as to the exact schedule and how to purchase tickets"... a month away, and no schedule, and no place to purchase tickets and fans will suddenly swarm to the park?

"In particular, we would like to note the fact that last year, over 4,000 fans showed up for opening game"-- figure has jumped to 4,000. Until now it's been 3,000...

WHAT'S GOING ON HERE? JERUSALEM POST ON VERGE OF RETRACTING ISRAEL BASEBALL LEAGUE STORY! AGAIN, THEY SEEM TO COPY OUR REPORTING WITHOUT ATTRIBUTION!

The Jerusalem Post, which sparked a worldwide sports frenzy this morning when it copied an Associated Press press release claiming that the Israel Baseball League was promising a second, truncated mini-season beginning July 27th, is now backtracking after doing some reporting to back up its story.

We were the first to question the story.

And Our Man Elli was the first to get confirmation that the nation's sports governing body had not given the league certification to allow it to do business in Israel.

Now, once again, The Jerusalem Post appears to follow our lead:




IBL still not granted permission to return

BY ALEX BRITELL

Sources at the Israel Association of Baseball said Thursday that no permission has been granted for a second season of the Israel Baseball League, despite the emergence of reports that the IBL has been resurrected by a new management team.

In a story carried by the Associated Press on Thursday it was announced that the IBL "would begin play on July 27, about a month behind its original schedule and in abbreviated form."

The AP report stated that the abridged season would run for three weeks rather than last year's inaugural 10-week season and would feature four teams in place of last year's six.

Former Netanya Tigers player Dan Rootenberg was reported to be the new president of the IBL, apparently replacing Martin Berger.

However, the IAB, which is authorized by the Ministry of Science, Culture and Sports to grant licenses for professional baseball in Israel, said there has been no change in the situation reported in The Jerusalem Post last month.

On May 29 IAB president Haim Katz told the Post "There will be no league in 2008," adding, "2008 is not happening, 2009 we're working on."

According to Katz, the league's problems stemmed largely from a number of Israeli creditors who, he said, had not been paid by the IBL.

Thursday's news coincided with the premiere of a documentary, "Holy Land Hardball," chronicling the IBL's first year, in the US.

Read the full story here.

Then go back and read ours.

More to come.

BREAKING NEWS: Is the announcement of the Israel Baseball League's return a scheme to cook up interest in IBL movie that premieres today?

The Associated Press this ran with the press release stating the Israel Baseball League has pulled itself out from under its mountain of debts and bad will to somehow return to the Holy Land for a smaller, shorter second season next month, and The Jerusalem Post copied the story with no investigation, sending it across the globe to be met with surprise, joy, and skepticism this morning. Now let the real reporting begin...

Already, sources tell us that the press release is part of scheme cooked up by the reclusive IBL founder, Boston bagel baron Larry Baras to raise money on the back of the rousing documentary film about the IBL's startup that premieres today at the Independent Film Channel's film festival outside Washington DC.

"The announcement on the morning of the world premiere of Holy Land Hardball is not coincidental," an insider in Israel tells Our Man Elli. "It's part of the plan to generate more interest, and bring in more investors, especially since Variety just gave it a rave review.

"But the bottom line remains: How much money did Baras take in last summer, and how much was spent? Was it $3 million? $4 million? How can this so-called league operate with such massive debts? Will the players be paid, or are the coming to play for free?

"And if they're being paid, how about paying all the players from last summer? Will Baras be coming to Israel? Will he be arrested upon arrival for his outstanding debts?

"And what level of play will there be? If players couldn't make the cut in any of the standing minor and professional leagues around the world, then the level of play will probably be no higher then junior college level-- at best. And who will the games be marketed to, the few dozen immigrants who came out last summer? The IBL certainly is not about to launch a marketing campaign geared towards Israelis, and isn't that the mistake-- well, one of a few hundred-- that the league committed last summer?

"The Associated Press took a press release and turned it around as news, when the real story is the back story to the whole affair. Where are the credible journalists in the world??"

You found them. Our Man Elli is on the story.

And oy, such a story!

CRAZY!!!! ISRAEL BASEBALL LEAGUE SAYS IT'S LAUNCHING SECOND SEASON ON JULY 27TH!! FOUR TEAMS, 20 GAMES: IS IT REALLY A LEAGUE AND REALLY A SEASON???

The president of the Israel Baseball League said today that the league is coming back for a second season, after all!

Despite a first season that left a mountain of debts, angry vendors, a mass exodus of its advisory board, and angry unpaid players, Dan Rootenberg says the league will begin play on July 27th, about a month behind schedule and in abbreviated form.

Despite a promise to expand this year from its six teams, the league will consist of four teams, and the season is being cut in half to twenty games. This has already led some observers to say the "season" is little more than a series of exhibition games.

League President Dan Rootenberg said it's important to acknowledge and learn from last year's mistakes. But he says the season is committed to laying the groundwork for 2009 and beyond. The announcement comes the day an independent movie about the IBL's creation, Holy Land Hardball, premieres in Silver Spring, Maryland.

No comment from embattled league founder Larry Baras.

Stay tuned here for more.

A guy named Sean learns about Israel baseball

News of the cancellation of all plans for professional baseball in Israel travels slowly. We first predicted it back on January 2nd, and nailed down the exclusive confirmation by Our Man Elli in Israel on April 14th, but people are still playing catch-up on the news. One of the funniest shows up today on a blog called Sean's Ramblings: Thoughts and comments by a guy named Sean, in which the writer, who according to his profile is some guy in northern Virginia, goes through an entire cycle of discovery in a single post, finding out that there's no baseball in Israel this summer, realizing the news isn't new, noticing the Israel baseball movie-- apparently researching the subject and finding out the latest news from our site as he writes-- until at the end of the post, he finds our Baseball in Israel archive!

Here it is:

The End of Israeli Baseball?

It’s a sad day. Actually, it was a sad day several weeks ago when Haim Katz, president of the Israel Association of Baseball, told The Jerusalem Post that the Israel Baseball League has been cancelled for 2008 and its future is in jeopardy. I just learned about this recently through Walk Off Walk.

Anyway, there seems to be a disconnect between the Israel Baseball League and its website. The IBL website still has a countdown to opening day featuring a rematch of last year’s championship game between the Modi'in Miracle and the Bet Shemesh Blue Sox on June 29, 2008. I hope that they are not still selling tickets! (Update: When I originally drafted this post, the countdown was active; it is not anymore.)

I was actually very excited about the league and briefly wrote about it last year. Although it was essentially another minor league, the fact that it started from scratch and included players from all over the world was unique. It seems that the league was more than just a gimmick based on the fact that last season’s co-MVP, Eladio Rodriguez, was playing at the New York Yankees’ AAA team in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, although it now appears that he’s back at AA Trenton.

As a side note, I also just learned that there was a movie made about the league called "Holy Land Hardball." The film debuts at the Silverdocs AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival on Thursday in Silver Spring...You can also read... Express’ interview with the filmmakers. Of course, you may want to disregard this portion of the interview (that disconnect thing again):

» EXPRESS: I saw on the Israeli league site that it looks like they will try a second season after all. Are you surprised able to get it going again and do you think it will be long-term success?

» KESTEN: That's a very hard question to answer...

Finally, I found a great blog dedicated to Baseball in Israel.

'SOCKO!' Variety rave for Holy Land Hardball!

Variety, the show business Bible, has reviewed Holy Land Hardball, the documentary about the opening of the Israel Baseball League-- and they love it!

Just read these excerpts from Eddie Cockrell's review:

"You don't have to be Jewish or understand a box score to embrace the crowd-pleasing national-pastime docu 'Holy Land Hardball.' Saga of an entrepreneur who muscled the improbable Israel Baseball League into existence is at once a celebration of Americana and a cautionary fable on the challenges of cultural hegemony that, as a bonus, plays socko in the cheap seats. Distribs will bill it, auds will come.

"Enterprise is the brainchild of Massachusetts bakery owner Larry Baras, whose 'Unholey Bagel' (which comes pre-stuffed with cream cheese) led to a financial windfall undone by a 2004 crisis of faith. Pic's overarching tone is summed up by a briefly glimpsed T-shirt slogan: 'Baseball in Israel? Vy not!'

"...Open tryouts yield a field of dreamers. Eric Holtz, player-coach of the Bet Shemesh Blue Sox, is a 41-year-old, Bronx-raised father of three whose long-suffering wife tolerates his Peter Panning. He's also the resident provocateur, telling one teammate, "The league just called, you've been traded to Egypt."

"Long-haired, 27-year-old heartthrob Nathan Israel Bloomberg "Nate" Fish is plucked from DJing to realize his dream for the Tel Aviv Lightning, while 22-year-old African-American Willis Bumphus, puzzled when his preacher told him he'd one day play in front of "God's people," now realizes he'll do just that for the Petach Tikvah Pioneers.

"Faced with a formidable marketing challenge, Baras seems to be making steady headway until a last-minute blizzard of snafus: The league's baseballs are held up in customs, a player recruited from the Dominican Republic may be Muslim and thus ineligible, and so on. The eventual onfield product has, to quote (Dan) Duquette's memorable malapropism, 'hoot-spa'...

"Co-helmers Brett Rapkin and Erik Kesten... are clearly a pair of sports nuts... Their breezy approach to this subject can't quite hide an ingrained streak of benevolent imperialism. As someone explains, with no apparent irony, 'a country with all of these traditions could use one more.'

"Tech package is pro."

Holy Land Hardball premieres this week at the AFI SilverDocs Film Festival in Silver Spring, Maryland. Read the comple VAriety review here.

'Holy Land Hardball' documentary directors cagy about facts & fate of the Israel Baseball League

EXPRESS: "I saw on the Israeli league site that
it looks like they will try a second season after all.
Are you surprised they're able to get it going again
and do you think it will be a long-term success?"

KESTEN: "That's a very hard question to answer.
We're not privy to everything going on from a
business sense of the league. It's not easy..."

Holy Land Hardball, the independent documentary film about the start-up of the Israel Baseball League, has its world premiere this week in Silver Spring, Maryland, and in the lead-up to its debut, the film's directors are being understandably elusive when it comes to revealing the truth about the eventual fate of the league-- debts, lawsuits, defections, scandal, and as reported by Our Man Elli in Israel here before anyone else on April 14th, the cancellation of its second season and possibly its closure-- and even insinuating that the ill-timed venture was a success.

Brett Rapkin and Erik Kesten are interviewed in The Washington Post's Express newspaper, and one thing is for certain: the deliberately misleading information on the Israel Baseball League website has done the trick-- duping another hapless journalist (the interviewer) into reporting the factoid and spreading the misconception that professional baseball is alive and well in Israel.

Whether the directors take the story to its conclusion will be revealed this week. Meanwhile, the film itself promises to be compelling, as it seems to touch all the proper emotional bases and culls from the crop the most colorful personalities and situations.

In particular, the directors point out players Nate Fish and Erik Holtz, the husband, father and businessman who abandoned responsibilities in the States to play a boy's game n Israel:

» RAPKIN: Eric Holtz, we grabbed later, though we got good footage at that first tryout. We got to know him and found him really compelling. The fact he had family but was still willing to spend time in Israel, leave behind a lot of responsibilities, was really riveting...

» EXPRESS: I really liked the Holtz family. It was interesting how comfortable the wife got on camera. You see her go through different emotions; see her being supportive, and other times seem less-than-thrilled about the idea of her husband going to play in Israel.

» KESTEN: We were surprised how open she was. Sometimes, the camera can be a great tool. People may open up. I think a lot had been building up and she wanted to document it in some way. Learned that was their relationship. They give it to each other. I think a lot of people relate. They've been married a while, they get on each other's nerves, but they love each other. They accept each other's dreams. We think the world of that family.

Of course, the mystery man in the production is Larry Baras, the Boston bagel baron who started up the league, and according to the directors, may have pushed a little too hard to make the starting date.

» EXPRESS: Do you think the owner knew what he was doing putting the league together?

» RAPKIN: There was a lot of conversation about doing it last summer or this summer for the first year. Larry felt they needed to put stake in the ground June 24, 2007. They had momentum going and decided it was time to give it a shot. In hindsight, maybe they do things differently. At the end of day, they pulled off the first and last pitch, named a champion, had 120 players from nine countries, got managers who were some of the most prolific Jewish players of all time and pulled off a successful season.

» KESTEN: The question was one of the biggest draws to the story. As exciting an idea as it seemed, it also seemed destined to fail. When you look at the facts, you had a Jewish guy from Boston in the baking industry with no sports experience who decides he's going to be the one to bring professional baseball league to the Middle East. It seemed far-fetched. Pass or fail, it seemed like a great story one way or the other. They didn't seem fully prepared. We wanted to see what would happen.

And no, the filmmakers make no mention of the cameo by Our Man Elli. Read the entire interview here.

(HOLY LAND HARDBALL plays this week at the American Film Institutes Silver Theatre, 8633 Colesville Rd., Silver Spring, Maryland; Thu., 4 p.m., Sun., 10:15 a.m., $9.75; 301-495-6720.

Israel baseball doco gets film festival premiere

These past ten months or so that we've been bringing you comprehensive coverage of the rise and fall of the Israel Baseball League, there have been, in the background, a team of filmmakers crafting a nonfiction film about the league's creation and the work going into the launch. Now, Holy Land Hardball is complete, and will have its world premiere on June 19th, at the world premiere at the Silverdocs AFI/Discovery Channel Film Festival in Silver Spring, Maryland (outside Washington, DC) on June 19th and June 22nd (a week before the world premiere of The Seventh Python in Hollywood!).

Surely the film will have an added poignancy and audience members in the know will be watching league founder Larry Baras with a skeptical eye in light of the events that would come to pass after the optimistic months covered on film.

Here's what the Silverdoc site has to say about the film from directors Erik Kestin and Brett Rapkin:

HOLY LAND HARDBALL
USA, 2008, 84 Minutes, English with English subtitles
World Premiere

You don’t have to be Jewish to love HOLY LAND HARDBALL. You don’t even have to like baseball. You just have to believe in the power of holding on to your hopes and dreams and overcoming impossible odds.

HOLY LAND HARDBALL follows the unlikely formation of the Israel Baseball League by Larry Baras, a bakery owner from Boston with no prior sports management experience. In his effort to bring America’s pastime to the Israeli people, Baras recruits 120 diverse ballplayers for the IBL. Among them are a 41-year-old father with a Peter Pan complex; a 27-year-old aspiring writer/artist/musician still disappointed that he was not drafted out of college; a 34-year-old father-to-be whose own father, now deceased, fought for Israel’s independence in 1948; and a 22-year-old African-American who was told by a preacher that he would one day “play in front of God’s people.”

Baras and his recruits have the challenging task of drawing the Israeli people to a sport they’ve gone 5,767 years without. Add a skeptical Israeli media, disgruntled players, delayed stadium preparations, customs snafus, and a rapidly approaching Opening Day, and there is one question Baras must ask himself: If I build it, will they come?

Brett Rapkin and Erik Kesten have created an immensely entertaining documentary, which shows a side of the Middle East far from the news headlines— one of peace, normalcy and discovering the joys of the great American pastime. Bo Nis’chak B’kadur! (Translation: Let’s play ball!)

—Jeff Krulik

We're told Our Man Elli in Israel appears in the doco.

Readers in the Washington, DC area or anyone who's seen the film-- please send us your reviews-- of the film and Elli. We'll post the mainstream press notices.

And to the filmmakers, we say: Mazel tov!

(See a trailer here.)