One out, one left stranded: What ever happened to the Israel Baseball League players who were signed by the New York Yankees?

So whatever happened to the Israel Baseball League players who were signed by the New York Yankees? Unfortunately, they’re not exactly about to be swatting homers out of the House That Ruth Built. In fact, one never made it near pinstripes, at all.

When catcher Eladio Rodriguez of the Modi’in Miracle and Bet Shemesh outfielder Jason Rees got deals with the New York Yankees organization in the days before the defections of its distinguished commissioner and most of its advisory board over its financial opacity, the flailing Israel Baseball League made great hay over the deal— though the triumph was immediately dismissed by critics as a publicity stunt cooked up by several Yankee honchos on the IBL board.

And as it turns out, there was more smoke than fire to the announcements. Rodriguez and Rees both were assigned to the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees AAA farm team in northern Pennsylvania.

But according to Scranton Times-Tribune sportswriter Chad Jennings’ blog:

“Eladio Rodriguez, the catcher who was signed with Jason Rees out of the Israel Baseball League, never reported to the Yankees. (Farm director Mark) Newman said he had some sort of visa problems."

And an article this week in the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader shows that Aussie outfielder Jason Rees, the Michael Johns of the IBL, may have taken a strange journey with his stop on the Bet Shemesh Blue Sox, but may not be moving much farther up the ladder:

“Rees put up outstanding numbers for the Bet Shermesh Blue Sox. He batted .362 with 50 RBI in 42 games, and led the league with 17 home runs.

“'I went to Israel because I wanted a chance to play every day,’ said Rees. ‘Back home in Australia, the teams only play twice a week, so that makes it difficult to get into a hitting groove.’

“There were two major differences between baseball in Israel compared to the American game, according to Rees.

“'The skill level isn’t as good as it is here, and there’s more diversity,’ said Rees. ‘It was definitely a learning experience.’

“Rees enjoyed taking center stage. He was named the league’s ‘Co-Defensive Outfielder of the Year’ and made the all-star team.

“He made a strong impression on manager Ron Bloomberg, a former New York Yankee who wound up contacting the Yankees on his behalf…”

The article concludes:

“Rees is a long shot to start the season at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre because the outfield will likely consist of Justin Christian, Brett Gardner and Jason Lane.”

A closer look at the Times Leader article also shows that the writer continues the awkward factoid tradition of misspelling the name of MLB star and former IBL manager Ron Blomberg. This post from Wiki Answers sets the record straight:

Q: Is Ron Blomberg and Ron Bloomberg the same person who played for the Yankees?

A: The baseball player Ron Blomberg has had his name misspelled (Bloomberg) many times. If you see a Ron Bloomberg in a baseball story it would be safe to say that the name is misspelled and the person referred to is really Ron Blomberg.


There is a Ron Bloomberg that was a TV writer from the 1970s to the 1990s. This Ron Bloomberg is not the Ron Blomberg that played for the Yankees.

Meanwhile, what does the future hold for baseball in Israel? Our Man Elli in Israel is in Our Man Elli in The United States this week, in from his adopted home of Jerusalem on a lecture tour and buttonholing the carpetbagging businessmen and players personally.

Stay tuned…

FUN FACT: Eladio Rodriguez was a prospect for the Boston Red Sox eleven seasons ago, and formerly went under the aliases of Ivan Rodriguez and Carlos Aleman. Some sort of visa problems, we'd assume.

Blomberg sees dim hope for 2008 Israel baseball

“Blomberg said the IBL
is going through some
financial problems
currently and
may not be able
to play its season
this summer,
but he thinks it will
eventually get back
up and running
in the not-so-distant
future…”

From an article in this morning’s Wellsville, NY, Daily Reporter:

Blomberg, Shamsky helping to bring baseball to Israel

By Paul Jannace
Daily Reporter

HORNELL - Ron Blomberg says he ruined baseball forever in 1973, but he also helped bring baseball to Israel last summer.


Blomberg, one of the guest speakers at the 35th annual Sports Night, became Major League Baseball’s first designated hitter for the New York Yankees on April 6, 1973, and drew a bases loaded walk in the first inning against Boston’s Luis Tiant.


“It screwed up the game of baseball,” Blomberg said in between signing autographs. “And I’m proud of it.”


...Currently working as a scout for the New York Yankees, as well as doing some work for FOX and ESPN, Blomberg will be featured on ESPN April 16 in a piece celebrating the 35th anniversary of the designated hitter.
 Blomberg spent seven of his eight Major League seasons with the New York Yankees, winning a World Series in 1977 and 1978.


While Blomberg may or may not have ruined baseball, he recently was part of the inaugural season of the Israel Baseball League along with fellow Sports Night attendee Art Shamsky (left, tall), who played 13 seasons, including being part of the 1969 World Champion New York Mets.


Blomberg’s Bet Shemesh Blue Sox, sporting the New York Yankees’ colors, defeated Shamsky’s Modi’in Miracle, who wore the colors of the New York Mets, to win the first ever Israel Baseball League championship.

“It was one of the most gratifying things I’ve ever done in my life,” Blomberg said. “If you’re Jewish or Catholic, it’s a wonderful thing.”


While most of the players and coaches in the league are Jewish, it is not a prerequisite, as there are players from all over the world and eight of them who played last summer have signed deals with Major League clubs.


“The quality of baseball is good,” Blomberg said. “For the first year, I would say it’s A-ball.”


Shamsky joked that his only regret to being in the IBL is that he lost to Blomberg in the championship game.
“He out-managed me that day,” Shamsky quipped.


Ken Holtzman, who pitched 15 season in Major League Baseball with the Chicago Cubs, New York Yankees, Oakland Athletics and Baltimore Orioles, also managed during the IBL’s first season. Dan Duquette, a former general manager of the Boston Red Sox, is the league’s director of baseball operations and is helping to develop a baseball academy in Israel.


“The fact that we started up something and to be a part of that initial experience was great,” Shamsky said. “The fact you were playing baseball in this holiest of places was very, very special.”


Blomberg said the IBL is going through some financial problems currently and may not be able to play its season this summer, but he thinks it will eventually get back up and running in the not-so-distant future.


“Baseball would do extremely well over there,” Blomberg said…

Israel Baseball: SI thinks the IBL is still alive

With so much of their attention focused on steroid scandals and swimsuits, we can forgive the guys at Sports Illustrated for not keeping up with all the latest international sports news, but some stories, like the fate of the Israel Baseball League, tend to stand out more than others. So eyebrows in the Tabloid Baby office did raise today while perusing the SI.com website's excerpt from the new book, Change Up: An Oral History of 8 Key Events That Shaped Baseball-- and not because sports oral histories are the provenance of Our Man Elli In Israel, the journalist who broke and continues to own the Israel baseball story.

No, it's the description of Ron Blomberg, who's a voice in the new book:

"On the eve of the 2008 baseball season -- the 35th anniversary of the debut of the designated hitter in the American League in 1973 -- SI.com presents an exclusive excerpt from Change Up, in which Ron Blomberg, the first DH, and nine others recount their memories of the new rule, and how it all got started...

"Ron Blomberg: The first DH in 1973 while playing for the Yankees, the left-handed swinger's eight-year career was cut short by shoulder and knee injuries. His autobiography, Designated Hebrew, was published in 2006, and he is currently the manager of the Bet Shemesh Blue Sox of the Israel Baseball League."

"Currently the manager of the Bet Shemesh Blue Sox of the Israel Baseball League?"

Do they know something we don't know? More likely, as we chase down the latest in what could build into an avalanche of lawsuits against the defunct IBL and its founder Larry Baras, they reproduced already-outdated information from the book, and like the rest of the mainstream sports media, is still playing catch-up.

Speaking of catching up, catch Elli Wohlgelernter on his US speaking tour that kicks off in Chicago next week. The newsman is in the States to talk serious international issues, but he's bound to field more than a few baseball queries along the way...

Israel news service copies our baseball update

A week ago, on April 2nd, we told you that former Israel Baseball League manager (and NY Yankee) Ron Blomberg had confirmed on the rubber chicken circuit Our Man Elli in Israel's exclusive report that the IBL was not going to dust off home plate for a second season in 2008.

We quoted the Daily Reporter newspaper in Wellsville, NY: "Blomberg said the IBL is going through some financial problems currently and may not be able to play its season this summer, but he thinks it will eventually get back up and running in the not-so-distant future."

This morning, a week later, an Israeli news service reprints our story-- but doesn't attribute it to us or the local newspaper. "This news operation is known as Arutz 7, a right-wing nationalistic news service, which is usually first with the news when something happens in Judea and Samaria, i.e. a terrorist attack in the territories, but is often late with other news," notes Elli.

Well, in this case, even if they did have to take the road to Wellsville for a story in their own backyard, better late than never!

Arutz Sheva 7 is the first Israeli news organization to catch up with the latest developments and rumours that Our Man Elli-- and loyal readers like "0007 Snooper" in Haifa have been chasing down for months. The article is also notable for offering a third variation on the spelling of Ron Blomberg's name, which is misspelled so often as "Bloomberg" that it's been accepted as an alternative.

4 Nissan 5768, April 9, '08

Israel Baseball May Take a 'Shemittah Inning' Stretch

(IsraelNN.com) Ron Blumberg, who managed the Beit Shemesh Blue Sox championship team in last year's inaugural Israel Baseball League (IBL) season, said the IBL may not return to action until next year. He revealed that financial problems may force the league to take a one-year break this summer, which is the Sabbatical (Shemittah) year.

Speaking at a New York area annual sports event, Blumberg added that "baseball would do extremely well" in Israel. Also present at the event was Art Shamsky, who managed the Modi'in Miracles, which lost to the Blue Sox in the championship game. He said the only thing he regretted in the IBL was that his team lost. Shamsky praised the launching of baseball in Israel. "The fact that we started up something and to be a part of that initial experience was great," Shamsky said. "The fact you were playing baseball in this holiest of places was very, very special."

Happy birthday, Ron Blomberg

Ron Blomberg turns 60 today.

Besides making history as the manager of the champion Bet Shemesh Blue Sox of the Israel Baseball League in its first and last season, he was a New York Yankee and Major League Baseball's first designated hitter.

From Newsday:

...Blomberg keeps an incredibly busy schedule, juggling responsibilities that include motivational speaking, Yankees fantasy camps, wine-and-dine in Yankee Stadium suites and some scouting work for the team.

In addition, he also runs a summer camp for kids. He said it's "the largest Jewish sleep-away camp in the country." Herb Brown, Larry Brown's brother, runs the basketball portion of camp, he said.

He's also coming off a busy past year that including writing a book, "Designated Hebrew," as well as managing in the start-up Israel Baseball League. The league lasted only one year because of finances, but he loved it. It was his first trip to Israel, and he called it "an unbelievable experience."

Today in Israel Baseball League history

From the Israel Baseball League website:

Bet Shemesh Blue Sox win inaugural IBL Championship!

Petach Tikva, August 19 (2007) - In front of a crowd of 2,610 fans at Yarkon Field, it was the Bet Shemesh Blue Sox shutting out the Modi’in Miracle, 3-0, to win the inaugural IBL Championship.

The pitching match up of Modi’in’s RHP Maximo Nelson and Bet Shemesh’s RHP Rafael Bergstrom lived up to expectations as both pitchers engaged in a classic pitchers duel. Bergstrom dominated the Miracle offense earning the victory, pitching a complete game shutout, striking out eight batters allowing no walks.

Although, Modi’in out hit Bet Shemesh, it was the Blue Sox who manufactured their runs throughout the night. Bet Shemesh jumped out on top in the bottom of the first inning on a sacrifice fly by OF Jason Rees, scoring OF Sean Slaughter from third base. The Blue Sox scored their second run in the bottom of the fourth inning, on a sacrifice fly by 1B Ben Pincus. The Blue Sox added their third run of the night in the bottom of the fifth inning, when SS Gregg Raymundo (2-for-3) singled driving in Sean Slaughter from second base.

Modi’in threatened in the top of the top of the sixth inning with runners on first and third base and two outs. However, Bergstrom struck out Adalberto Paulino (2-for-4) to end the inning.

Ron Blomberg’s Blue Sox truly personified a championship team. Bet Shemesh never fell below first place throughout the entire season.

For the boxscore from the Championship game click here.

Following the game, Commissioner Dan Kurtzer presented the championship trophy to the entire Bet Shemesh team. Manager Ron Blomberg spoke during the trophy ceremony saying, “I’ve been in two World Series with the New York Yankees, and this championship lives up to both.” The Commissioner also presented the individual season achievement awards to the IBL’s top players.

The IBL announced that the first game of the 2008 season will be played on Sunday, June 29, at 6:00 p.m. at the Yarkon Sports Complex in the Baptist Village in Petach Tikva.

Hey, Steve Walz of The Jewish Press: Gai tren zich!

"I could write a megilla
about what went wrong
with the IBL and why,
but I'll leave that
to another Israeli-based
American journalist
who seems to revel
in his cynical print
and on-line IBL exposes.”

--Steve Walz,
Jewish Press blog

Nine months after Our Man Elli in Israel wrote the article that tore the lid off the scandals of the Israel Baseball League, close to half a year after we told you the league was dead in the water for 2008, the rest of the media is catching up and reporting what to our readers is an old story.

We don't mind when lazy journos don't give us credit for doing their legwork. But we're getting a little tired of the sycophant supposed professionals who take home paychecks each week for keeping their head down and staying beneath the radar, only to hurl offhanded insults at hardworking independent journalists who carry their water and do their work, all for the love of the story-- and the game.

The latest offender is Steve Walz of The Jewish Press. Mr. Bigshot Investigative Reporter has penned a nice long post on the JP blogsite in which he acknowledges the death of the IBL, calls its founder an "alleged charlatan" and slams Our Man Elli and this site-- all because we've been doing his job for him for the past nine months!

Dig the chutzpah of this schmuck:

"For all intents and purposes, one can start saying 'kaddish' for the Israel Baseball League, which has suspended operations after surviving a single season in the Holy Land… a terrific endeavor that was left in the hands of an alleged
charlatan who appeared to have fooled a large number of prominent minor and major league baseball investors and promoters... and in the end... left a trail of unpaid bills and acrimony. Efforts to oust the 'charlatan' who allegedly created the IBL from scratch, by the IBL's Board of Directors (including people close to the Yankees), failed miserably. A last minute attempt to create a new 4 team league this summer... also failed because the new 'owners' could not come up with a cogent business plan. 
Whether or not 'professional baseball' appears on the Israeli scene in 2009 is anyone's guess at this point….

“I could write a megilla about what went wrong with the IBL and why, but I'll leave that to another Israeli-based American journalist who seems to revel in his cynical print and on-line IBL exposes about the life and death of the IBL. The only remaining personal 'hana'a' (pleasure) I have from the IBL is watching two ex-members from 'my' team-the Modiin Miracle succeed in their professional baseball careers. Catcher Eladio Rodriguez, who hit .461 with 14 home runs in the short-season IBL, recently signed a contract to play for the Yankees AAA team in Scranton, PA…

"As I'm writing this blog, I cannot help but stare at the picture of yours truly enjoying a cola with Ron Blomberg... and Art Shamsky... just before a game at Gezer Field last summer, which is featured prominently on my desk. My journalistic instincts prompted me to set up this photo-op last summer, realizing that this was my 'Field of Dreams', perhaps never to be experienced again...at least in the Holy Land..."

Your journalistic instincts?

Those weren’t journalist instincts, boychick. Those were jock-sniffing wannabe cravings, and you can spare us the image of you sitting at your desk with your schmekel in your hand, nechvenining over Blomberg and Shamsky. Yeah, you could "write a megilla"-- but you didn't! You just copied our reporting! You wouldn’t have anything to blog about if it wasn’t for our hard work, from the IBL problems that you didn't cover because you were too busy drooling over autographed balls-- to our day-by-day chronicling of E-Rod’s meteoric ride.

We'll be speaking to your editor, putz. Apologies are in order-- from both of you.

(Click here to see where Schmendrick Walz gets all his "cynical" information on baseball in Israel-- and to get an idea of the scope of our coverage.)

Looking back at Our Man Elli's dreams for Israel

Elli Wohlgelernter, Tabloid Baby's Man in Israel, is at the center of a worldwide storm over his muckraking report on the near-fatal flaws of the Israel Baseball League's first season. And it was while gathering the latest crop of reaction that one of our staffers reminded us that Elli is no Yossi-come-lately to the Israel Baseball League story. As a print and television reporter, he'd been covering the countdown to the IBL for a year before Opening Day, wrote a curtain raiser for the New York Times in June and, back in March, penned an eager preview of the IBL.

Look again at an essay that reflects all the hopes and idealism of a kid who saw his first baseball game at Yankee Stadium in 1962:

Sliding Home

by ELLI WOHLGELERNTER

It's a long season, and you gotta trust it. I've tried them all,
I really have. And the only shul that truly feeds the soul, day in, day out,
is the shul of baseball.
- with apologies to Annie Savoy

"What do you miss most?"

That's the question immigrants to Israel get asked more than any other. Sometimes it elicits serious answers, sometimes personal ones. Of course everyone misses their family and friends left behind, that's a given. And sometimes what we miss most is a simple food we crave, or some product that is impossible to find in Israel, but which would make our daily lives easier.

Me, I always give the same answer.

Baseball.

Sure, I miss my family and friends, and pizza here is never going to be as good as it is in New York. And though I may not see my family and friends as much as I'd like, phone calls and emails keep us well connected.

But baseball is different. Baseball, for serious fans, takes on a relationship more akin to that of a husband and wife. Spouses communicate every day, even from a distance, even if only for a few minutes. The definition of that relationship - a relationship based on passion - demands no less.

So too in baseball. Baseball, like marriage, is nothing without intimacy. Sure, I can read what my favorite Yankees did over the last two weeks, how many games they won or lost, and see highlights on the Internet. But that is just passive knowledge and information, crucial though it is, and videos only highlight how far away I am. It never satisfies the emotional need, never quenches the thirst of passion. For that you need a constant, daily narrative that you can see, hear and smell.

Now we'll have it.

On June 24, the first-ever professional baseball game in Israel will be played at Kibbutz Gezer, between the Petah Tikva Pioneers and the Modi'in Miracle. The six-team league also includes the Bet Shemesh Blue Sox, Netanya Tigers, Ra'anana Express and Tel Aviv Lightning. Each club will play 45 regular-season games, a schedule comparable to that of the low minor leagues.

The games will be played at three sites: Tel Aviv and Netanya teams will play at Sportek in Tel Aviv. Ra'anana and Petah Tikvah will share a field at the Yarkon Sports Complex, while Kibbutz Gezer will host the Modi'in and Bet Shemesh teams.

Eighty players have already been signed, from eight countries including the Dominican Republic, Australia, Venezuela, and the United States. A trio of retired Jewish major leaguers will manage three of the teams - former pitcher Ken Holtzman, outfielder Art Shamsky and baseball's first designated hitter, Ron Blomberg. The league's first commissioner is Daniel Kurtzer, a former US ambassador to Israel, and Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig is on the board of advisors.

Even with that pedigree the detractors are already lining up to scoff, confident in their criticism that declares the venture - the brainstorm of one Larry Baras, Boston businessman and visionary extraordinaire - this century's version of Fulton's Folly. How can it succeed, they laugh, in a country already saturated with soccer and basketball? Who's gonna care enough to come to a game, besides a few dozen Anglos? And how can a home run compete with the excitement of a goal or a basket for an Israeli?

For those who follow baseball, who understand baseball, such doubters are to be pitied. While it is easy to understand their lack of faith in a Baras, or a Dan Duquette - the man in charge of player development - it is difficult to fathom their lack of faith in the very game itself.

That baseball was never, heretofore, an integral part of the fabric of Israeli culture is hardly a reflection on the sport itself. Baseball will succeed here, first and foremost, because it's the greatest game in the world. But it will also succeed because Israelis, like Americans, are great sports fans, as passionate about athletics as they are about everything that has meaning in their lives. In due time, Israelis too will come to understand the game, the rich nuances and subtleties that make it so interesting to millions of Americans.

Yes, of course building baseball in Israel is a long-term project. Duquette understands that better than anyone. Having once been in charge of player development for the Montreal Expos, Duquette took on a similar challenge going up against Canada's national religion, hockey. And from the ground up, he built an infrastructure and a system that was able to discover, recruit, and further develop Canadian baseball players.

It took a while, but then it happened: On March 8, 2006, Team Canada beat the powerhouse Team USA, 8-6, in the World Baseball Classic. Canadian baseball was on the map. To say that Israelis are less athletically inclined, incapable of playing and eventually competing on that level, is an insult, and simply foolish. A dozen Israelis have already been signed to the league, a number that is sure to grow as the country is more exposed to the sport.

One other thing: Everyone understands that ballplayers on the major league level are supremely talented, and a joy to watch. True enough. But for those who think minor league baseball is not that good, not the real thing, know this: those players underneath the Major Leagues at the AAA, AA, and A level are no less talented then the big boys. There is, in fact, only one difference between those in Single-A and those in the Major Leagues: consistency.

I spent the summer of 1983 covering minor league baseball, the Utica Blue Sox, in the New York-Penn League. They weren't just a single-A team, they were an independent team, which meant that no other ballclub had wanted any of the players. Castoffs, you say? Let me tell you, they weren't just good, they were great. I saw guys make plays that today would be on SportsCenter every night. The raw talent was breathtaking.

And now that's coming here. Baseball in Israel. I will get to see professional players up close, watch them show off that incredible talent, and follow their stories for 10 weeks, right here in my backyard. I'll still follow the Yankees, of course, but now I can follow a local team as well - the Blue Sox again, this time in Bet Shemesh. And my immigration will have become complete.

"Jew're Out!" Our Man Elli on Israeli Baseball

Elli Wohlgelernter, Tabloid Baby's Man in Israel, is a reporter for IBA TV in Jerusalem. He's also the center of the documentary project, Sex & Baseball. Today he writes on the Israel 21C website about... baseball. Oh well.

Sliding Home

It's a long season, and you gotta trust it. I've tried them all,
I really have. And the only shul that truly feeds the soul, day in, day out,
is the shul of baseball.
- with apologies to Annie Savoy

"What do you miss most?"

That's the question immigrants to Israel get asked more than any other. Sometimes it elicits serious answers, sometimes personal ones. Of course everyone misses their family and friends left behind, that's a given. And sometimes what we miss most is a simple food we crave, or some product that is impossible to find in Israel, but which would make our daily lives easier.

Me, I always give the same answer.

Baseball.

Sure, I miss my family and friends, and pizza here is never going to be as good as it is in New York. And though I may not see my family and friends as much as I'd like, phone calls and emails keep us well connected.

But baseball is different. Baseball, for serious fans, takes on a relationship more akin to that of a husband and wife. Spouses communicate every day, even from a distance, even if only for a few minutes. The definition of that relationship - a relationship based on passion - demands no less.

So too in baseball. Baseball, like marriage, is nothing without intimacy. Sure, I can read what my favorite Yankees did over the last two weeks, how many games they won or lost, and see highlights on the Internet. But that is just passive knowledge and information, crucial though it is, and videos only highlight how far away I am. It never satisfies the emotional need, never quenches the thirst of passion. For that you need a constant, daily narrative that you can see, hear and smell.

Now we'll have it.

On June 24, the first-ever professional baseball game in Israel will be played at Kibbutz Gezer, between the Petah Tikva Pioneers and the Modi'in Miracle. The six-team league also includes the Bet Shemesh Blue Sox, Netanya Tigers, Ra'anana Express and Tel Aviv Lightning. Each club will play 45 regular-season games, a schedule comparable to that of the low minor leagues.

The games will be played at three sites: Tel Aviv and Netanya teams will play at Sportek in Tel Aviv. Ra'anana and Petah Tikvah will share a field at the Yarkon Sports Complex, while Kibbutz Gezer will host the Modi'in and Bet Shemesh teams.

Eighty players have already been signed, from eight countries including the Dominican Republic, Australia, Venezuela, and the United States. A trio of retired Jewish major leaguers will manage three of the teams - former pitcher Ken Holtzman, outfielder Art Shamsky and baseball's first designated hitter, Ron Blomberg. The league's first commissioner is Daniel Kurtzer, a former US ambassador to Israel, and Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig is on the board of advisors.

Even with that pedigree the detractors are already lining up to scoff, confident in their criticism that declares the venture - the brainstorm of one Larry Baras, Boston businessman and visionary extraordinaire - this century's version of Fulton's Folly. How can it succeed, they laugh, in a country already saturated with soccer and basketball? Who's gonna care enough to come to a game, besides a few dozen Anglos? And how can a home run compete with the excitement of a goal or a basket for an Israeli?

For those who follow baseball, who understand baseball, such doubters are to be pitied. While it is easy to understand their lack of faith in a Baras, or a Dan Duquette - the man in charge of player development - it is difficult to fathom their lack of faith in the very game itself.

That baseball was never, heretofore, an integral part of the fabric of Israeli culture is hardly a reflection on the sport itself. Baseball will succeed here, first and foremost, because it's the greatest game in the world. But it will also succeed because Israelis, like Americans, are great sports fans, as passionate about athletics as they are about everything that has meaning in their lives. In due time, Israelis too will come to understand the game, the rich nuances and subtleties that make it so interesting to millions of Americans.

Yes, of course building baseball in Israel is a long-term project. Duquette understands that better than anyone. Having once been in charge of player development for the Montreal Expos, Duquette took on a similar challenge going up against Canada's national religion, hockey. And from the ground up, he built an infrastructure and a system that was able to discover, recruit, and further develop Canadian baseball players.

It took a while, but then it happened: On March 8, 2006, Team Canada beat the powerhouse Team USA, 8-6, in the World Baseball Classic. Canadian baseball was on the map. To say that Israelis are less athletically inclined, incapable of playing and eventually competing on that level, is an insult, and simply foolish. A dozen Israelis have already been signed to the league, a number that is sure to grow as the country is more exposed to the sport.

One other thing: Everyone understands that ballplayers on the major league level are supremely talented, and a joy to watch. True enough. But for those who think minor league baseball is not that good, not the real thing, know this: those players underneath the Major Leagues at the AAA, AA, and A level are no less talented then the big boys. There is, in fact, only one difference between those in Single-A and those in the Major Leagues: consistency.

I spent the summer of 1983 covering minor league baseball, the Utica Blue Sox, in the New York-Penn League. They weren't just a single-A team, they were an independent team, which meant that no other ballclub had wanted any of the players. Castoffs, you say? Let me tell you, they weren't just good, they were great. I saw guys make plays that today would be on SportsCenter every night. The raw talent was breathtaking.

And now that's coming here. Baseball in Israel. I will get to see professional players up close, watch them show off that incredible talent, and follow their stories for 10 weeks, right here in my backyard. I'll still follow the Yankees, of course, but now I can follow a local team as well - the Blue Sox again, this time in Bet Shemesh. And my immigration will have become complete.

Elli's brief bio on Israel 21C site says that "he saw his first Major League baseball game in 1962 in Yankee Stadium." Elli is also sports editor of the Encyclopaedia Judaica, now out in a second edition, and his 175 entries include Shawn Green and Sandy Koufax.

Our Man Elli has an article in the NY Times

Tabloid Baby's man in the Mideast, Our Man Elli In Israel, has an article in tomorrow's New York Times. Buy six copies!

The New York Times
June 24, 2007

Israeli League Is Ready to Play Ball

By ELLI WOHLGELERNTER

JERUSALEM, June 23 — In the land of milk and honey, it is time for peanuts and hot dogs — the Israel Baseball League makes its debut Sunday night when the Petach Tikva Pioneers play host to the Modi’in Miracle. A high demand for tickets has moved organizers to double the seating capacity at the Yarkon Sports Complex to accommodate a projected 2,000 spectators expected to attend.

The game will be televised live in Israel by the local sports channel, whose broadcasters will handle the play-by-play in Hebrew. The game will also be broadcast in English in the United States next Sunday on PBS affiliates in New York, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and West Palm Beach, Fla.

The league’s six teams will share three fields: in Tel Aviv; in Petach Tikva about 10 miles northeast of Tel Aviv; and in Kibbutz Gezer, between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

The teams will play an eight-week, 45-game season, with an all-star game July 29 and a one-game championship Aug. 19. The league will honor the Jewish faith — there will be no games on Saturdays or on July 24, the Tisha B’Av fast day.

The oldest of the league’s 120 players — who represent eight countries — is Pioneers pitcher Scott Cantor, 51, of Nyack, N.Y. The youngest is Miracle pitcher Nate Rosenberg, 17, who lives on Kibbutz Gezer.

Another teenager from Gezer is Alon Leichman, who started playing at 4. His father, David, initiated the construction of a field at Gezer in 1982.

“I said 25 years ago that the field is for our children, and now my 18-year-old son is to play pro ball on the field,” said David Leichman, who, like many at Gezer, emigrated from the United States.

The league is run by an advisory board of donors and investors who will try to eventually make a profit. For the players, who are being paid $2,000 each for the season, the league is an opportunity to continue doing what they love.

“To me, it’s a reward for all of my hard work in the gym and on the field, and it’s the ultimate Jewish-American dream,” said Josh Eichenstein, 23, a middle infielder from Los Angeles. “Being able to play baseball as a job in Israel blows my mind.”

Eichenstein said he hoped to put on a good show for all the people watching baseball for the first time.

“I want to help Israelis understand the game of baseball,” he said. “Once the game is understood, they will fall in love with it.”

That is what organizers are hoping will happen. In this soccer- and basketball-crazed country, baseball may be a hard sell. The game has been tweaked — some say corrupted — to make it more palatable for a foreign audience. Games will be seven innings instead of nine, and ties will be broken by home-run-hitting contests instead of extra innings.

The league has assembled some former major league players and executives. Art Shamsky, Ken Holtzman and Ron Blomberg are among the managers. Dan Duquette, a former general manager of the Boston Red Sox and the Montreal Expos, is the league’s director of player development. The head of public relations is Marty Appel, who once held that position with the Yankees.

Daniel C. Kurtzer, a former United States ambassador to Israel, is the league’s commissioner. Now retired from diplomatic service, Kurtzer will spend the next two months in Israel, on vacation from his day job as a professor at Princeton.

“My role basically is to establish the character of the league,” Kurtzer, a professor of Middle East policy studies at Princeton, said this week in a telephone interview. “So we’ve developed the rules and a code of conduct. My job is largely to give advice and do some public relations, give speeches and things like that. I don’t know that I’ll be at every game, but I’ll be there the entire summer.”

Once accustomed to negotiating disputes between Israel and its neighbors, Kurtzer is still working on how to mediate arguments on the field.

“We’ll see if it’s a punch, if it’s a brawl, if it’s a melee — we’ll make decisions on the spot,” he said. “I assume that issues will come up about discipline and other kinds of issues that end up in the commissioner’s office. I have done a pretty good study of how the commissioner’s office in Major League baseball works, and in other sports. So you never know — each situation is going to be different.”

The games will also be announced in Hebrew at the ballparks, and the Web site israelbaseballleague.com features the rules and a glossary of terms in Hebrew. Still, the league has been pitched to Jews in the United States, urging Jewish organizations to send tour groups to games and establishing support chapters in Chicago and Phoenix.

Some Israelis, including those born in the United States, are wondering whether such a marketing strategy will help the league establish traction among natives.

“Baseball is the greatest game ever invented, and I hope the league is a rousing success,” said Eli Groner, a one-time Maccabiah Games bronze medalist in softball, who works as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company’s Tel Aviv office.

“But the key to generating popularity here is in successful clinics at the grass-roots level.”

He added, “ ‘If you build it, they will come’ is nice for a movie and to create a tourist destination in Iowa; inculcating a culture requires much, much more.”

The league has a long-range plan for building a fan base. It has run youth camps and clinics, and has promotions scheduled throughout the season. Players will teach children the rudiments of the game and leave behind baseball equipment for them.

“Our real objective this summer is to build some degree of interest on the part of Israelis,” said Kurtzer, who acknowledged having doubts about whether Israelis would make a quintessential American sport their own.

“I don’t know yet,” he said. “I know there’s a Little League that’s functional, that includes not only American Israelis but Israeli Israelis. We won’t know until we test it. We’ve talked to people about it and we think there’s room in Israel for a third sport beyond basketball and soccer. Baseball is a little complicated, it’s a little bit different from what Israelis know, but we’ll have a little fun teaching them.”

LoLo trades Star of David for Lone Star baseball

The Laredo Broncos of the Texas-Louisiana United League Baseball have signed Israel Baseball League veteran Johnny Lopez for the 2008 season. Big "Johnny Lo-Lo," the first- and third baseman from the Bet Shemesh Blue Sox, came highly recommended by his former manager Ron Blomberg as well as the failed IBL's Director of Baseball Operations (and former Red Sox GM) Dan Duquette.

The six-foot-three LoLo, a native Floridian who turns 27 next month, batted .370 with fourteen homers and 44 RBIs in Israel in the IBL's first and last season.

His signing to the Texan border town team in a league that's not affiliated with Major League Baseball or any minor leagues, was overshadowed by the announcement that the team had also grabbed Garry Templeton Jr., whose father, Garry Templeton Sr., played sixteen years with San Diego and the St. Louis Cardinals. Templeton Jr. was drafted by the Los Angeles Angels and spent three years in the Anaheim Angels farm system, and has played the last three years with the Fullerton Flyers of the Golden League-- managed by his dad.

Spring training begins on May 4th.

The one and only Justin Cardinal

We stumbled upon an eerie and amazing coincidence regarding Israel Baseball League veteran Justin Cardinal last week, after the former outfielder for the Bet Shemesh Blue Sox stood up publicly to the IBL’s elusive executives after a series of bounced paychecks.

A cursory Google search revealed there were two Justin Cardinals, both ballplayers from Canada, both born in 1982-- "was," because one of them, a pitcher, had his career and life cut short in a tragic highway accident in 2002.

Much had been written about the late Justin Cardinal. Of the one who turned 26 on Thursday, not so much, leading some of our more imaginative followers to suggest that one may have taken the name and credentials of the other (just like you see in the movies).

We got in touch with the IBL’s Justin Cardinal and he filled us in:

What an eerie coincidence! I understand you're from Ottawa; the other Justin was from Alberta. Have other people brought up the coincidence before?

No one I know ever talked to me about it except those that I brought it up with once I found out about it randomly some day a couple of years ago.

What's your story?

I was born here in Ottawa, Ontario Canada.

I went to Sir Wilfrid Laurier S.S., but they didn't have a baseball team.

Before the IBL, I played men's league here in town for a few years after coming out of AAA midget ball when I was 18-19.

This AAA team was really the highest quality of ball I had ever played in, and it took me on many different trips to cities as far as 13 hour drives (West Virginia). This coach was really the only one to ever take a chance on me. That year, in 111 plate appearances, I hit .370 with an on-base average of .550 and four home runs. It was by far the season I'm most proud of, mainly because I was basically on a team of all-stars, and was still top five in those offensive categories.

The reason I know I did so well that season was because of how many games I ended up playing in. Every single year, I start off poorly, but once mid-July comes, or a lot of at-bats early, I really start to go on fire.

Last year though, I’m glad to say I was on the championship team. I'm also pretty upset because of my lack of playing time. I don't blame them for thinking I couldn't hit; they just didn't realize what I could do with enough opportunities.

If you ask some of the guys like Gregg Raymundo, Sean Slaughter, Alan Gardner or Johnny Lopez I bet they'll praise what I did in batting practice towards the end of the season. (Manager Ron) Blomberg won't, though He gave up on me right before I started crushing the balls.

For me, it really sucks, because here in Canada, we can go eight months between baseball games, so ya, I just end up forgetting what I have to do to hit line drives. Right now is a great example: last week in my league after about 32 at-bats I was hitting .180, but in my last two games I've hit five-for-eight with two doubles and four RBIs.

Does that sound like a typical .180 hitter???

The two seasons before I went to Israel, my batting averages were .455 in 2006, and .470 in 2005. Bottom line is I get so much better as the season moves on.

Fortunately for me this year, I'll have an opportunity to play for my University in my first year, so this will be the real test of how I can do after having a substantial amount of games during the summer time.

How'd you get to the IBL?

Martin Berger found my baseball profile online, I think, and sent me an e-mail to come for tryouts in Miami.

I took a thousand dollars out of my own pocket to do it, and on January 1, 2007 I got a contract by way of e-mail.

At the time, it was the greatest day of my life. It was what I worked my whole life for.

Are you playing now or are you hoping to hook up with another league?

I wish I could play in a league where I got to play every day, all-year-round, but right now I'm with my men's league again, which just clinched first place with four games to go-- and then hopefully university ball.

Our Man Elli: Israel Baseball League is running out of time, doesn't have the money, and may not have its momentum-keeping mini-season after all!

The new and improved Israel Baseball League is what? Eighteen days away from the first pitch of its four-team, 20-game, three-week, momentum-keeping mini-season, and everyone's still standing around with their fingers up their creamcheese-filled bagels wondering what's going on.

We praised player-turned "in-coming president" Dan Rootenberg for actually speaking with Our Man Elli in Israel, and for putting his reputation on the line when he promised that checks are in the mail to some players still owed money from last year. Today, despite our advice, the IBL site still hasn't taken the "in-coming" off his title and some checks that were supposedly in the mail a week ago have still not landed in mailboxes.

Behind the scenes, we're hearing the machers behind IBL Mach 2 are talking about delaying the mini-season by a week. But again, nobody's talking and all the anonymous commenters who were quick to say we were wrong in being the first to report there won't be any professional baseball in Israel this summer may have been, as they are in bed, premature.

But who knows? Time to wake up Our Man Elli.

Tabloid Baby: So?

Our Man Elli In Israel: Yes and good morning-- is it morning?-- to you. There's a a lot going on. Lots of news. Hard to keep up.

So?

You wanna play that way? Fine. First off: Gezer has been promised again that the money was wired to their account, but as of yesterday – Tuesday – no money has arrived. Which means that as of now, the IBL can’t play on their field.

What’s the problem?

Money. Duh.

We thought the IBL was paying off all debts from last year.

Yes. That’s what they're trying to do. And they're racing the clock to do it. Because if they don’t get the money soon, it's pretty much over. I don’t know about any drop-dead date yet, but c'mon! The season is supposed to start two weeks from Sunday. This can’t go on for much longer.

But what about David Solomont? Isn't he the moneyman who’s paying the tab?

I never said, and you guys never reported, that he was picking up the debts. We all said he was fronting a little money to make some payoffs needed to get the league off the ground or licensed by the IAB. And that he could be raising the bulk of the money from other investors.

So?

So it looks like Solomont hasn't been willing yet to put in much of his own money.

He's not stupid, you're saying.

He's definitely not stupid. And because of that it's looking less and less likely that the IBL will be able to conduct a season this year. I've heard that Solomont or Larry Baras retained an investment banking firm in Boston named Baker and Company to help raise money for the IBL. That probably means that the bulk of the money they need isn't committed.

They're soliciting.

Yeah. The important point is whether they're giving investors full disclosure of the IBL's history of the IBL and the risks of investing in it.

Okay. Hold on a minute. You mentioned Baras. Larry Baras. I thought he wasn't involved. Remember the AP reported--

I have it here. Last line of the story says that Baras, quote, “is not expected to be involved in day to day operations.”

So it depends on how you define "involved.”

My sources say that both Solomont and Baras would be involved in ownership, with Baras as a minority partner. They say Baras would continue to own part of the league, but he wouldn't be an executive, if Solomont can move things forward.

So we’re back where we started.

You were expecting maybe something new and improved?

"Sources tell me
that no team uniforms
have been purchased."

What about the players?

The same sources tell me that some players won’t be paid, at least not for a while. There’s a hierarchy on payment:

The ones coming over here to play will get paid first.

Americans owed money will be paid second.

Other foreigners, third.

And players who intend on playing this summer have to make their way to New York-- and only then will their airfare to Israel be paid. And they better bring uniforms. My sources tell me that players have been told that no team uniforms have been purchased.

Sounds like there's no money to buy them.

The IBL is scrambling. They need cash, and they don’t have enough of it.

"I've sent Rootenberg
a list of 20 questions.
I'm awaiting his response."

What about Rootenberg? Hero or puppet?

So far, neither. He’s certainly trying his hardest to do the right thing, but it’s still not clear that he'll be allowed to do it. Indications are they the new, and still, “in-coming” president, is not being fully informed. Sources tell me that Rootenberg recommended that "small creditors"-- like players and field workers-- be paid in full, especially the ones who'd be needed for a second season.

I don't know if this has happened or will happen. It could be that creditors are being offered much less than what they're owed. And it's not clear whether they'll have enough money to do even that.

In any case, I'm also hearing that Solomont and Berger are in charge of settling the IBL's debts, and that Rootenberg has little say. All he can do is recommend.

I've sent Rootenberg a list of 20 questions. I'm awaiting his response.

Any news about the IBL itself?

Well, their website hasn’t been updated since they made their dramatic announcement on June 19th. And that means ticket sales page is still listing Ra’anana Express and Tel Aviv Lightning as teams. And its very first sublink, a description of the IBL, still lists the original six teams (Bet Shemesh Blue Sox, Modi’in Miracle, Netanya Tigers, Petach Tikva Pioneers, Ra'anana Express and Tel Aviv Lightning) and still states that “among the managers of the IBL’s teams are former Major League stars Art Shamsky, Ken Holtzman, and Ron Blomberg," which must be a bit of a shock to Ken.

So now the good news.

Good news? I've got lots of it. The All-Star game next Tuesday at Yankee Stadium features three Jewish players. Well, one full and two half-Jews. We have Kevin Youkilis, the Red Sox first baseman who'll start for the American League. The two half-Jews are Ryan Braun, the sensational outfielder for the Milwaukee Brewers-- he'll be starting for the National League, and Ian Kinsler, the Texas Rangers second baseman who made the American League team as a reserve. Both Braun and Kinsler have Jewish fathers. Braun’s dad is Israeli.

I mean good news about baseball in Israel.

Of course. The European Championship Qualifiers are going on right now. There are five tournament locations,featuring national teams vying for a spot at next year’s championship tournament between national baseball teams. It happens in Europe every other year in odd-numbered years. And it’s on this week through Saturday. Israel plays in Karlovac, Croatia. And incidentally, they're one-and-two in the tournament, but still have a chance to qualify for the finals. In one of the losses, the team lost an 8-0 lead.

And as I do the IBL, I wish the Israeli team much success.

As do all of us. But what about--
Gotta go.

Click. Brrrr...