Bloggers beat and embarrass "mainstream media" on coverage of Israel baseball's juicy scandals

Baseball in Israel, one learned journo wag in Jerusalem tells us today, is "a failure, was only followed by Anglos living here with Israelis across the board having no idea it was even happening at all-- which of course, was one of the big failures-- was not important on any scale; and was just diversionary entertainment for a few hundred American Jews." But when it comes to that failed experiment, we must say that it is the "bloggers"-- led by us and Our Man Elli in Israel in particular-- who continue to wipe home plate with the so-called mainstream media-- in Jerusalem, in Tel Aviv, in New York, in Miami and in Boston-- when it comes to coverage of an issue that's more important and a bigger, grander and more scandalous story than their lack of attention would bely.

The latest with his ear to the mound is Moshe Mandel (right), "a 23 year old Yankees fan from Long Island who currently resides in Jerusalem with my wife Elizabeth.

"I am a Yankees season ticket holder, and I look forward to blogging about the Bombers as they chase championship #27 in 2008."

Moshe blogs on The Bronx Block on the MVN (Most Valuable Network) Internet and podcast site, "an independent sports media company relying on the volunteered time of people to “blog,” or write on the internet, about their favorite sports team or any derivation thereof."

And though he answers questions about his favorite team in his Bronx Block Mailbag, today, he addresses life on Elli's turf:

Do you get much coverage of baseball/American topics in Israel? Is there a league over there that you follow and is it similar to the minor leagues here?

The coverage of American sports here is pretty decent. If you have a television (I do not), you may be able to catch Sportscenter, and ESPN International carries the entire MLB postseason. Of course, due to the Internet, I can catch all the games on MLB.tv, although they do occur in middle of the night. There is an Israeli baseball league that opened last year. However, the league is struggling financially, and has not caught on among native Israelis, who stick to soccer and basketball. The Yankees actually recently signed two players from the league, outfielder Jason Rees and catcher Eladia Rodriguez.

It's "Eladio," but close enough. This kind of word-of-mouth and blog-to-blog coverage, from Jerusalem to Los Angeles to New York to Dublin, is how stories like this take hold and get deeper.