Add another Israel Baseball League standout to the list of IBL athletes who won’t be coming back for another season of Holyland hardball.Josh Zumbrun, pitcher last season with the Ra’anana Express, is among eight players signed for spring training with the Chico Outlaws of the independent, unaffiliated California Golden League.
"Zum" is 26 and living in Playa Vista, California. He pitched for the U.S. Air Force Academy from 2000 to 2003, and at 26 has a Masters Degree in Business Administration and is working on his Ph.D.
Zum's also got a MySpace page on which he writes about his experience with the IBL:
“I opted to leave the Air Force in 2006 to play in the in the Israel Baseball League’s inaugural 2007 season – hands down the best summer of my life. Everything about the experience left me overwhelmed with gratitude.”
I'm not sure what you mean by "player exodus." There is no IBL in 2008, for one thing; second, every player in the IBL, if given a chance to play somewhere else, would have taken that deal, as anywhere is a step up from IBL-level of competition. Only those that don't catch on with another league - 99%, no matter what would happen - would play in Israel again. Everyone else would want to move up - but are not that good to be able to do so.
ReplyDeleteYou seem to be implying that the stampede is on because they realize they won't play because there won;t be a league.
No connection.
They move on because they move on, and a handful - at most - will sign with another single-A league. If there IS baseball in Israel in 2008, a few will decide to come back. The rest, no doubt, have, like Billy Crystal, moved on.
Josh is a good nice guy but not the best player! He was 2-4 with a 6.08 ERA.
ReplyDeleteThe Rubenstein family wishes Josh the best of luck as he challenges himself again to succeed. The IBL sure did give many players a start in pursuing their dream of getting paid to play baseball. We want to be carefull not to give the league too much credit here but they sure deserve some. Josh is a fine young man who showed the best personal qualities that baseball represents. It was our experience that almost all the players in the league were those kind of special people.
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