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."