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.)