A former Jerusalem Post sports editor’s criticism of the paper’s late but wide-reaching story on the Israel Baseball League and its offshoot rival’s failure to bring professional baseball to Israel in 2008 has led to an angry response from Our Man Elli in Israel, and opened a can of worms that dates back to his original exposé, first published on this website on August 28th, 2007.
Jay L. Abramoff , a former sports editor for the Post and Haaretz who is now a League Coordinator for American Football in Israel, has written a column in response to the Post article and accompanying opinion column, claiming the paper has little right to criticize the IBL because it did not assign a paid reporter to cover the league. He also disputes the contention that the league was a failure and insists that the IBL management has no reason to reveal its finances.
The piece was emailed to Tabloid Baby after it was sent to many other editors and journalists, as was a harsh rebuttal by Our Man Elli (who also received the unsolicited email).
Why? There’s a history to this dispute. It’s a sidebar that makes the IBL saga even richer. So read on, settle in, and enter a feud that gets very personal, yet gets to the heart of the story of professional baseball in Israel. Because both sides agree that in this case, the mainstream journalistic watchdogs dropped the ball:
All talk and no tachlis
By Jay L. Abramoff
This past week, The Jerusalem Post reported on the likelihood that the Israel Baseball League will not be back in 2008, and the current Sports Editor at the Post, Jeremy Last, in a separate piece, commented that it "was no big surprise considering the embarrassment of difficulties it faced" in its first season, the summer of 2007. Last concludes by recommending that the IBL model itself after the Israel Football League, the country's first tackle football league, which had also had its first season this past year.
Well, first and foremost, for anyone who actually went to the games, especially the hundreds if not thousands of children, Anglo or otherwise, the IBL was a huge success. Just ask them. Ask them how they went running after foul balls and home runs, and how they begged the players for their autographs. As far as I am concerned, this is the only indicator of whether the IBL management succeeded or not. While I myself enjoyed about 25 games, and will miss the IBL if it does not play this summer, I feel worse for these children.
Then again, The Jerusalem Post and Haaretz English Edition chose to publish game reports and other stories written by unpaid (and possibly unreimbursed) interns or the IBL itself, and then paid professional journalists, Wohlgelernter and Last, to write "color" and opinion pieces. Last summer, I was working for Haaretz, and on most nights I prepared the sports page, which meant that I worked closely with the IBL-- whose staff was itself mostly unpaid-- because while Haaretz wanted to cover the IBL on a next-morning basis, it did not pay anybody to provide those reports and/or photos. I actually was asked whether I would report on the 2007 championship game and make sure that the IBL sent in a photo the same night so it could be used in the next day's newspaper, but the newspaper was unwilling to pay me for the work. I have nothing against articles on politics, art, business, etc., but for sports, the local newspapers seem to think that the IBL and the local amateur scene can in essence cover themselves, and then reserve the right to publish harsh commentary.
Compared to the impressive international (mostly US) media coverage – a significant and overlooked achievement for the IBL - which, admittedly, focused on the novelty of an Israeli professional baseball league, and, as far as I can tell, did not follow up with reports of the alleged mismanagement, the local English newspapers focused and continue to focus their resources not on how the IBL provided and can provide a great "summer in the sun" for the Israeli fans and international players alike, but on the mistakes the IBL supposedly made - but which in any case were irrelevant to the true gauge of success of the league's first season.
I have my own list of things the IBL should do and its mistakes from my point of view, and I have mentioned these in conversations with IBL management, friends, softball teammates, and fellow fans.
Mr. Last, along with others, seem to think that the IBL promised a combination between Major League Baseball and the Israel soccer Premier League. Well, that is not what was promised and not what should have been expected.
The IBL, with support from MLB, was and is a semi-professional, developmental minor baseball league, of which there are many others around the world, and on top of that, a private "start-up" business, which does not have to release its financial results to the public. While I have not confirmed this, I am pretty sure that the Australian and Italian semi-pro baseball leagues, for example, do not average thousands of fans per game, which is what I am sure the IBL would like and what the critics expected for some unknown reason, but is simply unrealistic.
Finally and most embarrassing for Mr. Last, the IBL cannot use the amateur Israel Football League as a model for itself; the Israel Association of Baseball's senior league is the IFL-equivalent.
As I wrote for Haaretz last year - in a piece that I was not commissioned (meaning, paid) to write but did so in order to fill up the Anglo File Sports page the first week of the IBL season - the possibility of going out to the baseball (or softball) field to support a local team has existed here for a long time. And, while I appreciated the semi-professional level of play in the IBL, I also make it a point to bring a cooler of beer out to my softball games, stay afterwards to watch youth games and simply enjoy the atmosphere at the field on Kibbutz Gezer.
Elli Wohlgelernter responds in an email to Abramoff, Tabloid Baby, the editors of Haaretz and the sports department of The Jerusalem Post:
By Jay L. Abramoff
This past week, The Jerusalem Post reported on the likelihood that the Israel Baseball League will not be back in 2008, and the current Sports Editor at the Post, Jeremy Last, in a separate piece, commented that it "was no big surprise considering the embarrassment of difficulties it faced" in its first season, the summer of 2007. Last concludes by recommending that the IBL model itself after the Israel Football League, the country's first tackle football league, which had also had its first season this past year.
Well, first and foremost, for anyone who actually went to the games, especially the hundreds if not thousands of children, Anglo or otherwise, the IBL was a huge success. Just ask them. Ask them how they went running after foul balls and home runs, and how they begged the players for their autographs. As far as I am concerned, this is the only indicator of whether the IBL management succeeded or not. While I myself enjoyed about 25 games, and will miss the IBL if it does not play this summer, I feel worse for these children.
Then again, The Jerusalem Post and Haaretz English Edition chose to publish game reports and other stories written by unpaid (and possibly unreimbursed) interns or the IBL itself, and then paid professional journalists, Wohlgelernter and Last, to write "color" and opinion pieces. Last summer, I was working for Haaretz, and on most nights I prepared the sports page, which meant that I worked closely with the IBL-- whose staff was itself mostly unpaid-- because while Haaretz wanted to cover the IBL on a next-morning basis, it did not pay anybody to provide those reports and/or photos. I actually was asked whether I would report on the 2007 championship game and make sure that the IBL sent in a photo the same night so it could be used in the next day's newspaper, but the newspaper was unwilling to pay me for the work. I have nothing against articles on politics, art, business, etc., but for sports, the local newspapers seem to think that the IBL and the local amateur scene can in essence cover themselves, and then reserve the right to publish harsh commentary.Compared to the impressive international (mostly US) media coverage – a significant and overlooked achievement for the IBL - which, admittedly, focused on the novelty of an Israeli professional baseball league, and, as far as I can tell, did not follow up with reports of the alleged mismanagement, the local English newspapers focused and continue to focus their resources not on how the IBL provided and can provide a great "summer in the sun" for the Israeli fans and international players alike, but on the mistakes the IBL supposedly made - but which in any case were irrelevant to the true gauge of success of the league's first season.
I have my own list of things the IBL should do and its mistakes from my point of view, and I have mentioned these in conversations with IBL management, friends, softball teammates, and fellow fans.
Mr. Last, along with others, seem to think that the IBL promised a combination between Major League Baseball and the Israel soccer Premier League. Well, that is not what was promised and not what should have been expected.
The IBL, with support from MLB, was and is a semi-professional, developmental minor baseball league, of which there are many others around the world, and on top of that, a private "start-up" business, which does not have to release its financial results to the public. While I have not confirmed this, I am pretty sure that the Australian and Italian semi-pro baseball leagues, for example, do not average thousands of fans per game, which is what I am sure the IBL would like and what the critics expected for some unknown reason, but is simply unrealistic.
Finally and most embarrassing for Mr. Last, the IBL cannot use the amateur Israel Football League as a model for itself; the Israel Association of Baseball's senior league is the IFL-equivalent.
As I wrote for Haaretz last year - in a piece that I was not commissioned (meaning, paid) to write but did so in order to fill up the Anglo File Sports page the first week of the IBL season - the possibility of going out to the baseball (or softball) field to support a local team has existed here for a long time. And, while I appreciated the semi-professional level of play in the IBL, I also make it a point to bring a cooler of beer out to my softball games, stay afterwards to watch youth games and simply enjoy the atmosphere at the field on Kibbutz Gezer.
Elli Wohlgelernter responds in an email to Abramoff, Tabloid Baby, the editors of Haaretz and the sports department of The Jerusalem Post:
1) The Jerusalem Post did not first report last Friday "on the likelihood that the Israel Baseball League will not be back in 2008."
I reported it definitively on April 14; the Post took credit for an alleged "exclusive," which was then removed from the web site after it was pointed out to editor-in-chief David Horovitz that it was hardly an exclusive.
2) Ironic that Last should report about the league's failure in the story of last Friday-- "considering the embarrassment of difficulties it faced"-- when the Post to date has not reported any details of the difficulties themselves.
3) The column by Last contained not a single original thought or sentence that hasn't already been written many, many times.
4) "As far as I am concerned, this is the only indicator of whether the IBL management succeeded or not." That's as far as you're concerned, but it wouldn't be as far as the player who was almost killed because of league negligence, nor as concerns those who were not paid, including the players themselves, the league staff, vendors, umpires, the fields, and a television station that broadcast the games.
5) "…and then paid professional journalists, Wohlgelernter and Last, to write ‘color’ and opinion pieces."
a) My first name is Elli, I don’t go by simply a last name.
b) I never wrote a color or opinion piece, ever, on the Israel Baseball League
6) "…and, as far as I can tell, did not follow up with reports of the alleged mismanagement." The Jewish newspapers that ran my story after the season WERE following up with reports of mismanagement. And not “alleged,” I might add.
7) "The IBL, with support from MLB, was and is a semi-professional, developmental minor baseball league.” Incorrect. The IBL was a professional league, the same as any other Single-A league in the U.S. and other such leagues in the world
8) "… a private ‘start-up’ business, which does not have to release its financial results to the public…” Perhaps, but that will be determined when the current lawsuit by Blacher is heard in court. But certainly after huge debts have not been paid across the board, and after huge amounts of money was collected from investors, it is the business of journalists to ask why, and how much, not to whitewash the potential criminal behavior of Larry Baras. that is an embarrassment.
Why is Elli so outraged over Abramoff? As we said, there’s history here. Stay tuned here to see where Jay Abramoff figures into Our Man Elli's groundbreaking, historic coverage of the IBL.. and why he has Our Man so angry. The Israel baseball soap opera will continue...
I reported it definitively on April 14; the Post took credit for an alleged "exclusive," which was then removed from the web site after it was pointed out to editor-in-chief David Horovitz that it was hardly an exclusive.
2) Ironic that Last should report about the league's failure in the story of last Friday-- "considering the embarrassment of difficulties it faced"-- when the Post to date has not reported any details of the difficulties themselves.
3) The column by Last contained not a single original thought or sentence that hasn't already been written many, many times.
4) "As far as I am concerned, this is the only indicator of whether the IBL management succeeded or not." That's as far as you're concerned, but it wouldn't be as far as the player who was almost killed because of league negligence, nor as concerns those who were not paid, including the players themselves, the league staff, vendors, umpires, the fields, and a television station that broadcast the games.
5) "…and then paid professional journalists, Wohlgelernter and Last, to write ‘color’ and opinion pieces."
a) My first name is Elli, I don’t go by simply a last name.
b) I never wrote a color or opinion piece, ever, on the Israel Baseball League
6) "…and, as far as I can tell, did not follow up with reports of the alleged mismanagement." The Jewish newspapers that ran my story after the season WERE following up with reports of mismanagement. And not “alleged,” I might add.
7) "The IBL, with support from MLB, was and is a semi-professional, developmental minor baseball league.” Incorrect. The IBL was a professional league, the same as any other Single-A league in the U.S. and other such leagues in the world
8) "… a private ‘start-up’ business, which does not have to release its financial results to the public…” Perhaps, but that will be determined when the current lawsuit by Blacher is heard in court. But certainly after huge debts have not been paid across the board, and after huge amounts of money was collected from investors, it is the business of journalists to ask why, and how much, not to whitewash the potential criminal behavior of Larry Baras. that is an embarrassment.
So let me get this straight:
ReplyDeleteElli thinks the IBL is irrelevent yet he continues to perform auto-fellatio on himself for being the only media person to cover the story. Dude get a paying job somewhere and leave the IBL alone. Oh and Elli see you in Gezer this summer buddy - I'll be wearing a Blue Sox cap, with a burger and a cold one in my hands and a smile on my face.
Speaking of a Burger:
ReplyDeleteHey Martin......I guess you'll be sitting at Gezer by yourself this Summer! Don't worry the lights are so bad, no one will see you and you can probably sneak in a nap!