Alan Gardner sounds off on IBL show fest

Israel Baseball League veteran and elder statesman Alan Gardner, a New York City attorney and one of the prime movers in the rival Israel Professional Baseball League that never quite got off the ground, comments on our interview with fellow vet and player activist Justin Cardinal, and slams the IBL's elusive executives on the eve of its five-day show festival featuring a handful of IBL “All-Stars” versus a pickup team of Israeli nationals:

“Justin definitely did start leaning on the ball as the season progressed. Just ask my forehead. And in addition to spraying line drives about during bp, he also dropped one or two over the fence at the Geez.

“Was a tough outfield to crack, what with Rees, Slaughter and Lyons out there. Not a soul can argue with the prowess of those guys, defensively, at the plate and on the base paths. Would have been nice if he could have got a bit of late inning PT when games were already decided or the more occasional start. But hey, guess that's just baseball.

“What really sucks is that this solid, generally unassuming, soft-spoken young man dropped a G out of his own pocket to get to the Miami tryouts, made it, went to Israel and has now been stiffed out of $1,500 plus whatever fees his bank has charged him for the bad checks and any checks he may have written on his account thinking the checks were good. I wonder how much the IBL spent for a round trip ticket for the ‘festival.’ A good rate these days is about... $1,500.

“And how many other guys that have been stiffed could have been paid out of funds used for this sad excuse for a professional baseball tournament?

“Or maybe they're doing the travel the good old IBL way... buying the tix on credit and then stiffing the travel agency, too.

“Or did everyone forget that last summer's travel agent threatened to pull all of our return trip tickets because the IBL owed them LOTS of money? That's right, apparently if Baras had not been lucky enough to persuade at least one of the investors to loan him something like $40G to make the travel agent happy, we all might still be in Israel working off the IBL debt at the Kfar Hayarok and getting our meals at the gas station...

“Most importantly, good luck to our mate Justin in Ottawa. I think he's going to have a stellar career at the university level.”

"This is going to be the Dominican Republic of the Middle East... Our players are going over to put on a show!"

--IBL's new "in-coming president" Solomont

The one and only Justin Cardinal

We stumbled upon an eerie and amazing coincidence regarding Israel Baseball League veteran Justin Cardinal last week, after the former outfielder for the Bet Shemesh Blue Sox stood up publicly to the IBL’s elusive executives after a series of bounced paychecks.

A cursory Google search revealed there were two Justin Cardinals, both ballplayers from Canada, both born in 1982-- "was," because one of them, a pitcher, had his career and life cut short in a tragic highway accident in 2002.

Much had been written about the late Justin Cardinal. Of the one who turned 26 on Thursday, not so much, leading some of our more imaginative followers to suggest that one may have taken the name and credentials of the other (just like you see in the movies).

We got in touch with the IBL’s Justin Cardinal and he filled us in:

What an eerie coincidence! I understand you're from Ottawa; the other Justin was from Alberta. Have other people brought up the coincidence before?

No one I know ever talked to me about it except those that I brought it up with once I found out about it randomly some day a couple of years ago.

What's your story?

I was born here in Ottawa, Ontario Canada.

I went to Sir Wilfrid Laurier S.S., but they didn't have a baseball team.

Before the IBL, I played men's league here in town for a few years after coming out of AAA midget ball when I was 18-19.

This AAA team was really the highest quality of ball I had ever played in, and it took me on many different trips to cities as far as 13 hour drives (West Virginia). This coach was really the only one to ever take a chance on me. That year, in 111 plate appearances, I hit .370 with an on-base average of .550 and four home runs. It was by far the season I'm most proud of, mainly because I was basically on a team of all-stars, and was still top five in those offensive categories.

The reason I know I did so well that season was because of how many games I ended up playing in. Every single year, I start off poorly, but once mid-July comes, or a lot of at-bats early, I really start to go on fire.

Last year though, I’m glad to say I was on the championship team. I'm also pretty upset because of my lack of playing time. I don't blame them for thinking I couldn't hit; they just didn't realize what I could do with enough opportunities.

If you ask some of the guys like Gregg Raymundo, Sean Slaughter, Alan Gardner or Johnny Lopez I bet they'll praise what I did in batting practice towards the end of the season. (Manager Ron) Blomberg won't, though He gave up on me right before I started crushing the balls.

For me, it really sucks, because here in Canada, we can go eight months between baseball games, so ya, I just end up forgetting what I have to do to hit line drives. Right now is a great example: last week in my league after about 32 at-bats I was hitting .180, but in my last two games I've hit five-for-eight with two doubles and four RBIs.

Does that sound like a typical .180 hitter???

The two seasons before I went to Israel, my batting averages were .455 in 2006, and .470 in 2005. Bottom line is I get so much better as the season moves on.

Fortunately for me this year, I'll have an opportunity to play for my University in my first year, so this will be the real test of how I can do after having a substantial amount of games during the summer time.

How'd you get to the IBL?

Martin Berger found my baseball profile online, I think, and sent me an e-mail to come for tryouts in Miami.

I took a thousand dollars out of my own pocket to do it, and on January 1, 2007 I got a contract by way of e-mail.

At the time, it was the greatest day of my life. It was what I worked my whole life for.

Are you playing now or are you hoping to hook up with another league?

I wish I could play in a league where I got to play every day, all-year-round, but right now I'm with my men's league again, which just clinched first place with four games to go-- and then hopefully university ball.

The two Justin Cardinals

Consider this: A baseball player with an unusual name, born in 1982 and hailing from a region outside the United States and far from the spotlight, playing baseball in an equally obscure league.

Then suddenly, an unexpected occurrence leads to fame.

For Justin Cardinal, it was a journey to Israel to play in the very unlikely Israel Baseball League.

For Justin Cardinal, it was untimely death in a car wreck.

Yes, there were two Justin Cardinals.

One is Justin Cardinal, the veteran of the Bet Shemesh Blue Sox who made international headlines this weekend as he stood up to the new management of the IBL after his paltry paycheck for the 2007 season bounced one too many times.

The other was a semi-pro baseball pitcher named Justin Cardinal, killed on September 28, 2002, one week after he signed a contract to play for the Calgary Dawgs.

Justin Cardinal would have been 26 years old this year.

That’s the same age as Justin Cardinal, outfielder for the Bet Shemesh Blue Sox, who turns 26 on Thursday.

This Justin hails from Ottawa, Canada.

His favorite game is poker.

One of his favorite movies is The Matrix, a film describing a future in which describes a future in which reality perceived by humans is actually the Matrix, a simulated reality created by sentient machines.

Justin the pitcher was a star with the junior division of the Calgary Dawgs club of the Western Major Baseball League in Alberta, Canada, when he apparently fell asleep at the wheel after visiting his girlfriend. Known as the “gentle giant,” he’d also earned a scholarship to play at Mesa Community College in Arizona.

Our Man Elli in Israel got in touch with the IBL's Justin about the incredible coincidence.

Justin wrote back:

“I did hear about that other Justin Cardinal that died, and ya it's a pretty freaky coincidence how much we have in common.”

The IBL's Justin Cardinal (far right)