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| The '''Israel Baseball League (IBL)''' (]: ליגת הבייסבול הישראלית) is a new professional ] league in ]. The first game was played on ], ]. |
The '''Israel Baseball League (IBL)''' (]: ליגת הבייסבול הישראלית) is a new professional ] league in ]. The first game was played on ], ]. | ||
| ==Teams== | ==Teams== | ||
| Line 50: | Line 50: | ||
| ] | ] | ||
| The League is the brainchild of Larry Baras, a businessman from ]. | |||
| ⚫ | |||
| ⚫ | Martin Berger, President and Chief Operating Officer, is a ] trial attorney. The league's Director of Baseball Operations is ], former General Manager of the ] and ]. Berger and Duquette were involved in selecting the inaugural season players. Bob Ruxin is Director of Business Operations; Ruxin has served as vice president of a sports products and management business. Leon Klarfeld is Director of Israeli Operations; he is a resident of ], and has been involved in Israeli Baseball for over 20 years, was the president of the Israel Association of Baseball (IAB) between 1994 and 2002, and is a certified umpire for the ]. Jeremy Baras is the Director of Game (fan) Experience. | ||
| ⚫ | The league's Board of Advisors |
||
| ⚫ | The Commissioner in 2007 was ], former ] to Israel and ]. The league's Board of Advisors in 2007 included, among others: Professor ] (baseball economist), ] (Major League Baseball Commissioner), ] (former ] owner), ] (minority owner of the ], and principal owner of four minor league teams), Randy Levine (President of the Yankees), Marshall Glickman (former president of the ] ], and former president of a minor league baseball team), and ] (former ] ] director). | ||
| On ], ], an article by ], published on the ] website, highlighted what it held to be the foibles and missteps of the first season. | |||
| On ], ], Kurtzer and nine advisory board members (including Zimbalist, Goldklang, Levine, and Appel) resigned. They commended Baras for having the vision to bring pro baseball to Israel, but expressed dismay "that the league's finances and business operations were not handled in a more professional manner and, in particular, that the league was unwilling to provide relevant financial information concerning its operating results." | |||
| ==Miscellaneous== | ==Miscellaneous== | ||
Revision as of 20:30, 18 November 2007
Current season, competition or edition: 2007 Israel Baseball League season | |
 | |
| Sport | Baseball |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2007 |
| No. of teams | 6 |
| Country |  Israel |
| Most recent champion(s) | Bet Shemesh Blue Sox |
| Official website | IsraelBaseballLeague.com |
The Israel Baseball League (IBL) (Hebrew: ליגת הבייסבול הישראלית) is a new professional baseball league in Israel. The first game was played on June 24, 2007.
Teams
The six league teams are the Tel Aviv Lightning, Netanya Tigers, Bet Shemesh Blue Sox, Petach Tikva Pioneers, Modi'in Miracle, and Ra'anana Express.
The teams play games at three ball parks. The Yarkon Sports Complex, seating 15,000, in the Baptist Village in Petach Tikva, just outside of Tel Aviv, is home to the Ra’anana Express and the Petach Tikva Pioneers. Gezer Field, about 25 minutes from Jerusalem, approximately halfway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, sits on Kibbutz Gezer, in one of Israel’s wine districts. It is home to the Bet Shemesh Blue Sox and the Modi’in Miracle. And Sportek Baseball Field, in the southern end of Tel Aviv’s largest outdoor public park, a 10-minute walk from seaside Tel Aviv hotels, is shared by the Tel Aviv Lightning and the Netanya Tigers. A fourth field is under construction in Bet Shemesh and is expected to be ready for the 2008 season. The field will be the home field for the Blue Sox.
2007 season
The league has an eight-week, 45-game season. Bet Shemesh (29-12; .707), led by hitters Gregg Raymundo and Jason Rees, had the best regular season record in the league, and finished with a 2.5 game lead over Tel Aviv (26-14; .650), led by pitchers Aaron Pribble and Daniel Kaufman.
August 19th in Petach Tikva, Ron Blomberg’s Bet Shemesh Blue Sox shut out Art Shamsky’s Modi’in Miracle 3-0 in the IBL’s inaugural championship game. Californian RHP Rafael Bergstrom (7-2, 2.44) pitched a complete game shutout for Bet Shemesh, downing Dominican RHP Maximo Nelson (5-3, 3.55 ERA) who pitched for Modi’in.
Players
The IBL has 120 players from nine countries: the United States (77 from 19 states), the Dominican Republic (16), Israel (15), Canada (9), Australia (7), Colombia, Japan, New Zealand, and Ukraine. The league hopes to be made up of at least 25% Israelis by its fifth year. About 40% of the league is Jewish.
The League held tryouts in Los Angeles, Massachusetts, Miami, Israel, and The Dominican Republic. Those selected were current and former U.S. minor leaguers, professional baseball players from other countries, and starting college players. The quality of play is similar to low Class A ball in the United States.
The first pick in the draft was infielder Aaron Levin, 21, who played for Cuesta College and was selected by Modi'in. The first player signed was former Midwood High School and Binghamton University left-handed hitting outfielder Dan Rootenberg. He hit .407 for Binghamton during his senior year, garnering All-SUNYAC and All-State honors, played in the Frontier League, the Swiss professional league, and for the Pleasantville Red Sox, and in 2006 batted .351 in the Westchester Rockland Wood Bat League. Right-handed 6' 5" pitcher Leon Feingold, among the players first signed, pitched for the State University of New York at Albany, and then in the Cleveland Indians system from 1994-95, was signed by the independent Atlantic League in 1999, and later pitched for the Pleasantville Red Sox.
41 years after he retired from baseball, Hall of Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax was the last player chosen in the draft. Koufax, 71, was picked by the Modi'in Miracle. "His selection is a tribute to the esteem with which he is held by everyone associated with this league," said Art Shamsky, who will manage the Miracle. "It's been 41 years between starts for him. If he's rested and ready to take the mound again, we want him on our team." He'll be working on 14,875 days rest, as has been pointed out. Koufax wouldn't pitch Game 1 of the 1965 World Series for Los Angeles, so that he could observe the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur. In his career with the Dodgers he threw four no-hitters, including one perfect game.
2007 season
Hitting. Catcher and former Boston Red Sox minor leaguer Eladio Rodriguez of Modi'in was the league batting champion (.461) and had 16 home runs in 102 at bats, and 23-year-old Australian right fielder Jason Rees led the league with 17 home runs and 50 RBIs in 130 at bats. Rodriguez and Rees were both subsequently signed in October to minor league deals by the New York Yankees. Third baseman Gregg Raymundo, who hit .292 in 7 minor league seasons and played for the Texas Rangers' and Pittsburgh Pirates' AAA teams, was a close second in batting with a .459 batting average.
Pitching. One of the leading pitchers was Juan Feliciano of Bet Shemesh, who had pitched for the 2005-06 Hiroshima Carp in Japan. He was 7-1, with a 1.97 ERA, and in 50.1 innings gave up only 28 hits while striking out 73. 6' 5" lefthander Aaron Pribble of Tel Aviv was 7-2, with a league-leading 1.94 ERA. Rafael Bergstrom was 7-2, with a 2.44 ERA. Daniel Kaufman, who pitched for Emory University, held opposing batters to a .170 batting average. And 6' 6" Maximo Nelson from San Pedro de Macoris, in the Dominican Republic, led the league with 85 strikeouts; he pitched for the Gulf Coast Yankees in 2004 (posting a 6-5 record, with a 2.63 ERA).
Awards. The Hank Greenberg Award for Most Valuable Player was shared by Eladio Rodriguez and Raymundo. The Commissioner's Award for Sportsmanship and Character went to Pribble and infielder Brendan Rubenstein (Ra'anana Express). The Commissioner's Award for Distinguished Service was awarded to shortstop Eric Holtz of Bet Shemesh, a player-coach who also filled in as player-manager. The award for best pitcher went to Feliciano, and the Most Valuable Israeli Player was pitcher Dan Rothem of Tel Aviv. Leon Feingold of the Netanya Tigers was named Player Of The Year in a league-wide vote of the players.
Managers
Among the first managers of the IBL were three of the best-known Jewish former major leaguers: Ron Blomberg manages league champion Bet Shemesh (he is a former New York Yankee, and the first DH in the major leagues), Art Shamsky manages Modi’in (he hit .300 for the '69 World Champion New York Mets), and Ken Holtzman managed Petach Tikva, a sister city of Chicago (his 174 career victories are the most in the major leagues by a Jewish pitcher), until he resigned a week before the season ended. In addition, Steve Hertz manages Tel Aviv, Shaun Smith, an Australian, manages Ra'anana, and Ami Baran, an Israeli originally from Chicago, manages Netanya.
Management
The League is the brainchild of Larry Baras, a businessman from Boston.
Martin Berger, President and Chief Operating Officer, is a Miami trial attorney. The league's Director of Baseball Operations is Dan Duquette, former General Manager of the Boston Red Sox and Montreal Expos. Berger and Duquette were involved in selecting the inaugural season players. Bob Ruxin is Director of Business Operations; Ruxin has served as vice president of a sports products and management business. Leon Klarfeld is Director of Israeli Operations; he is a resident of Even-Yehuda, and has been involved in Israeli Baseball for over 20 years, was the president of the Israel Association of Baseball (IAB) between 1994 and 2002, and is a certified umpire for the Confederation of European Baseball. Jeremy Baras is the Director of Game (fan) Experience.
The Commissioner in 2007 was Dan Kurtzer, former U.S. Ambassador to Israel and Egypt. The league's Board of Advisors in 2007 included, among others: Professor Andrew Zimbalist (baseball economist), Bud Selig (Major League Baseball Commissioner), Wendy Selig-Prieb (former Milwaukee Brewers owner), Marvin Goldklang (minority owner of the New York Yankees, and principal owner of four minor league teams), Randy Levine (President of the Yankees), Marshall Glickman (former president of the NBA Portland Trailblazers, and former president of a minor league baseball team), and Marty Appel (former NY Yankees public relations director).
On August 28, 2007, an article by Elli Wohlgelernter, published on the Tabloid Baby website, highlighted what it held to be the foibles and missteps of the first season.
On November 15, 2007, Kurtzer and nine advisory board members (including Zimbalist, Goldklang, Levine, and Appel) resigned. They commended Baras for having the vision to bring pro baseball to Israel, but expressed dismay "that the league's finances and business operations were not handled in a more professional manner and, in particular, that the league was unwilling to provide relevant financial information concerning its operating results."
Miscellaneous
- Award-winning Filmmakers Brett Rapkin and Erik Kesten produced "Holy Land Hardball," a documentary film on the events leading up to the IBL's first-ever pitch. www.holylandhardball.com
- PBS aired the opening game, which had attendance of 3,112, on a one-week delay (July 1, 2007), in Boston, New York, Chicago, Washington DC, Los Angeles, and Miami. MLB.com carries coverage of the league's games.
- Tickets are $10 and $6 at all locations for regular season games.
- While most of the umpires are international, some are Israeli. There are two umpires per game, with three on Sunday nights.
- Games are seven innings, with a home run hitting contest (a "home run derby") to decide a tie. Games take approximately two hours to play.
- Sometimes, the mix of nationalities leads to a veritable Tower of Babel. One on-field dispute included "an umpire who spoke primarily German and maybe some Hebrew, a pitcher who spoke little but Japanese and a Dominican infielder who spoke nothing but Spanish."
Baseball in Israel
Baseball was first played in Israel on July 4, 1927. The first field in Israel was built in Kibbutz Gezer in 1979, and Israel now has a first-class baseball field at the Yarkon Sports Complex in Petach Tikva. Israel sends National teams of various age groups to international baseball tournaments each year. Between 2,000 and 3,000 Israelis regularly play baseball in amateur league play. Baseball is growing at an accelerated pace, with much greater baseball identity associated with the country.
World Baseball Classic
Israel has applied to participate in the next World Baseball Classic. Jewish-American established major league baseball players (such as Brad Ausmus, Mike Lieberthal, Kevin Youkilis, Ian Kinsler, Ryan Braun, Shawn Green, David Newhan, Sam Fuld, Jason Marquis, Jason Hirsh, John Grabow, Scott Schoeneweis, Mike Koplove, and Scott Feldman) would be eligible for the team, making it highly competitive from the start. Also eligible would be recently retired Gabe Kapler who has indicated that he is planning to make a comeback in 2008, as well as players such as Adam Greenberg, Craig Breslow, Adam Stern, Brian Horwitz, Justin Wayne, Tony Cogan, Frank Charles, and Matt Ford, and retired players Andrew Lorraine and Brian Rose.
Footnotes
- Edelstein, Nathaniel (2006-12-26). ""Israel Baseball League locks in three ballfields for six teams"" (HTML). Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 2007-04-29.
{{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - "Batter-up"!, New Jersey Jewish Standard, 2007-04-27. Retrieved 2007-07-09.
- Wohlgelernter, Elle. "Israel baseball takes the field" Israel21c, 2007-06-27. Retrieved 2007-07-09
- "Former BU baseball player Rootenberg signs pro contract in Israel," Sports News Binghamton University, 2006-10-23. Retrived 2007-07-09.
- 2005 Binghamton Baseball Guide. (PDF). Retrieved 2007-09-07.
- "Baseball Report" (PDF). The WRWBL Intelligencer. Retrieved 2007-05-02.
- "Koufax Drafted By Israeli Baseball Team", CBS News, 2007-04-27. Retrieved 2007-07-09.
- Shaun Smith Profile, israelbaseballleague.com. Retrieved 2007-07-09.
- Ami Baran Profile, israelbaseballleague.com. Retrieved 2007-07-09.
- Berkman, Jacob. "Israel Baseball League starts in June", St. Louis Jewish Light. Retrieved 2007-07-09.
External links
- The Israel Baseball League
- Announcement of the Commissioner's and board members' resignations
- Elli Wohlgelernter's controversial report on the IBL's first season
- Israel Association of Baseball
- "Israel Baseball League: An Idea Who's (sic) Time Has Come"
- "The new ball game," interview with Dan Kurtzer, 3/13/07
- "Israel Baseball League starts in June," 4/11/07
- "St. Louisan plays big role in IBL," 4/11/07
- "The Dream Comes True: Israel Baseball Season Starts in 2 Weeks," 6/10/07
- Nate Silver, "L’Chayim to the IBL," BaseballProspectus.com, 7/2/07.
- "Hardball in the Holy Land," by Marty Appel, 7/11/07
- "Baseball, kosher-style," 8/17/07
- "Shalom, Y'all. Local Ump Spends Summer In Israel," 9/28/07
- Biblemetrics--Blog for Israel Baseball League Statistical Analysis
Template:Israel Baseball League
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