Israel Baseball League - Misplaced Pages

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The Israel Baseball League (IBL) is a new professional baseball league in Israel. The first game is scheduled to be played on June 24, 2007.

Players

Players will be Jewish or non-Jewish, native Israelis and others. Those already selected are current and former U.S. minor leaguers, professional baseball players from other countries, and starting college players.

The first pick in the draft was infielder Aaron Levin, 21, from San Luis Obispo, California, who played for Cuesta College. He was selected by Modi'in.

The IBL has drafted players from nine nations and signed players from eight countries, including the Dominican Republic, Australia, Venezuela, and the United States. About a dozen of the 120 players will be Israeli.

The League has held tryouts in Massachusetts, Miami, Israel, and The Dominican Republic. Upcoming tryouts will be in Los Angeles on April 15, 2007 at Calabasas High School, and will be overseen by Dan Duquette.

It is expected that the quality of play will be that of Class A ball in the U.S.

One example of a player for the IBL is former Midwood High School and Binghamton University baseball player Dan Rootenberg, a 4-year standout and 1994 graduate of Binghamton. He was the first player signed by the IBL. A prolific left-handed hitting outfielder, Rootenberg played at Binghamton from 1990-1994. During his senior season, he led the team in nearly every major offensive category, including a .407 batting average, garnering both All-SUNYAC and All-State honors. Rootenberg has played professionally for the Chillicothe Paints of the independent Frontier League (whom he signed with in 1994), and has coached and played in Europe in the Swiss professional league. He played for four years as an outfielder and first baseman for the Pleasantville Red Sox, and in 2006 he batted .351 for the Fordham Red Sox of the Westchester Rockland Wood Bat League.

Another projected standout in the league is right-handed pitcher Leon Feingold. Also among the group of four players first signed, Feingold pitched in the Cleveland Indians system from 1994-1995, and was signed by the independent Atlantic League in 1999. A graduate of State University of New York at Albany, Feingold has also pitched with the Pleasantville Red Sox as a teammate of Rootenberg's, and in 2006 recorded an ERA of 1.03 in limited action.

Finally, 41 years after he retired from baseball, Hall of Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax was the final 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.

Teams

Six IBL teams are set so far -- the Netanya Tigers, Tel Aviv Lightning, Bet Shemesh Blue Sox, and Modi'in Miracle, Ra'anana Express, and Petach Tikva Pioneers.

The teams will play games at three ball parks. The Yarkon Sports Complex, seating 1,5000, in the Baptist Village in Petach Tikva, just outside of Tel Aviv, will be home to the Ra’anana Express and the Petach Tikva Pioneers. Gezer Field, about 25 minutes from Jerusalem, approximately halfway between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, sits on a Kibbutz Gezer, in one of Israel’s wine districts. It will be 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, will be shared by the Tel Aviv Lightning and the Netanya Tigers.

Managers

Among the first managers of the IBL will be three of the best-known Jewish former major leaguers: Ken Holtzman of Petach Tikva, a sister city of Chicago (whose 174 career victories are the most in the major leagues by a Jewish pitcher), Art Shamsky of Modi’in (who hit .300 for the '69 World Champion New York Mets), and Ron Blomberg of Bet Shemesh (a former New York Yankee, and the first DH in the major leagues). Other managers will include Steve Hertz of Tel Aviv and Australian Shaun Smith of Netanya. A sixth manager, for Ra’anana, is still to be named.

Management

The Commissioner of the league is Dan Kurtzer, former U.S. Ambassador to Israel and Egypt.

The league's Director of Baseball Operations is Dan Duquette, former General Manager of the Boston Red Sox and Montreal Expos.

The League is the brainchild of Larry Baras, a businessman from Boston.

The league's Board of Advisors includes 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), 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).

Miscellaneous

MLB.com will carry coverage of Israel's games.

Tickets are $10 and $6 at all locations for regular season games.

Half the umpires will come from Israel, and the rest will be international umpires. There will be two umpires per game, with three on Sunday nights.

Games will be seven innings, with a home run hitting contest (a "home run derby") to decide a tie.

Games are expected to take approximately two hours to play.

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.

Israel has between 2,000 and 3,000 people regularly playing 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 professional baseball players (such as Brad Ausmus, Mike Lieberthal, Kevin Youkilis, Ian Kinsler, Ryan Braun, Shawn Green, Jason Marquis, Jason Hirsh, John Grabow, Scott Schoeneweis, and Scott Feldman, as well as recently retired Gabe Kapler) would be eligible for the team, making it highly competitive from the start.

External links

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