The End of Israeli Baseball?

It’s a sad day. Actually, it was a sad day several weeks ago when Haim Katz, president of the Israel Association of Baseball, told The Jerusalem Post that the Israel Baseball League has been cancelled for 2008 and its future is in jeopardy. I just learned about this recently through Walk Off Walk.

Anyway, there seems to be a disconnect between the Israel Baseball League and its website. The IBL website still has a countdown to opening day featuring a rematch of last year’s championship game between the Modi'in Miracle and the Bet Shemesh Blue Sox on June 29, 2008. I hope that they are not still selling tickets! (Update: When I originally drafted this post, the countdown was active; it is not anymore.)

I was actually very excited about the league and briefly wrote about it last year. Although it was essentially another minor league, the fact that it started from scratch and included players from all over the world was unique. It seems that the league was more than just a gimmick based on the fact that last season’s co-MVP, Eladio Rodriguez, was playing at the New York Yankees’ AAA team in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, although it now appears that he’s back at AA Trenton.

As a side note, I also just learned that there was a movie made about the league called "Holy Land Hardball." The film debuts at the Silverdocs AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival on Thursday in Silver Spring (unfortunately, the screening takes place at 4:00pm; there’s a second screening Sunday, June 22 at 10:15am.) You can also read more about the making of the movie though Express’ interview with the filmmakers. Of course, you may want to disregard this portion of the interview (that disconnect thing again):

» EXPRESS: I saw on the Israeli league site that it looks like they will try a second season after all. Are you surprised able to get it going again and do you think it will be long-term success?

» KESTEN: That's a very hard question to answer. We're not privy to everything going on from business sense of the league. It's not easy. Stripping baseball away, it's a start-up business that's taking place 3,000 miles away from everyone's home base. They weren't expecting to take the country by storm; they knew it would be a long process getting Israelis interested.

» RAPKIN: We know they can get players over there from all over the world. The quality of the league went far beyond what Larry originally envisioned. Originally, you would have found a lot of players you saw in the first tryout who were mostly American Jewish kids who would love to spend summer in Israel and had some reasonable baseball skills. When Dan Duquette got involved, it became very much about finding the best players who they could convince to play for $2,000 in Israel for the summer. Having fields to play on is the real challenge. It's about raising money.

Finally, I found a great blog dedicated to Baseball in Israel.

Update 6/19: Possibly inspired by reading Sean's Ramblings, the Israeli Baseball League decided that the season must go on. But it's not a done deal yet.

Brand New Links

The Steelers have a 17-page rider for their hotel stays (from The Smoking Gun courtesy of the Post-Gazette’s Blog ‘N’ Gold). I have a few observations:
- For meeting space, the offense requires a 100 person theater style seating room with widely spaced chairs. Meanwhile, the defense requires a 50 person theater style seating space with widely spaced chairs. Why does the offense need double the amount of seats?
- Two omelet chefs for the pre-game meal. I love omelet stations!
- Each table must include Heinz Ketchup. Personally, I completely agree with this. Who likes Hunts over Heinz?
- The night of arrival “snack” includes pizza, hamburgers, chicken wings, linguini, ice cream (vanilla, chocolate and sherbet – what if someone wanted Mint Chocolate Chip?) and cookies. A nice light snack before bed.
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When I wrote my Israeli baseball preview last month, I mentioned a recent graduate of Haverford College named Ben Field. Well, the Director of Communications of Haverford contacted me to inform everyone that Field is now blogging about his experience. Interesting stuff.
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My favorite fantasy celebrity league website, Fafarazzi.com, has a “Rock of Love” fantasy game based on the VH1 dating show starring Bret Michaels of Poison. From the site, “The Rock of Love fantasy game lets you pick your favorite trainwrecks girls from the show to your ROL team -- then your team scores points when they do crazy stuff during the episode.” My personal favorite is Lacey, although I can’t see her winning on the show because she is, how can I say this, a little bit crazy. My guess is Mia or Madgalena will be Bret's pick. (Yes, I have a problem and it’s called VH1 TV shows.)
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Speaking of fantasy leagues, a Ph.D. candidate at Kent State University is doing a study about playing fantasy sports and why people play fantasy sports. I haven’t completed the questionnaire, but I’m all for helping a completely worthwhile project, assuming it doesn't take time away from my fantasy football league draft preparation. (Courtesy of Deadspin.)

Israel Baseball League

Looking for something to pass the time while heading into the weekend? If so, I recommend checking out the Israel Baseball League’s website. I am fascinated by the league and its players. For example, Bet Shemesh Blue Sox catcher Lukas Brenowitz is pursuing a Masters Degree in Middle Eastern Strategic Studies and Arabic at Tel Aviv University. I think this may be the same degree that John Kruk earned.

Representing Virginia Beach and the University of Virginia, outfielder Sean Slaugher’s favorite movies are Godfather II and Grandma’s Boy. That seems like an unlikely double-feature.

Tel Aviv Lightning pitcher Daniel Kaufman is “a crafty pitcher from Georgia, played baseball at Emory University with fellow IBL'ers, Aaron Rosdal and Bryan Langbord...helped the Eagles reach the post-season twice in 2004 and 2006...the team was ranked #1 in the country in 2006...looks forward to playing in Israel and meeting a nice Jewish girl to bring home to mom.” This bio is close to that of Tampa Bay Devil Rays’ outfielder Elijah Dukes.

Outfielder Ben Field, with that last name, he couldn’t be a pitcher, graduated from Haverford College.

Plus, Ra'anana Express’ Mike Hochman has a journal which includes the following statement, “This just in: Domincans are good.”

In case you were interested, the Bet Shemesh Blue Sox are dominating the league with a 9-0 record led by Jason Rees (5) and Johnny Lopez (4), who are leading the league in home runs. Oh, if you were wondering if I am scouting this league for potential fantasy baseball players for next season, you would be correct!