Pro-Baseball in Be’er Sheva?

September 3, 2006 - 4:57 PM by

baseball

The folks behind Israelity have also brought attention to an exciting development in the world of Israeli sports: the creation of a pro-baseball league. Doubtless, many American immigrants here are drooling.

Today’s audition in the heart of the Berkshire Mountains has less to do with Zionism than the search for employment. The campers have hauled out their sweats and dusted off their dreams in hopes of playing a kid’s game in a region that’s too often rated NC-17 for violence.

All the ballplayers here have seen the images on CNN and Fox, of age-old hostilities festering to the surface and cross-border reprisals giving way to tenuous cease-fires. It’s a near-constant loop of suffering and despair. But several profess not to be concerned.

“I would say 95 percent of the country is totally safe,” says Jacob Schulder, a camper from New Jersey who recently visited Israel for the 20th time. “There are places in the Bronx you can’t go and there are places in Israel you can’t go. That’s the way life is.”

Baseball’s quest to globalize has helped the sport make inroads in several new frontiers. When Jim Lefebvre is preaching the gospel in China, Lee Smith is teaching curveball grips to young pitchers in South Africa and Stubby Clapp and the Canadians are beating the tar out of the United States in the World Baseball Classic, the baseball landscape clearly is changing.

So why not Israel, a nation with a fondness for pizza, bowling, malls, reality TV, McDonald’s, Home Depot and Blockbuster Video? Statistics show that Israel has the highest percentage of home computers per capita in the world, the highest ratio of university degrees and the second highest per capita output of new books each year. Shouldn’t a society this enlightened embrace the most cerebral sport of all?

Related article here.

Israel Baseball League website here.

Hat tip: Dave Bender.

Tags: • Category: General, Immigrant Moments, Life 

Comments

2 Comments on Pro-Baseball in Be’er Sheva?

  1. Dena on Mon, Sep 4th 2006 2:41 PM

    2. iSRAEL DOES EMBRACE THE MOST INTELLIGENT SPORT OF ALL -
    IT’S CALLED SOCCER!

  2. koopi on Mon, Sep 11th 2006 5:01 PM

    3. It s wromg for Israel to attach itself to a sport within which it cannot build any traction ( soccer) . Israelis wll figure out that baseball is the best sport to go along wtih its pizza hamburgers, cell phones and quality of life that is American.
    More baseball fields=entertaining professional baseball games=fan interest, Fan interest does not develop spontaneously. Those in israel who have had a taste for Baseball are very very psyched. To people who love baseball there is a sense of deprivation in Israel! CHeers to it not being for much longer!

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