What do Iron Maiden and retired Jewish baseball players have in common?

February 13, 2007 - 9:50 AM by

… and the celebrities keep dropping in on our shores. News item today include the following odd pairings.

Players on the Glasgow Rangers soccer team were surprised to find that the pilot on their chartered flight Monday to Israel to play Hapoel Tel Aviv in the UEFA Cup was none other than heavy metal frontman for Iron Maiden, Bruce Dickinson, the Glasgow Daily Record reported. Dickinson is now a fully-qualified pilot with charter firm Astraeus. An airline spokesman said: “When Bruce heard we had the Rangers charter, he was very keen to do the flight.” Dickinson, 48, was first officer on the Boeing 757 which flew the team to Tel Aviv.

bruce dickinson

Dickinson, who became a commercial pilot in the 1990s as a sideline to his musical career, has also been in Israel before in a more familiar position – I remember going deaf in a standing room only Jerusalem warehouse in the early 90s as Dickinson led Maiden through their greatest hits.

Talking about hits, the other ‘celebs coming to Israel’ siting comes from AP. Former Jewish major leaguers Ken Holtzman, Ron Blomberg and Art Shamsky were hired Monday as managers for the first season of the Israel Baseball League.

Ken Holtzman

The league, which opens on June 24th, will feature six teams which will play 45 games over eight weeks, (with of course no games Friday nights or Saturday afternoons – you gotta love Israel).

Holtzman went 174-150 and is the winningest Jewish pitcher in major league history. Blomberg was the first designated hitter in the major leagues and Shamsky played for the 1969 New York Mets World Series championship team.

No word yet on whether Sandy Koufax is going to helm one of the other teams.

Tags: • Category: General, Pop Culture, Sports 

Comments

3 Comments on What do Iron Maiden and retired Jewish baseball players have in common?

  1. general nomo on Wed, Feb 14th 2007 2:47 AM

    2. Very very exciting news.

    In regard to derby, you have to speed up the games for Israelis somehow. 7 innings is enough for them. I am sure it is only if there is a tie.

    This is really for real. Can’t wait for this— this summer.

  2. Roi Ben-Yehuda on Tue, Mar 18th 2008 4:54 PM

    3. Actually, when Iron Maiden came to Israel it was without Bruce. At the time, their singer was called Blaze Bailey. He sucked. Bruce came back after a two album leave, and the metal world is back in order. It is, nevertheless, cool that he piloted the plane to ISrael.

  3. Kaleigh on Sat, Oct 18th 2008 6:04 PM

    4. OMG!!!!!!!!! i luv (i abousltly mean the luv part) Bruce!!!!! I went 2 ur concert and it was almost better then anything in my whole life!!!!!!! although it would be much better to meet bruce in person! i would aboulutly be stunned 4 life! it would be sooooo amazing if bruce emailed me and talked into a camera and then emailed it to me! im going to be hoping 4 him to email me omg!!!!!!!!! i luv u soooooooooo much

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