'Batterup!' Feature Length Film on Baseball in Israel

Entertaining: sweet, no mideast politics - just all about the boys (and girls) of summer in the US and Israel... worth watching. Batterup!

Source: http://www.hulu.com

Video description: A diverse group of players and executives attempt to create the first professional baseball league in the Middle East.

Full disclosure: my son played extensively in Israel Little League (where he usually swatted them out of the park - but hey - it's just his abba talkin'...)

After the film, check out my news site. Comments welcome.

Tackle Football Wallops Israel

Quick hands are followed by the chase as number 67 goes in for a tackle.
(Ariel Jerozolimski)

Colleague Sam Ser over at The Jerusalem Post has the local "gridiron" details:

As kickoffs go, the opening play of last Friday's game between Big Blue and the Pioneers was unexceptional - the only indication of any greater significance being that it ended, in what was undoubtedly a first for an American tackle football league, with a Levi tackling a Levy.

Israel Football League logo

Minutes into the Israel Football League's inaugural game on an unseasonably warm November afternoon at Jerusalem's Kraft Stadium, one of the more than 200 mostly American immigrants in attendance soaked in the sound of shoulder pads crunching against churning thighs as if listening to a long-lost rock'n'roll album he had just rediscovered at the back of his closet. "Wow," he said, turning to his friend and nodding with satisfaction, "it really brings you back to high school, doesn't it?"

But how do they say, "Hail Mary Play" in the language of the Prophets, and does, "throwing the bomb," rattle the receiver?

Read the rest here, and find out more about the Israel Football League here.

Earlier posts about baseball in the Holyland are here.

Israeli-American baseball bitchfest

Bradley Burston over at Haaretz - whose iconiclastic take on things I usually like and respect gets all deep-y and socio-psychological-ish about - best be sitting down for this one, kids - baseball in Israel:

"Dual loyalty, baseball, and the Israeli psyche

"For the immigrant, the majority culture is inevitably despotic."

And his windy opining gets much more tendentious - let's just make that "dopey," on a slow news day, apparently - from there... But the talkbacks at the bottom of the page? Each one a gem of logic, passion and reason, I tell 'ya. /sarc tag off

More about "kadur basis" here (and may God help us with translating this game for the local announcers...).

Here's an AP video about the first-ever game of the Israel Baseball League (be patient with the ad first):

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Batter up! Israel swings into 1st-ever pro baseball season (UPDATED)

"Holy Land hardball: it only took 5,767 years"

From Ynet News:

The Israel Baseball League is to double the seating capacity of the Yarkon Field on Sunday night to accommodate the expected 2,000 spectators for the league's Opening Night.

“Ticket requests have been awesome,” said IBL’s business operations director Bob Ruxin in a press release. “Israeli communities, youth teams and companies are organizing group outings, droves of North Americans have scheduled visit to Israel to coincide with the Opener, and we even have a fan coming in from India just to catch the first game,” Ruxin continued.

ESPN notes that Israel has drafted legend Sandy Koufax:

Forty-one years after he retired from baseball, Hall of Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax was the final player chosen in the draft to stock the six teams for the inaugural season of the Israel Baseball League.
Koufax, 71, was picked by the Modi'in Miracle in the draft conducted by former major league general manager Dan Duquette, who heads baseball operations for the league.

Former US ambassador to Israel, Daniel Kurtzer, the future commissioner of the country’s first baseball league agrees, saying that “Israel is ready for a third major sport”. More Israel B-ball stats and background here.

...and this just in: proof positive that baseball is clearly referred to numerous times in the Bible (Hey - it even starts off, "In the Big Inning").

Israel Baseball League

WNET New York will air the inaugural game, on Sunday, July 1st.

And closer to home -- umm, depending where you're standing -- American Jewish Life editor Benyamin Cohen just sent me this:

To say Eric Holtz is a baseball fanatic is like saying Michaelangelo could paint. That's why the 41-year-old father of three id leaving his successful clothing manufacturing business in upstate New York this summer to join the first-ever Israeli baseball league and live out his lifelong dream on a baseball diamond in the Holy Land.