Delta-Sky Magazine
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Home - Search and Recent Back Issues - Feedback Reader Reward - The Source - Delta Air Lines - Advertising STYLE + VALUE READER REWARD British walkers Win SkyMiles! LONG WEEKEND PERFORMANCE Gimme a break Jon Heder on ice SPAHOUND PIE IN THE SKY Moonlight massage in Sumptuous summer fare Vermont GREEN SCENE LE SHOPPING The business of recycling Mission: Milan EVIDENCE OF THE STAR BOOKS CULTURE Comedy’s king “In the big inning . .” ON BUSINESS QUESTS Biz travel essentials Is Cowgirl U for you? MODE : ROAD WHAT THE DOCTOR Packing for a pub exec ORDERED Listen up! POSTCARDS Boston’s Fenway Park STAR PAGES T'S GAME TIME on the diamond. A capacity crowd’s on hand, decked out in caps and T-shirts accented with “Would you believe? . .” LEARNING CURVES bright-colored team logos. Youngsters are waving the mini bats handed them as they came through the gates. Colorado Trail Crew WANDA LUST’S Pungent aromas drift through the air from the barbecue pits beyond the outfield rim. On the mound, the TRAVEL OPS pitcher completes his warm-up, as the leadoff batter strides toward the plate. The umpire positions himself Up the river with Wanda behind the catcher, then issues that familiar cry— “Sachek kadur!” Come again? Pronounced “sa-KHEK ka-DOOR,” the two words mean “play ball”—in Hebrew. In this instance, the field of dreams isn’t Wrigley Field, Fenway Park or Turner Field, but one of a trio of ballparks: one near Jerusalem, one in downtown Tel Aviv and the newest in Petach Tikva, a town about seven miles east of Tel Aviv. For the first time ever, professional baseball is a reality in the Middle East. If all goes as scheduled at press time, the inaugural pitch of the first season of the Israel Baseball League (IBL) was hurled on the evening of June 24, at Petach Tikva’s Yarkon Sport Complex, the country’s leading baseball setting. It was the opening session of a 45-game season (per team) running through August 17—with an All-Star game July 29 and the championship game August 19. The six teams sharing the ballparks comprise a total of 120 players—a mix of onetime college athletes, veterans of amateur leagues, a few pros from countries such as Canada, Australia, Japan and Dominican Republic—who were selected in the course of a series of tryouts in the United States, Israel and the Dominican Republic over the past year. This intriguing experiment brings together the feel of an American minor league family outing with a few genuine American diamond heroes and nationwide outreach. Cementing it all is the hope that the game will take root in the ancient soil, drawing crowds from beyond the initial fan base—the hundreds of thousands of Americans who have settled, or are spending their summer, in Israel. The necessary enthusiasm, organizers maintain, is there, and expanding. IBL Commissioner Daniel Kurtzer, former U.S. envoy to Israel and Egypt, and a die-hard baseball fan, recalls traveling recently to give a speech on the Middle East: “No matter where I went, everybody knew I was the former ambassador, but the only thing they wanted to talk about was baseball. Some people laughed about it: ‘You think you’re going to make baseball here?’ But as they say, all publicity is good publicity. So I’ll even take the cynicism!” There’s a hoary joke to the effect that baseball is as old as the Bible, as evidenced by the Holy Book’s opening words, “In the big inning. .” Actually, the record shows that on July 4, exactly 80 years ago, the governess of an orphanage in Jerusalem handed out baseballs to her charges, only to see them drop the balls on the ground and begin kicking them. As an organized sport, baseball (along with softball) has had a prominent presence in the country since the mid-1980s, with several thousand Israelis participating in regional and community leagues or in clinics. Two years ago, Larry Baras, a Boston businessman, first imagined that a professional version of his beloved game could take a credible place beside Israel’s most popular sports: soccer and basketball. “I was looking for a project to undertake for Israel,” he recalls, “but none of the usual avenues hit home. One evening, I went to a minor league game and saw families—grandparents, parents, teens, little kids—all attending together, having a grand and wholesomely entertaining time. That was my epiphany: that what Israel could probably use more than anything else was sheer, unadulterated fun.” As the IBL’s managing director, Baras soon called on a number of baseball executives and professionals for assistance and support. Dan Duquette, the former Montreal Expos and Red Sox general manager who excels in player development, Bronx is Burning was brought on board as director of baseball operations. In time, the six-team league took shape, its framework based on Watch the ESPN a series of well-publicized tryouts to attract decent athletes, the modification of a few rules (games are seven rather than Original Series nine innings), outreach to disadvantaged youth and an emphasis on a family-friendly experience. Next Tuesday at The results are in full view this summer on the three different fields of play: one in the heart of a Baptist settlement, 10:00pm ET on another in an urban park in Tel Aviv that includes a miniature golf course and climbing wall, and a third near Jerusalem ESPN! with an unobstructed view, across green farmland, of the hill on which King Solomon’s summer palace once stood. www.bronxisburning.com Besides mini-bat or bobblehead giveaways, obstacle races and “human bowling” between innings, simultaneous promotions at all three parks feature free admission nights for mustachioed fans; a “play hooky from work” day game with disguises provided; and nights featuring Beatles, disco and karaoke music. There are offers of free weddings at home plate on July 30 and speed dating night for singles on August 6. Premium (US$10) seat patrons will enjoy complimentary Baseball Tryouts waiter service, haircuts and massages (reportedly not all at once). Results and info on Ranging in age from 17 to 55, the players for the Petach Tikva Pioneers (and the five other squads) reflect a variety of pro baseball Learn races, religions and nationalities. more about For a number who’ve played ball on the college level or professionally on other teams around the world, the IBL Baseball Tryouts affords them visibility and perhaps even the possibility of being scouted, thanks to the publicity surrounding the new www.ProfessionalBaseball.ws league. Australian players and athletes from Central America are flipping seasons and fine-tuning their skills, playing summer ball with the IBL. Among the managers of the six teams are a few household names—former major leaguers Ken Holtzman, Art Shamsky and Ron Cheap Tickets to Israel Blomberg, none of whom had ever been to Israel before—plus veteran Fly to Israel, college coach Steve Hertz, who had an extensive minor league career and a Europe, Middle brief stay in the majors. East Consolidators Holtzman, the left-handed pitching ace who threw two no-hitters bargain fares, tours during his years with the Chicago Cubs, played in three consecutive World www.TurkishPortal.com Series with the Oakland Athletics (1972–74). He says he joined the venture “to try to start something from scratch. “I have five rings,” he says. “I don’t have to prove anything. Yes, I’m a manager, and the object of the game is to win, but I’m going . to be a College teacher, in clinics and workshops for the kids and coaches who are going to Showcase Camp be involved in developing the program.” Top Schools & Ivy For Shamsky, a onetime major league outfielder, it’s a nearly League Coaches four-decade stretch from his World Series ring as a “Miracle Met” in 1969 H.S. Baseball to managing the Modi’in Miracle today. He’ll tell you that working with the Player Showcase playheadfirst.com players and reaching out to youngsters in clinics thrills him, but it’s the terrain that’s awe-inspiring: “To be right where the Maccabees united, where King Solomon’s palace stood, is incredible.” Holtzman, his fellow managers and the players who are taking the field for seven-inning contests have had to adjust to the IBL’s rules of play. For one thing, to speed the pace of games, there is only limited use of designated hitters. And if there is a tie at the end of the seven innings, final results are determined by a home-run-hitting contest. The positive impact of the season—and the presence of the athletes—is expected to be considerable. As the Jewish National Fund creates new playing fields and refurbishes older ones (once used by an amateur league) throughout the country, the IBL will sponsor an academy for children and for experienced players, as well. Confronting social issues, the IBL will provide summer jobs and sports clinics for Ethiopian-Jewish teenagers whose families are living below the poverty line. And team members will fan out into a number of communities as part of “the 1.000 Club,” with a goal of donating 1,000 bats and an equal number of baseballs and gloves to underprivileged youth. During this fledgling period, there are goals and there are dreams. One goal is Israel’s selection as one of the 16 teams in the next World Baseball Classic in 2009. It would be the first squad ever from the Middle East and Africa.