Israel national baseball team

Team Israel competed in the September 2012 Qualifier Round 1, in Jupiter, Florida, against Spain, France, and South Africa. Israel won easily in their first game. Israel then beat Spain in the winner's bracket. Spain then eliminated South Africa to earn a rematch with Israel, in the final game. Spain won the winner-take-all final game, 9–7 in 10 innings, to advance to the main tournament.

Team Israel wearing their kippot during Hatikvah before the game against Great Britain on September 22, 2016.

In September 2016, Team Israel competed in the 2017 Qualifier 4 round. Colorado Rockies coach Jerry Weinstein served as the manager.[10] Israel's roster included 20 MLB-affiliated minor leaguers, making up 86% of the team, more than any other team in the qualifiers even before including recent Major Leaguers.[11]

Israel won all three of their games in the qualifier, beating Great Britain twice and Brazil once.[12][13][14] With the win, Israel advanced to play in Pool A in South Korea in March 2017, against South Korea, Taiwan, and the Netherlands.[15]

Prior to the start of the 2017 tournament, ESPN considered Israel, ranked 41st in the world, to be the biggest underdog in the tournament, referring to them as the "Jamaican bobsled team of the WBC".[16][17] Israel began the round robin tournament with wins against world # 3 Korea and world # 4 Chinese Taipei,[18] and world # 9 Netherlands.[19] Team Israel's first round performance afforded it a spot in the second round, in Pool E in Japan, and ensured its participation in the 2021 World Baseball Classic tournament.[20] Ryan Lavarnway was named Pool A MVP.[21]

In the first game of the second round, Team Israel beat Team Cuba (world # 5) by a score of 4−1.[22] Israel lost the next two games, to the Netherlands and world # 1 Japan, and came in third in Pool E.

In 2018 a documentary was released entitled Heading Home: The Tale of Team Israel, which covered the experience of Team Israel at the 2017 World Baseball Classic.[23][24]

Team Israel won the 2019 European Baseball Championship - B-Pool in early July 2019 in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria, winning all five of its games. It thus advanced to the playoffs against Team Lithuania in the 2019 Playoff Series at the end of July 2019 for the last qualifying spot for the 2019 European Baseball Championship.[25] Israel won the best-of-three playoff series 2–0, and thereby qualified for the 2019 European Baseball Championship.

In preparation for possible qualification by Israel to play baseball at the 2020 Summer Olympics, 10 American baseball players made aliyah in 2018 in order to qualify under the citizenship requirement for the 2019 European Baseball Championships and the Olympics. The players were Corey Baker, Eric Brodkowitz, Gabe Cramer, Blake Gailen, Alex Katz, Jonathan de Marte, Jon Moscot, Joey Wagman, Zack Weiss, and Jeremy Wolf (who lives in Tel Aviv).[26][27][28] They were followed in 2019 by Jeremy Bleich, Ty Kelly, Nick Rickles, Danny Valencia, and Ben Wanger.[28][29]

In Round 1 of the 2019 European Baseball Championship, Israel went 4–1 (defeating world # 18 the Czech Republic, Sweden, Germany, and Great Britain while losing to the Netherlands). The team thereby advanced to the Championship's eight-team playoffs, with Mitch Glasser leading all Championship batters in runs with 7, and Blake Gailen tied with Germany's Marco Cardoso for the lead in hits, with 8.[30] In the Championship playoffs, Israel defeated Team France in the quarterfinals, lost to Team Italy in the semi-finals, and came in fourth.[31] In the Championship, Joey Wagman led all pitchers with a 0.00 ERA over 10.2 innings.[32][33]

Because Team Israel finished in the top five in the 2019 European Baseball Championship, it earned the right to participate in the 2020 Olympics qualifiers. That round robin tournament took place in Italy between September 18 and 22, 2019.[34][35] As the winner of that tournament it qualified to be one of the six national teams that will compete at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

The Israeli team started strong at the September 2019 Africa/Europe Qualifying Event, by defeating all three 2019 European Baseball Championship medalists - world # 8 Netherlands, world # 16 Italy, and Spain, before losing to the Czech Republic. In its final game, Israel beat South Africa 11–1 in a game that was stopped in the 7th inning due to the mercy rule. Team Israel won the tournament with a 4–1 record. It thereby qualified to be one of six national baseball teams that will compete in the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. First baseman/DH Danny Valencia batted .375 and led the tournament in runs (7), home runs (3), RBIs (9), walks (5), and slugging percentage (1.000), and starting pitcher Joey Wagman tied for the tournament lead with two wins, and led in complete games (1) and strikeouts (14) as he had an 0.56 ERA in 16 innings.[36]

Every member of the 24-member Team Israel that competed to qualify in the Olympics was Israeli, with four of the players native-born.[37] The others made aliyah to Israel, under Israel's Law of Return, which gives anyone with a Jewish parent or grandparent or who is married to a Jew the right to return to Israel and be granted Israeli citizenship.[37] Native-born Israeli team member Shlomo Lipetz observed:

"There is no other country like Israel that carries an identity as it does with Jews around the world. We’re not the only team here with citizens that don’t live in the country. There were other teams like Spain that had 22 Venezuelans and two Spaniards. But they didn’t have that connection. This wasn’t just a group of people, All-Stars who came together. It was people who all had a Bar Mitzvah. We were joking around that everyone will post their Bar Mitzvah photo."[37]

Team	W	L	Pct.	R	RA
Israel	4	1	.800	34	11
Netherlands	4	1	.800	26	15
Czech Republic	3	2	.600	27	17
Spain	2	3	.400	16	20
Italy	2	3	.400	23	26
South Africa	0	5	.000	8	46

European Juveniles Baseball Championship

European Junior Baseball Championship

2019 : Past rosters 2017 World Baseball Classic Israel roster - 2017 World Baseball Classic Players Coaches Pitchers 19 Dylan Axelrod 38 Corey Baker 27 Jeremy Bleich 54 Richard Bleier 32 Craig Breslow 41 Danny Burawa 39 Jake Fishman 33 Tyler Herron 35 Jake Kalish 25 Alex Katz  4 Kenny Koplove 17 Dean Kremer 26 Jared Lakind 21 Jason Marquis 44 Troy Neiman 16 R.C. Orlan 72 Ryan Sherriff 46 Zack Thornton  6 Joey Wagman 28 Josh Zeid Catchers  9 Nick Rickles 36 Ryan Lavarnway Infielders  5 Scott Burcham 14 Cody Decker 22 Tyler Krieger 45 Nate Freiman 29 Ike Davis 56 Ty Kelly Outfielders 18 Zach Borenstein 23 Sam Fuld  2 Blake Gailen  7 Mike Meyers Manager  1 Jerry Weinstein Coaches 20 Tom Gamboa (Bench coach) 30 Andrew Lorraine (Pitching coach)  3 Alon Leichman (Bullpen coach) 48 Pat Doyle (3B coach) 10 Nate Fish (1B coach) Tal Erel (Bullpen catcher) Justine Siegal (Mental skills coach) Ben Werthan (Advance scouting coordinator) International tournament results World Baseball Classic Main article: Israel at the World Baseball Classic  Israel World Baseball Classic Tournament Results Medal Tally Gold - Silver - Bronze - World Baseball Classic record Qualification record Year Round Position W L RS RA W L RS RA 2006 Did not enter No qualifiers held 2009 Did not enter No qualifiers held 2013 Did not qualify 2 1 18 14 2017 Round 2 6th 4 2 30 31 3 0 15 3 Total – – 4 2 30 31 5 1 33 17 European Baseball Championship Main article: Israel at the European Baseball Championship European Baseball Championship record Qualification record Year Host(s) Round Position W L RS RA Host W L RS RA 2010 Did not qualify Croatia 2 2 22 27 2012 Did not qualify Israel 3 2 39 16 2014 Did not enter Did not enter 2016 Did not qualify Slovenia, Austria 8 2 97 29 2019 TBD Serbia TBD See also Wikimedia Commons has media related to Israel national baseball team. Baseball in Israel Israel Baseball League References "Israel's baseball team moves up in world rankings". i24news. Archived from the original on 18 October 2014. Retrieved 14 October 2014. "The WBSC World Rankings 2016 -- WBSC". Retrieved 13 December 2016. "New WBSC World Rankings revealed following World Baseball Classic 2017" "IAB - Israel Association of Baseball - Team Israel Roster - European Championships 2019". Baseball.org.il. Retrieved 12 September 2019. "Kremer first Israeli to be picked in MLB draft". The Jerusalem Post. Heller, Aron. "Israeli baseball player selected in MLB draft for 1st time". The Washington Times. Associated Press. Retrieved 7 March 2017. "Dean Kremer Stats, Fantasy & News". Major League Baseball. "Dean Kremer College, Minor & Fall Leagues Statistics & History". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved 23 September 2019. "Senior National Team on their Way to Vienna - Israel Baseball - Official Site". Retrieved 31 July 2015. 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"Exclusive: Full Trailer for 'Heading Home: The Tale of Team Israel' Doc". firstshowing.net. Retrieved 5 September 2018. "Heading Home: The Tale of Team Israel". ajff.org. Retrieved 5 September 2018. "Meet the Senior National Team Coach: Eric Holtz," IAB - Israel Association of Baseball. "10 U.S.-Jewish Baseball Players to Get Dual Israeli Citizenship in Bid to Make 2020 Olympics". Haaretz. 11 October 2018. Retrieved 12 October 2018 – via Haaretz. "Ten Jewish-American baseball players to immigrate to Israel for Olympics". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 12 October 2018. "Israel's baseball team has a secret weapon – and it may get it into the Olympics," Haaretz. Israel Baseball on Twitter: "Mazaltov to new Olim Nick Rickles, Ty Kelly and Ben Wanger who will join #teamisrael at the European Championships in Germany next week #israelbas... "Statistiken der Baseball-EM 2019" Tournaments & Events Overview 2019 (4 August 2019). "Tournaments & Events Overview 2019 | CEB". Baseballeurope.com. Retrieved 23 September 2019. "EUROPEAN Championship A-Pool - Individual Statistics". Baseballstats.eu. Retrieved 22 September 2019. "EUROPEAN Championship A-Pool - Standings & Leaders". Baseballstats.eu. Retrieved 22 September 2019. Scott Barancik. "Retired, shmired," Jewish Baseball News. Scott Barancik. "MLB Monday (August 26-September 1, 2019)," Jewish Baseball News. "2019 Stats Leader Board", olympicbaseball.wbsc.org. Ken Rosenthal (23 September 2019). "Rosenthal: A stunning, tear-filled conclusion for Team Israel, with inspiration and history". The Athletic. Retrieved 25 September 2019. "European Championship Final Standing". baseballstats.eu.