c. 2006 Religion News Service
HINSDALE, Mass. _ Israeli customs officers are used to searching odd-shaped packages, and Richard Grayson’s baggage certainly qualified.
“What are these for?” the officer asked, staring at 14 dozen shiny, new baseballs Grayson was carrying.
With a straight face, Grayson told him: “To play baseball, of course.”
The officer laughed.
“Come on,” he said. “Nobody plays baseball in Israel.”
Grayson, 58, with a bristly white mustache, recounts the story from a baseball field in western Massachusetts. He and a few dozen other hopefuls have come to this postcard-perfect spot in the Berkshires to do something unique _ help start a professional baseball league in Israel.
The Israel Baseball League will consist of six teams of 20 players, playing a 48-game schedule in several to-be-determined cities. Opening Day is set for June 22, 2007.
Like the rather mature Grayson, most of the players gathered here are long shots to actually make a team. Some have clearly never played above the college level, if that, while others are well past their physical prime.
Of the 60-odd players who tried out, close to 80 percent were Jewish. Many wore yarmulkes under their baseball caps.
American Jews have been baseball lovers from the game’s earliest days, when immigrants from Eastern Europe assimilated into American culture by following their local teams.
Only two Jews are enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame: Hank Greenberg and Sandy Koufax. And there are few Jewish players in the majors now. (The legendary House of David teams that barnstormed for decades in the last century, often mistakenly remembered as Jewish because their long beards were taken as Hasidic, actually represented a Christian sect.)
But with the historical connection between U.S. Jewish culture and baseball in mind, organizers of the Israel Baseball League hope America’s pastime will flourish in a part of the world better known for violence and religious conflict than for “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.”
There is, already, a small but devoted baseball following in Israel, with 2,000 players on amateur league teams that also represent Israel in international tournaments. The IBL also is working with the Israel Softball Association to help field a women’s softball team to compete for Israel in the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.
Grayson has worked with the Israel Association of Baseball _ a nonprofit organization that works to develop and promote the sport in Israel _ organizing barnstorming tours to the country for amateur players. He has seen the passion for the game in Israel and believes the league will be successful.
“It’s people who love baseball and love Israel,” he says, gesturing to his blue jersey with “Israel” written across the chest in white script.
The IBL has a formidable list of backers _ ranging from a former U.S. ambassador to Israel to a former general manager of two major league teams. Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig has endorsed the idea as well.
The league will be funded by individual investors, some corporate sponsorship and the sales of merchandise and tickets, which will be available before the season. The initial salary cap for each of the six teams is $40,000, which when pro-rated for the fewer games in Israel is on par with player salaries in some U.S. independent minor leagues, which lack affiliations with major league teams. There will also be a monetary bonus for the championship team. The league will pay for transportation to Israel and accommodations for all foreign players.
Currently the league owns all the teams, but the goal is to have individual or joint franchise ownership.
“We have the right people, we have the resources, we have a lot of enthusiasm,” says Dan Duquette, former general manager of the Boston Red Sox and Montreal Expos, and now the IBL’s director of player development. “Right now we’re making progress toward all those goals.”
Duquette, who hosted the recent tryouts at his Duquette Sports Academy here, was brought aboard by Larry Baras, a Boston specialty bakery owner and avid baseball fan.
Baras, tanned from a recent trip to Israel, has an easy smile and a disarming sense of humor. He says the league has become a “consuming passion” for him. He first came up with the idea in July 2005, when he was looking to undertake some kind of project to help Israel. While watching a minor league game in the U.S., he had a vision of transplanting the spirit and community involvement of baseball to the Middle East.
Since then Baras has been an everyday, one-man advocate for the league, doing everything from public relations to traveling to Israel to scout locations for the teams. A Web site has been created, israelbaseballleague.com.
“It’s not true that if you build it, they will come,” Baras says with a wry smile. “You’ve got to market the hell out of it.”
The commissioner is Daniel Kurtzer, the former U.S. ambassador to Israel who now teaches Middle East policy studies at Princeton. Sports economist and author Andrew Zimbalist and Marvin Goldklang, a part owner of the Yankees, are on the board of directors.
Baras has faced skepticism at every turn, but his enthusiasm for the project has turned doubters into believers, says Zimbalist, who admits he was wary of the idea at first.
“He’s a mover and a shaker,” Zimbalist says. “The interest and enthusiasm Baras has been able to generate augurs very well.”
Baras says the league is planning to hold additional tryouts in the U.S. in coming months and will hold another round in Israel in December.
“We had interest from all players from all walks of life,” he says. “Minor leaguers, four-year college starters, orthodox Jews who haven’t picked up a glove in years, women.”
(Lisa Kennelly writes for The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J.)
KRE/PH END KENNELLY
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