Baseball / If you build it, will they come? - Haaretz

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Tue., August 28, 2007 Elul 14, 5767

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Last update - 10:01 22/08/2007

Baseball / If you build it, will they come?

By Yaniv Orgad

If the entire Israel Baseball League season completely passed by non-English speaking Israelis this summer without notice, they shouldn't feel bad. Though American spin doctors have woven wonders in election campaigns here, similar experts faced a tougher challenge in this case - introducing an unknown sport into the Israeli consciousness - and they failed. While some 3,000 people attended the opening ceremonies in Petah Tikva in late June, only half the number witnessed the championship game this week.

"The league's bosses, American Jews, are dedicated but complete amateurs," says a journalist who covered the IBL over the past two months. "I gave them free advice to bring in someone like [Maccabi Tel Aviv captain] Avi Nimni to throw out the first pitch for one of the games. They said 'Good,' but didn't do a thing," he recalls.

"Israelis just didn't come," admits southpaw pitcher Ari Alexenberg, whose potential Major League career was cut short by his Shabbat observance. "I played here in Yarkon Field for the Petah Tikva Pioneers, and we played to practically empty seats."

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Alexenberg says he was "a bit jealous of Bet Shemesh and Modi'in which played at Kibbutz Gezer, where the stands were full [200-500 people] and enjoyed the support of the American community in the area." It may or may not be coincidental that both the Blue Sox and the Miracle wound up in the championship game.

Channel 5's weekly broadcast lasted a month, but was canceled due to financial disputes. Yet Channel 10 program host and sports commentator Ofer Shelah is actually full of praise. "It amuses me slightly that we Israelis are quick to judge how to market a sport about which we have no expertise," tells Shelah, who anchored the games. "I was impressed by the level of the players and the atmosphere. There are also new leagues in the U.S. Even the ABA [American Basketball Association] didn't look much better at the onset."

Leon Feingold, the 34-year-old hurler for the Netanya Tigers, once got a shot with the Cleveland Indians organization but was cut down by a pair of shoulder injuries. He is now a real estate broker and professional competitive eater in New York. He divides IBL players into three categories. "A third of the players can play high-level minor league ball, a third belong in this league, and a third are pure amateurs," he observed.

Each player received $1,000 a month, and Feingold says that's comparable to salaries in the lower rungs of the minors. He would like to have seen pitching and batting coaches, as well as team physiologists.

Compensation for poor conditions

Other noted problems include the umpiring, as well as the quality of food and accomodations in Kfar Hayarok, where the players stayed.

"The Jewish players suffered quietly because the league for them was Zionism," says one of the players from the Dominican Republic. "We simply went out every night to bars in Tel Aviv, and the girls there compensated for everything."

On one of the side fields a group of children between 8 and 12 years old were playing baseball. The tots are loaded with league merchandise, balls and gloves with players' autographs, T-shirts and team hats. So perhaps something is going on here for the next generation.

"You can't judge the league by its first season," concludes Shelah. "The Israeli league can be a development league similar to the higher levels of minor league ball. Will this sport catch on in a soccer-mad country with such a different mentality? Only time will tell."

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1.	Article is inaccurate and gives misinformation	10:55	\|	Mel Levi	22/08/07

2.	Israeli`s do come to baseball games	11:09	\|	Devoted Fan	22/08/07

3.	Baseball	12:28	\|	Birdy Num Num	22/08/07

4.	למה הגירסה העברית לא באינטרנט?	12:59	\|	חיים	22/08/07

5.	baseball in Israel	13:01	\|	Bruce Maddy-Weitzman	22/08/07

6.	Criticism of Mr Orgad`s article is warranted	13:34	\|	Shmuel Addams	22/08/07

7.	Baseball in Israel- a fish out of water	15:04	\|	Israeli	22/08/07

8.	you forgot another country	16:26	\|	Noam	22/08/07

9.	To # 7 Mr. Israeli	16:33	\|	Devoted Fan	22/08/07

10.	Israel baseball League	16:46	\|	Stuart Baum	22/08/07

11.	baseball world wide	16:52	\|	Bruce Maddy-Weitzman	22/08/07

12.	#5 Maddy-Weitzman	18:18	\|	NYC	22/08/07

13.	How to market IBL	18:21	\|	Wendy	22/08/07

14.	PR needed	20:10	\|	Sharon	22/08/07

15.	Not going to work	20:55	\|	Jeremy	22/08/07

16.	start with the kids	21:51	\|	mko	22/08/07

17.	Non English speaking Israelis	22:04	\|	Suds	22/08/07

18.	Author....if you write it will they read?	22:38	\|	zaq	22/08/07

19.	PR Needed - response to Sharon	22:56	\|	Bruce Maddy-Weitzman	22/08/07

20.	failure or success	22:59	\|	Bruce Maddy-Weitzman	22/08/07

21.	English speaker	23:03	\|	Bruce Maddy-Weitzman	22/08/07

22.	Zaq`s post	23:05	\|	Bruce Maddy-Weitzman	22/08/07

23.	baseball in israel	23:08	\|	mark	22/08/07

24.	Facts are Simply Wrong	23:57	\|	M I B	22/08/07

25.	Baseball	05:14	\|	Stuart	23/08/07

26.	IBL-- To Bruce	05:16	\|	Sports Guy	23/08/07

27.	Baseball is life	06:47	\|	NS	23/08/07

28.	to Stuart	09:35	\|	Bruce Maddy-Weitzman	23/08/07

29.	full disclosure from the beginning	11:19	\|	Bruce Maddy-Weitzman	23/08/07

30.	Hopes for the future	15:07	\|	Zev Kaptowsky	25/08/07

31.	Hopes for the future	15:32	\|	Zev Kaptowsky	25/08/07

32.	IBL nothing short of a huge success	00:22	\|	Harris G	26/08/07

33.	IBL	18:06	\|	Stuart	28/08/07

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