You are here: Home » News » Israel »

Israel Begins World Baseball Classic Qualifying Quest

September 19, 2012 9:07 am 0 comments

Author:

Algemeiner Staff

Share this Article

Tags:

Israeli team manager Brad Ausmus (left) with Israeli President Shimon Peres (center) and Dan Shapiro (right), the U.S. Ambassador to Israel. Photo: US Embassy in Tel Aviv.

In its first attempt to reach the World Baseball Classic, Israel begins its qualifying stage on Wednesday against South Africa.

The two teams are joined by Spain and France in Jupiter, Florida, as the squads hope to gain a spot in the premier international tournament for baseball, scheduled to take place in March of 2013.

“Really, it’s a matter of getting these players together who have for the most part never played together,” former Major League Baseball catcher Brad Ausmus told MLB.com. Ausmus is the head coach of Israel’s national team.

“It’s a matter of getting them on the field together, allowing them to learn how to communicate with each other, understanding what each player does at their position and then just getting the repetitions so they get comfortable with each other on the field,” he continued.

Multiple American-Jewish professional baseball players will join the Israeli qualifying team due to WBC rules which allow a country’s citizenship laws to determine eligibility in fielding a team.

Team Israel also features Shlomo Lipitz, a right handed pitcher who threw 16 straight innings in a European qualifying tournament. Lipitz also helped the team raise money ahead of their efforts to qualify for the World Baseball Classic.

If the Israeli squad advances out of the qualifying round, which ends on Sunday, they’ll be joined by Gold Glove infielder Kevin Youkilis next March. Youkilis, an All-Star at the Major League level, has committed to playing for the Israeli team and is eligible due to his Jewish roots.

Please note: comments may be published in the Algemeiner print edition.

Click here to cancel reply.

More...

Personalities Sports
NBA Finals a Time to Remember Legendary Jewish Coach Red Auerbach

JNS.org - At the start of each nationally televised game of the 2013 NBA Finals between the San Antonio Spurs and the Miami Heat, ABChas aired a film-clip montage of basketball’s great players and coaches—a montage that includes Jewish coach Arnold “Red” Auerbach, the mastermind behind nine championship teams for the Boston Celtics. Red was one of four children of Marie and Hyman Auerbach. Hyman was a Russian-Jewish immigrant who left Belarus when he was 13. The couple owned a deli and [...]
Read more →
Arts and Culture Jewish History
The Marx Brothers and Jewish Identity

JNS.org - The sons of Jewish immigrants from Germany and France, the Marx Brothers became zany masters of stage and screen who continue to captivate audiences. But in addition to providing comic relief, their films captured the drama of the entry of their marginalized religion into the U.S. Wayne Koestenbaum, author of the 2012 book The Anatomy of Harpo Marx, explains that the Marx Brothers’ Jewishness as a family “was evident, marked, thoroughly legible.” “Within a family already marked as Jewish within [...]
Read more →
Arts and Culture Jewish Identity
SuperJew

For my shekels, the question of whether the comic book character Superman, is Jewish or not shouldn’t even be questioned. Born and named Kal-El by his father Jor-El, “El” is one of the ancient names for God used throughout the bible and found in great prophets such as Samue-el, Dani-el and angels Micha-el and Gavri-el and of course, Isra-el. As Simcha Weinstein in his entertaining book, “Up, Up And Oy Vey” points out, “Kal” is the root of several Hebrew [...]
Read more →
Israel Sports
Formula 1 Road Show Thrills Jerusalem

JNS.org – Some 100,000 people attended Israel’s first-ever Formula 1 Road Show in Jerusalem on Thursday and Friday. For several hours, the controversies that normally characterize Jerusalem were put aside, and a diverse mosaic of Israelis watched up close as the motor-sport stars temporarily conquered the city. “It was an amazing experience, the most fast and furious thing I have seen,” spectator Masada Porat told Israel Hayom. “It was a rare, extreme event that explodes in your face.” Spectator Irena [...]
Read more →
Book Reviews Jewish Identity
Klara’s Journey Casts Jews in Fast-Paced Adventure Through Russian History

JNS.org – “If you’re sick, move away. Have some consideration for others,” a red army soldier scolds a slow-moving old man selling train tickets. “No, fires back the old man, proud, haughty, not realizing it’s a new country, a Bolshevik country where force heads the list instead of civility,” reads the following line in Ben G. Frank’s new novel, Klara’s Journey, released June 1. Reminiscent of Boris Pasternak’s Dr. Zhivago—whose backdrop is also a train ride across the Russian frontier during the [...]
Read more →
Personalities Theater
Nora Ephron, Famed Jewish Screenwriter, Remembered Through Tribeca Film Festival Prize

JNS.org – For filmmaker Meera Menon, no honor could have been more fitting than winning the inaugural award named after famed Jewish screenwriter and novelist Nora Ephron, the woman whose work inspired her. At the recent 2013 Tribeca Film Festival, Menon was named the first recipient of the $25,000 Nora Ephron Prize, given to a writer or director whose work embodies that of the late Ephron, who wrote the scripts for a number of hit films, including “When Harry Met [...]
Read more →
Book Reviews Personalities
Book Review: ‘Jewish Jordan’ Memoir an Important Guide for Players and Coaches

JNS.org – Despite his friends’ and family’s doubts that a young Orthodox Jewish athlete could ever play college or professional basketball without compromising his religious values, between 1999 and 2009 the “Jewish Jordan” defied conventional wisdom and found his place on the court. In his new memoir, Jewish Jordan’s Triple Threat, Tamir Goodman describes his triumphs and disappointments in life, crediting his practice of Judaism for shaping his identity as an athlete and his understanding of basketball as a team sport. [...]
Read more →
Blogs Sports
Omri Casspi, ‘Jewish Jordan’ Partner on Basketball Camps to Inspire Youths On and Off the Court

Tamir Goodman (left) and NBA forward Omri Casspi—pictured on the court of the United Center, home of the Chicago Bulls—together run basketball camps that seek to inspire youths on and off the court. Photo: Courtesy Tamir Goodman. JNS.org – Before last year, basketball camps for Jewish youths never had an instructor quite like Omri Casspi, a forward for the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) Cleveland Cavaliers and the first Israeli-born player in NBA history. Casspi is a de facto ambassador for [...]
Read more →