In the kitchen of a small restaurant in Grosseto, Italy, Margo Sugarman hurriedly prepares five pounds of vegetables and pasta to feed a group of 25 hungry, young baseball players in an hour. As she sets a pot of tomatoes to cook, she tears off her apron, throws on a jersey, and runs out to a nearby baseball field to coach first base for the very team she will feed. Once the final out is recorded, she hurries back to the kitchen, trading jersey for apron and finishes cooking the pasta. She knows the severity of not having food ready for the famished kids the moment they arrive from post-game rituals. Such is life for Margo, the Secretary General for the Israel Association of Baseball. Her title may sound oddly serious for someone whose basic focus is to help young Israeli boys learn to play baseball. In truth, she plays a critical role in advancing a movement to grow baseball in a country that knew little of the game 30 years ago.
For this particular tournament just outside of Tuscany, Margo wears whatever hat she needs to, wanting to ensure the Israel National U-12, U-14, AND U-16 teams can compete at a high-level. She effectively functions as travel coordinator, equipment manager, first base coach, and even executive chef. The latter requires special attention from Margo to keep Kosher practice for the young group of native born Israelis. Beyond the many duffel bags of baseball gear, Margo packs two additional bags filled with cutting boards, knives, pots, graters, strainers, and other cooking equipment that is specifically for her to craft Kosher meals. When in villages and countries that have an “Chabad”, a religious organization which has restaurants that prepare Kosher food, meals are as simple as placing an order. In Grosseto, no such Chabad is available, and so Margo jumps between coaching in the 100oF heat, to cooking mass quantities of hot food in a tiny kitchen with no air conditioning. Her own personal love of the game fuses with a love for country, where baseball could very well hold the key to fostering peace in a land of conflict.
A Diamond Grows in the Desert
When a “group of baseball loving expats” formed the Israel Association of Baseball (IAB) in 1986, their mission was simple: Promote and develop baseball in Israel. Coaches begin working with children at six years of age, teaching the basic fundamentals of the game. Many of the children have never seen a baseball field before, and would be hard pressed to tell you in which direction to run the bases. Once the concepts and techniques are absorb in the young minds, the kids advance to play on organized teams in different leagues, similar to the youth baseball programs in the United States. The IAB is comprised of five leagues in total, based on age and ability, starting with the Minors and culminating in the Premier League. At the center of player development is Nate Fish, the Head National Team Coach of the IAB and self-proclaimed “King of Jewish Baseball”. A ballplayer his whole life, Nate has been involved with baseball in Israel since 2005. In addition to playing on several premiere league teams and in tournaments with the Domestic National Team, Nate coached team Israel in the 2011 European Baseball Championships. He was offered the position in 2012 by IAB President Peter Kurz, after the National Team narrowly missed qualifying for the 2013 World Baseball Classic. In the two years since taking the position, Nate has overseen tremendous growth on a grassroots level. The number of registered players in organized age groups across Israel has risen from 590 in 2012, to over 800 in 2015. On the challenge of improving the quality of baseball being played in Israel, Nate admits: “It’s been a real process, to grow baseball in a country where baseball doesn’t really exist. Everything, from building facilities, getting the equipment players need, to how they wear their uniform, instructing coaches on how to properly run practices, making sure players show up on time, just raising the overall threshold of professionalism.” Only one regulation-sized baseball field exists in all of Israel, located in the Baptist Village of Petah Tikva, with plans for a second in the Bet Shemesh municipality next year. The image of a lone “true” baseball field in almost 8000 square miles of real estate is a stark contrast to a nation like the Dominican Republic, where practically more land is used for baseball fields than not.
The International Stage
With no shortage of great Jewish American baseball players in the United States, the 2012 WBC Qualifier stands as a watershed moment for the future of professional baseball in Israel. 10 days before the qualifier, the IAB invited 30 American and 25 Israeli players to a camp in Miami to shape the 29-man roster. The majority of American players were guaranteed a roster spot, most of whom were playing at the Triple-A level and having had several stints in the big leagues. Per the guidelines of WBC, Inc., players simply need to be eligible for citizenship in Israel to be on the WBC National Team, which is achieved by having a Jewish grandparent. Players on the Domestic National Team, which play in the Euro Championships, have to be true Israeli by virtue of having an Israeli passport. The IAB raised private funds to ensure that the entire Domestic National Team was flown to Miami to take part in the camp experience. Nate stresses how, for the players from Israel, “the exposure of playing MLB-level ball is great. The national pride is there, and the excitement goes to another level, just as it does for any of the national teams in the WBC. The American players that had never been to Israel felt a true responsibility to represent the country, and a deeper connection to their heritage.” In the end, the roster consisted of 25 American players, 3 Israeli players, and Nate, who saw himself as “the go-between for the two sides of the pond.” For the tournament itself, which included Spain, France and South America in a 4-team bracket, Team Israel fell short in heartbreaking fashion, losing the final game to Spain 9-7 in 10 innings.
Nate recalls the mood in the clubhouse after the final game: “The players took (the loss) very hard, most of them saying they had never wanted to win a baseball game so badly in their life.” With many of the American players having played in meaningful games from college to the professional level, wanting to win a qualifier game above all is a statement to the spirit of camaraderie fostered by the IAB. The most stirring testimonial came from team doctor Glenn Copeland, who has been the team podiatrist for the Toronto Blue Jays since 1979. Glenn shared with players and coaches how the experience of the final game in the WBC qualifier was more meaningful than the two World Series rings he collected with Toronto in 1992 and 1993. Since 2012, Team Israel has risen into the Top 20 of the IBAF World Baseball Rankings, and Top 5 in Europe. Former MLB stars Shaun Green and Gabe Kapler have expressed their desire to be part of the coaching staff for the WBC qualifier in 2016, strengthening recruiting efforts to bring the top eligible MiLB and MLB talent to the team. Securing a spot in the 2017 World Baseball Classic would see the profile and support of baseball in Israel skyrocket, a goal that grows all the more realistic for Nate and the IAB.
Conflict
While legendary fiction writer W. P Kinsella personifies “Heaven” as a baseball field in Iowa, Margo Sugarman knows first hand that a baseball field in Israel can be the setting of something very different during times of conflict with Palestine. In June of 2014, when three Israeli teenagers were kidnapped in the occupied West Bank and later found dead by the Israel Army, tensions between the two nations escalated to the point where Palestine took action, firing missiles in the direction of Tel Aviv. The response from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was to begin an “Operation” in July, meaning War. At that time, the IAB Juvenile League traveling team were in the Baptist Village preparing for a tournament in Italy. The field is located only a few miles from Ben Gurion Airport, where many of the missiles from Palestine were directed during the strike. Civilian preparedness in periods of conflict require being a certain distance away from shelters and evacuation routes. Margo, the coaches and the players, had about a minute to get to the shelter from the field when the sirens went off. During a team practice, the nightmare scenario became real. Margo remembers, “it was hard to hear the siren on the field because the Baptist Village is somewhat removed from the populated area (of Petah Tikva). We heard (the siren), everyone ran to the shelter, and we sort of had to yell at the younger kids to move, because the sound being so far away, they felt they didn’t have to go.” Explosions of interceptors colliding with the missiles reverberated through the shelter. Once the sirens and explosions have stopped, everyone had to stay hunkered down for a certain period of time, waiting for the all-clear. “We come out,” Margo says, “and there are clouds of smoke in the sky where the missiles have been intercepted.” Amazingly, the kids emerged almost blissfully ignorant to what had just taken place. “You hear (the explosions), you know, and then you go back and play baseball. Because what else are you going to do? They pick up the gloves, and try to figure out ‘Who was up? What are the rules for an inning ended by sirens?’” With the missile threat passed, the minds of the children quickly shift to getting back on the field and finishing the game after the “metal rain delay.” Even though Margo and the coaches have to be the responsible adults in times like these, the attitude of “Devil-May-Care! We love baseball!” is exactly the kind of ideal the IAB wants to instill in the country.
Baseball for All
On three occasions a year, the IAB conducts their flagship program, poignantly titled “Baseball for All.” For the two-day duration of each session, the entire administrative staff of the IAB, along with their coaches and volunteers, partner with the “Play Global!” foundation for a single goal: Get Arab Israeli and Jewish Israeli kids playing baseball together on the same field. At the first session in March, the IAB pooled 15 Arab Israelis from Ramle and 15 Jewish Israelis from Modiin, all between the ages of 11-12, to Petah Tikva. After introductions are made, the kids spend the first day learning and practicing the fundamentals of baseball. Interactions between the children of different towns is minimal, often feeling awkward. By the second day, when the coaches divide the kids into four teams and conduct friendly scrimmages for the remaining time, all labels of “Arab” and “Jewish” were non existent: It was all about baseball. Indeed, the young ballplayers from different backgrounds, different religious beliefs, had found common ground between the white lines, willing to throw the ball to anyone wearing a mitt. The organizers of the event were unconscious of the symbolic coexistence taking place that second day. They saw children sharing the same simplistic feeling of the adults, “We love baseball.” All thirty of the kids at the first session were excited to come back in June to keep playing baseball with their friends of different cultures. The administrators of the IAB fully expect to see the entire group for the final session in October.
“We are not so different, You and I…”, a line that rings particularly true in the specter of “Baseball for All.” For a region with two groups separated by differences that seemingly no bridge can connect, the IAB brings them to the same field as teammates in a mere two days, no more than 60 feet, 6 inches from one another. On this field in the heart of Israel, where missiles lobbed from Palestine once exploded over the wall in center, the only thing being thrown, is a baseball.
The official website of the Israel Association of Baseball.
Great article!