Israel at the 2013 World Baseball Classic

Israel at international baseball competitions

Teams Israel national baseball team
Results

Israel competed at the World Baseball Classic in 2013. This was the first time Israel competed at the World Baseball Classic. In the September 2012 qualifier for the 2013 World Baseball Classic – Qualifier 1, the preliminary round of the tournament, Israel competed in Jupiter, Florida against Spain, France, and South Africa.

Roster

Roster eligibility

Under WBC rules, any player eligible for citizenship of a country, even if they do not have it, may play for that team.[1] Therefore, this entitles Israel to have non-Israeli citizens of Jewish heritage play for the team. Based on the Law of Return anyone with one Jewish grandparent or people married to a Jew, is eligible for citizenship.[2]

The players who qualified to play on the Israeli team included major leaguers catcher Ryan Lavarnway, first baseman Ike Davis, second basemen Ian Kinsler and Josh Satin, third basemen Kevin Youkilis and Danny Valencia, outfielders Ryan Braun (whose father is Israeli), Sam Fuld, Ryan Kalish, and Gabe Kapler, and pitchers Jason Marquis, Scott Feldman, Craig Breslow, and John Grabow, as well as what were then recent major leaguers catcher Brad Ausmus and pitcher Scott Schoeneweis.[3][4][5][6][7][8] Kinsler said:

"Wow, I would be happy to play for Team Israel.... The truth is that if a proposal comes from Team USA to play for them, I will have a very difficult decision to make. Yuk [Kevin Youkilis], Braun [Ryan Braun], and I could make a fantastic team. I am sure that I'll talk it over with Yuk – we always laugh about things like this."[9]

Outfielder Shawn Green, who retired in 2007, was also eligible inasmuch as he is Jewish, and said in early June 2011 that assuming it works out, it "would be an honor" and he "would love to" play for Israel in the Classic.[10][11]

The qualifying round was held in September, while the Major League Baseball season still in progress, therefore during Qualifiers 1 and 2 it could not feature major league players such as the above ones who qualified to play for Team Israel.[12][13] The lack of Major League players affected Israel far more than its opponents, none of which had players in the Major Leagues at the time. Kevin Youkilis announced that he would play for the team if they made it past the qualifying round of the 2013 World Baseball Classic.[14]

The highest-level players involved in Qualifiers 1 and 2 were minor-league prospects.[15] Team Israel included minor league pitchers Eric Berger (1–0) and Brett Lorin, first baseman Nate Freiman (.417; 4 HR in 12 AB), second baseman Josh Satin (.273), shortstops Jake Lemmerman and Ben Orloff, and outfielders Cody Decker, Adam Greenberg, Ben Guez, Joc Pederson (.308), and Robbie Widlansky.[16][17] Also, retired former major league All Star Shawn Green played for Israel (.333).[16][18]

In addition to Brad Ausmus as manager, the team's coaches included Shawn Green, Gabe Kapler, and Mark Loretta.[19]

Qualifier roster

2012 Israel Baseball Team roster
Players Coaches
Pitchers
 Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders

 Manager

Coaches

Qualifier results

Israel competed in their first qualifying match for the 2013 tournament on 19 September 2012. In this game they defeated South Africa by a score of 7-3. Nate Freiman had two home runs in the victory.[20]

Israel's second qualifying match was against Spain on 21 September 2012. Israel won the game by a score of 4-2. Nate Freiman once again homered twice for Israel in the victory.[21]

Israel's third qualifying match was once again against Spain on 23 September 2012. Israel lost this game by a score of 9-7 in 10 innings. With the victory Israel was eliminated from the tournament and Spain moved on to the next round.[22] Although Israel had won their first two games they were eliminated due to the tournaments modified double-elimination format. This meant that the final game was winner-take-all.

  Preliminaries Semifinals Qualifier
                             
–   Israel 7  
–   South Africa 3  
  W1   Israel 4  
  W2   Spain 2  
–   France 0
–   Spain 8  
  W3   Israel 7 –
  W5   Spain 9 Q1W
L1   South Africa 5  
L2   France 2  
  W4   South Africa 3
  L3   Spain 13  

Israel 7, South Africa 3

September 19 19:00 at Roger Dean Stadium
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
 Israel 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 3 2 7 10 1
 South Africa 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 3 3 2
WP: Eric Berger (1–0)   LP: Dylan Unsworth (0–1)
Home runs:
ISR: Nate Freiman 2 (2)
RSA: None
Attendance: 1,581 (23.0%)
Umpires: HP − Chris Segal, 1B − Sean Barber, 2B − Trevor Grieve, 3B − Jens Waider
Boxscore

Israel 4, Spain 2

September 21 13:00 at Roger Dean Stadium
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
 Israel 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 2 0 4 7 1
 Spain 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 2 8 2
WP: Justin Schumer (1–0)   LP: Richard Salazar (0–1)   Sv: Josh Zeid (1)
Home runs:
ISR: Nate Freiman 2 (4)
ESP: None
Attendance: 814 (11.8%)
Umpires: HP − Sean Barber, 1B − Chris Segal, 2B − Jens Waider, 3B − Jairo Mendoza
Boxscore

Spain 9, Israel 7

September 23 17:00 at Roger Dean Stadium
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 R H E
 Spain 0 0 1 3 1 0 1 1 0 2 9 15 0
 Israel 2 0 1 3 0 0 0 1 0 0 7 7 0
WP: Iván Granados (1–0)   LP: Josh Zeid (0–1)
Attendance: 4,463 (65.0%)
Umpires: HP − Chris Segal, 1B − Trevor Grieve, 2B − Jens Waider, 3B − Quinn Wolcott
Boxscore

References

  1. ↑ http://deadspin.com/5167239/dan-serafini-wins-one-for-team-italy
  2. ↑ Omer-Man, Michael (7 August 2011). "This Week in History: Jewish right to aliya becomes law". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 1 December 2015.
  3. ↑ "World Baseball Classic: Israel, managed by Bra". Sporting News. May 21, 2012. Retrieved March 14, 2013.
  4. ↑ Belson, Ken (June 1, 2011). [http://bats.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/01/israel-to-participate-in-2013-world-baseball-classic/#h[MLBIan] "Israel to Participate in 2013 World Baseball Classic"]. The New York Times. Retrieved July 16, 2011.
  5. ↑ "Israel invited to qualify for World Baseball Classic". JTA. June 2, 2011. Retrieved June 2, 2011.
  6. ↑ Jeremy Fine. "The Great Rabbino". Retrieved July 16, 2011.
  7. ↑ Aaron Yellin (June 7, 2011). "Israel to Participate in 2013 World Baseball Classic". The Forward. Retrieved July 16, 2011.
  8. ↑ "Jews to Play in Baseball All-Star Game". Shalom Life. Retrieved October 14, 2014.
  9. ↑ Ben, Daniel (May 1, 2010). "Baseball / Jewish MLB stars could play for Israel". Haaretz. Retrieved July 16, 2011.
  10. ↑ Leichenger, Alex (June 21, 2011). "Jewish baseball player supports Little League efforts". Jewish Journal. Retrieved September 5, 2011.
  11. ↑ Belson, Ken (June 8, 2011). "Shawn Green Says He'd Play for Israel in World Baseball Classic". The New York Times. Retrieved September 5, 2011.
  12. ↑ Neistat, Aimee (August 24, 2012). "Baseball / World Classic / Youkilis says he will play for Israel, if it qualifies for tournament". Haaretz. Retrieved March 14, 2013.
  13. ↑ "World Baseball Classic: Israel squad could be dangerous with stars Ryan Braun, Ian Kinsler available". Sporting News. May 21, 2012. Retrieved March 14, 2013.
  14. ↑ Neistat, Aimee (August 24, 2012). "Baseball / World Classic / Youkilis says he will play for Israel, if it qualifies for tournament". Haaretz. Retrieved March 12, 2013.
  15. ↑ "World Baseball Classic: There are plenty of prospects to watch in this month's World Baseball Classic qualifiers". worldbaseballclassic.com. September 21, 2012. Retrieved March 14, 2013.
  16. 1 2 "World Baseball Classic: Team – Israel". worldbaseballclassic.com. Retrieved March 14, 2013.
  17. ↑ "World Baseball Classic: Stats". worldbaseballclassic.com. Retrieved March 14, 2013.
  18. ↑ ".". Washington Post. Retrieved March 12, 2013.
  19. ↑ "Mets' Q-and-A with utility player Josh Satin". NJ.com. Retrieved October 14, 2014.
  20. ↑ http://web.worldbaseballclassic.com/wbc/2013/video/play.jsp?content_id=24911733&topic_id=41680128&c_id=mlb
  21. ↑ http://web.worldbaseballclassic.com/wbc/2013/video/play.jsp?topic_id=31426364&content_id=24952435&query=game_pk%3D342969
  22. ↑ http://web.worldbaseballclassic.com/wbc/2013/video/play.jsp?topic_id=31426364&content_id=25045977&query=game_pk%3D342971
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