Project Baseball Continues To Play Ball for Israel
 

Less than three years ago, the IBL leased an office, put up a sign, and opened for business. Its goal was to support Israel in an unusual way – to develop within Israel the great sport of baseball, a passion shared by many in the American Jewish community.

 

As one of its first steps, the IBL enlisted the help of the venerable philanthropic institution, the Jewish National Fund. At a recent reception that followed the premiere showing of “Holyland Hardball”, a documentary of the launch of the IBL, a JNF speaker explained, very simply, why the JNF got behind the initiative to bring baseball to Israel. “This is a campaign meant to bring smiles to the faces of people in Israel, and how many projects do you know of that have that as their objective.”

 

The campaign, officially dubbed “Project Baseball”, aims to dot the landscape of Israel with community baseball and softball fields and to follow that up with clinics and professional instruction. Despite being only in its infancy, still less than three years old, the joint venture already has many accomplishments to point to, including:

 

*       Field enhancement. Six figure sums have been put into improving the fields both at The Sportek in Tel Aviv, a much-needed baseball facility that caters to local amateur players, and Kibbutz Gezer, Israel’s original baseball field that is located between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and near the hot baseball/softball enclaves of Bet Shemesh and Modi’in. An on-going fundraising campaign has earmarked additional improvements to the Gezer baseball field as the next of what will certainly be many future baseball facilities in Israel.

*         Camps and Clinics. During the first summer of its existence, the IBL funded a series of camps and clinics in Israel, sending over its own staff accompanied by two former Major Leaguers, Elliott Maddox and Bob Tufts. Despite warnings that there would be few attendees, 165 kids showed up and took advantage of the one-on-one instruction that was offered at the clinics. Last season, IBL players spent many days offering their time, free of charge, to run clinics for Israeli children. Such clinics will be a central on-going feature of Project Baseball.

*       Contributions. In addition to facilitating direct contributions of funds and equipment to the local Israeli amateur baseball programs, the IBL and the JNF are engaged in a full-scale campaign to raise funds for the benefit of community baseball in Israel through Project Baseball. To date, in addition to what has already been expended and donated, over $500,000 has been raised for this purpose.

*        Public Relations. While there remains a long haul ahead before Israel is recognized as a full-fledged member of the world baseball fraternity, tremendous strides have already been made. The opening game of the IBL was broadcast on PBS across the United States; six Sunday night Games-of-the-Week were broadcast in Israel by Arutz Sport, Israel’s equivalent of ESPN; Israel’s professional baseball league was covered by media across the globe; and hundreds if not thousands of people made their first trips to Israel last summer as a direct offshoot of the IBL’s inaugural season. If it is true that Israel hasn’t quite made it to the Big Leagues, it is also true that it has very quickly appeared on the map and is an unquestioned active participant in the globalization of the sport.

*       High Level Involvement and Recognition. The JNF has sponsored and coordinated several trips to Israel for high level baseball executives and players. The IBL itself has enlisted the participation of such MLB baseball luminaries as Dan Duquette, Art Shamsky, Ron Blomberg, Ken Holtzman, Tony Ferrara and others. Clearly, Israel’s position as a Baseball Nation has emerged, and continues to grow.

 

All of this could not have been possible without the zealous participation of a truly wonderful organization, the Jewish National Fund. We have witnessed firsthand the devotion that the JNF has to the Jewish people in Israel. It is an organization that deserves our plaudits and support. For more information on the JNF and Project Baseball, go to www.jnf.org.