Here’s a quick primer for Israeli baseball fans, courtesy of Art Shamksy:
“‘Ata eever’ means ‘you’re blind,’ and ‘patach eynayim’ means ‘open your eyes.'”
Shamksy — whose name evokes a burst of nostalgic joy among New Yorkers privileged enough to remember his 1969 Miracle Mets capturing the World Series title — is one of several high-profile Jewish former major leaguers who will try his hand at managing a side in the fledgling Israeli Baseball League.
The league kicks off on June 24, when the Modi’in Miracles take the field against the Petach Tikva Pioneers. Six teams will play 45-game seasons in the land of the Western Wall’s first-ever foray into thea game of the Green Monster.
IBL officials are hoping the league will spur Israeli interest in American baseball — they aim to draw about 1,000 fans per game in the first year — while government officials hope it will help boost Israel’s image abroad.
As the IBL’s early fan base will likely be American expatriates desperate for a baseball fix, the league has enlisted the three notable big-league Jews as skippers: Shamsky, former Oakland Athletics three-time world champion pitcher Kenny Holtzman and Ron Blomberg, former New York Yankee and the world’s first designated hitter.
“My mother’s proudest moment for the past 41 years has been the day in 1966 when I pitched against Sandy Koufax,” said Holtzman, whose mother might not have noticed his two career no-hitters or World Series rings with Oakland’s 1972, ’73 and ’74 “Mustache Gang” championship squads.
“Now that I have the chance to manage in Israel, she’s also very, very proud.”
Dan Duquette, former general manager of the Boston Red Sox and Montreal Expos, will serve as the IBL’s director of baseball operations. Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig is on the advisory board, as is his daughter, Milwaukee Brewers owner Wendy Selig-Prieb.
On the field, the league will provide opportunities for players like Leon Feingold to resurrect their baseball dreams.
Feingold pitched for the Cleveland Indians in 1994 and 1995 before elbow surgery ended his career and pushed him to law school. Now 33, he will put his law career on hold to pursue his baseball dreams.
Feingold, who has been playing semipro ball in Westchester, N.Y., also has been ranked as high as 12th in the world by the International Federation of Competitive Eating. He once downed 152 hot dogs in 12 minutes (incidentally, there’s no record on the books for most bourekahs quaffed, if Feingold wishes to pursue his gastronomic endeavors in the Jewish state).
The IBL has signed players from eight countries including the Dominican Republic, Australia, Venezuela and the United States, according to Duquette. About a dozen players will be Israeli. Krasna said that names such as Blomberg, Shamsky and Holtzman could pique American interest, as could convincing a high-profile Jewish player, such as the New York Mets’ Shawn Green, to play in Israel after his American career ends.
That might be a tough sell, considering that each team will have a salary cap of $45,000 for its entire 20-player roster. (Green, incidentally, earned $10.2 million last season. That’d buy a lot of bourekahs for Feingold.)
One more thing Israel has to work on, Krasna says, is its baseball lexicon: There is no Hebrew word for bat, and pitch and throw are the same word. And terminology such as “balk,” “unintentional intentional walk” and “infield fly rule” — well, they’re working on that, too.