Like every boy growing up in San Francisco in the late 1980s, Travis Zier tried to emulate Will “The Thrill” Clark’s impossibly beautiful left-handed uppercut swing in the family backyard.
And, like every boy who wasn’t the Giants’ starting first baseman, he popped the ball straight up and menaced the windows behind him.
Zier, a strapping 6-foot-3 right-hander with a passing resemblance to the actor Josh Hartnett, doesn’t plan on printing out business cards anytime soon. But if he did, they would read much as Clark’s might:
Travis Zier — professional baseball player.
Perhaps he could even get those nifty cards printed in English on one side and Hebrew on the other. It could come in handy.
“It’s a dream come true to become a professional baseball player. But when I thought of playing pro baseball when I was younger, I wouldn’t have thought it would be in Israel,” says the 22-year-old with a smile.
On Tuesday, June 19, he was on a plane to Israel, and next Tuesday he may well be on the mound as a starting pitcher for the Ra’anana Express of the fledgling Israel Baseball League. He is one of several Bay Area players to pack their bats and hit the Middle East.
Zier grew up near Mt. Davidson in San Francisco’s Monterey Heights, was bar mitzvahed at Congregation Sherith Israel (where his family still attends) and graduated from Lick-Wilmerding High School in San Francisco. He wavered between baseball and basketball for a few years, even playing on a couple of Maccabi teams.
Then he realized he could throw 91 miles per hour.
Throwing a curve, splitter and consistently hitting the high 80s on the radar gun, Zier won 19 games in his Haverford University career, good enough for No. 2 on the school’s all-time list. When he graduated this year with a degree in economics, he had a choice: Go play pro ball in Israel or cool his heels on the East Coast until his government internship kicks in a few months down the road. That’s a decision he made faster than a 91-mile-per-hour fastball.
“I’ve always wanted to visit Israel and I thought the best experience I could get was Birthright, but that’s just a 10-day trip. This gives me the opportunity to live in Israel for two months and be a part of it — and the league is paying for our travel and food and giving us a living expense stipend,” he says, smiling like a man who’s just pulled $20 out of an old jacket.
In a word: Sweet!
Ra’anana’s roster features a few young college players, several older, journeyman minor leaguers and even a few Dominicans (the nationality, not the religious order). A Latin double play combo is a first for Zier, but he’s quite used to a number of Jewish teammates. At Lick-Wilmerding, he estimates a quarter of the squad were Jews (one non-Jew, Noah Walker, will be joining him in Israel). And he was able to quickly rattle off the names of a Jewish infielder, center fielder, designated hitter and relief pitcher at Haverford. Put the teams together and you’ve got a minyan.
Still, it’s a long way from Sunday school in San Francisco to Sunday’s starting pitcher in Israel. But Zier is ready for it.
“I’m interested to see how the Israeli people take to this most American of sports,” he says.
“This is probably my last hurrah,” he continued, looking contemplative. But then he smiled. “Unless I’m picked up by somebody.”
As former major league pitcher Joaquin Andujar so aptly put it: “There’s one word that describes baseball. And that word is ‘you never know.'”
Israeli baseball is in the cards
No, there’s no chewing gum involved. But if there was, it would certainly be kosher.
Martin Abramowitz, the man behind the successful Jewish major leaguers baseball card set, announced that an 18-card “Inaugural Season Preview Pack” featuring Israel Baseball League players will be available in mid-summer.
To the best of Abramowitz’s knowledge, the 3,000-set limited edition will feature the world’s first bilingual English/Hebrew cards.
For more information visit www.jewishmajorleaguers.org.