Members of the team representing Israel in the World Baseball Classic and the rest of their delegation visiting the Tel Nof Israeli Air Force base near Rehovot. (Daniel Bar-On)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The 10-player delegation arrived here last week from Las Vegas and Chicago aboard a corporate sponsor\u2019s private plane for a six-day visit that concluded Monday and was meant to connect the nearly all-American Jewish team with the country they are\u00a0representing in the tournament, a quadrennial event modeled after soccer\u2019s World Cup. Israel will resume play March 6 in South Korea, having won a preliminary round in Brooklyn, New York, in September.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, it feels good to tell them things because I\u2019ve been here before,” said Baker, who played in 2016 for the St. Louis Cardinals\u2019 AA and AAA teams and won a WBC game in Brooklyn. “Everyone\u2019s excited to get some falafel and shawarma to see if it lives up to the hype.\u201d<\/p>\n
The players and their significant others were kept busy with a steady dose of modern Zionism, vibrant Israel, fun and some baseball. A venture capitalist told them about Israel\u2019s cutting-edge high-tech scene. They met Knesset member and New Jersey native Michael Oren. They joined a graffiti artist in painting a mural of Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax on a Tel Aviv shopkeeper\u2019s door, rode bikes on the city\u2019s Mediterranean promenade and met fighter pilots at an Air Force base.<\/p>\n
On Friday morning, they dedicated a new baseball field in Beit Shemesh and visited the Yad Vashem memorial to the Holocaust. Over the weekend, the players took in Jerusalem\u2019s Old City, Masada and the Dead Sea.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s nothing more exciting to me than to bring people who\u2019ve never been here before,\u201d said Jeff Aeder, a Chicago businessman and founder of the Jewish Baseball Museum who is funding the trip and brought his son.<\/p>\n
Thursday\u2019s lone public appearance in this city\u2019s Baptist Village baseball complex drew several hundred fans to watch a home run-hitting exhibition \u2013 catcher Ryan Lavarnway and first baseman Ike Davis, both of whom played recently in the major leagues, slammed multiple moonshots far beyond the fences \u2013 and a question-and-answer session. Fans sought\u00a0autographs and selfies. Jon Moscot, a Cincinnati Reds pitcher, gave one boy his mud-caked cleats. Lavarnway handed another his bat.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou made me the happiest kid in the world,\u201d he told Lavarnway.<\/p>\n
The players seemed as impressed by the surroundings as the spectators were of them. A goal of the trip is to connect the crew with the country they are representing in the WBC. But for most that was off their radar, said Peter Kurz, president of the Israel Association of Baseball.<\/p>\n
\u201cTel Aviv is amazing,” said Davis, a former member of the New York Mets and other teams. “It\u2019s kind of like cities we\u2019ve been to, but in Hebrew.\u201d<\/p>\n
Baker said: \u201cWhether you\u2019re religious or not, you grew up with Bible stories, but that\u2019s what they are \u2013 stories. In Israel, we see it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Along with Moscot, whose arm injury will prevent him from pitching in Seoul, the delegation included Mets infielder Ty Kelly and outfielder Sam Fuld, who played last season for the Oakland Athletics and is a free agent. Another major leaguer who will join the club in Seoul is Danny Valencia, an infielder for the Seattle Mariners. (By WBC rules, a player may compete for a country if he\u00a0is eligible for citizenship under its laws. Israel\u00a0extends the right of automatic citizenship to Jews, their non-Jewish children, grandchildren and the non-Jewish spouses of their children and grandchildren.)<\/p>\n
Kurz said he hopes that players\u2019 on-the-ground tweets and phone calls will aid in recruiting to the squad several major league stars who are Jewish: infielder Alex Bregman of the Houston Astros and outfielders Kevin Pillar of the Toronto Blue Jays, Joc Pederson of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Ryan Braun of the Milwaukee Brewers. None in that quartet has ruled out participating, he added.<\/p>\n
Kurz also expects the WBC visibility to boost Israelis\u2019 interest in the sport. Following Israel\u2019s inaugural tournament appearance in 2012, enrollment in IAB leagues jumped 25 percent, Kurz said \u2013 a figure he thinks he will match this time.<\/p>\n
His WBC players expressed pride at being included on the team and this visit.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs soon as they asked, I was excited,\u201d Lavarnway said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was the easiest decision I could make,\u201d added third baseman Cody Decker, who reached the majors with the San Diego Padres.<\/p>\n
And from Kelly: \u201cI feel very appreciative and honored to be part of this team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moscot visited as an 8-year-old and is the Jewish-American player on the team with the strongest connection to Israel. He has an uncle and many cousins living in the country, and his father, Elliott, an eye doctor, resided here for four years. The pitcher\u2019s grandparents, Joseph and Rose Moscot, lived here, too, and are buried in Beit Shemesh.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe guys see that as a Jewish American, I have ties here, and they see that it\u2019s not a random country in the Middle East,\u201d Moscot said. \u201cIt\u2019s important for us to be playing for a country we have a relationship to \u2013 that there\u2019s a bond there. After this trip, hopefully the guys will realize that it\u2019s a special thing, that there\u2019s some deeper meaning in it.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s already happening.<\/p>\n
\u201cI personally feel a part of this, of Israel \u2013 the Jewish state of Israel,” Lavarnway said. “I feel a big part of this.\u201d<\/p>\n
As night fell, Davis talked to the fans gathered behind the backstop about his feelings.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe cool thing about Israel is that Jewish people have a home here no matter where we live,” he said. “We might stay here if you want us to. When you get here, it feels a little like home.\u201d<\/p>\n
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