Culture  Sports
Israel soars at World Baseball Classic, and a nation shrugs
Associated Press
Published: 11.03.17, 21:55
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7 Talkbacks for this article
1. Why should we get excited over make-believe Team Israel?
Brian Cohen ,   PeoplesFrontofJudea   (03.12.17)
Baseball and softball in Israel are great small sports with small footprints. I don't know them personally and have never met them or talked to them, but I have the distinct feeling that the organizers behind this "Team Israel" are having a great time, but are NOT going to invest in Israeli sport even 1/2 of what they spent on training and flying this team to the far east.
So yes, I too am NOT enthused even though I've played and coached baseball in Israel since the last century.
I have a BIG problem with anybody putting on a blue and white Israel national team uniform who is not ready to make any type of long term commitment to life in Israel.
1) Is the team coming to Israel this summer to hold clinics for those 1000 Israeli kids who play baseball?
2) Is the money spent on this event (I'm guessing at something like $120,000) going to be matched and invested in Israeli baseball and growing the sport here?
3) What's the long term development plan the organizers of this baseball team have for development baseball in Israel? What's their target for growing the sport - how many hundreds of kids do they plan to add each year and how many tournaments are they going to send the elite/allstar teams to?
4) What are the organizer's plans for getting more regulation fields in Israel? Have they taken the effort like football to reach out to Jewish MLB owners and get them to invest in baseball like Bob Kraft did for football?

Legitimate questions waiting for answers. I hope some reporter, preferable from Ynet's Hebrew side, is going to ask the tough questions and get some answers.
2. Why is Regev et al ignorant of baseball?
easy explanation   (03.11.17)
Very simple: Baseball is a western game....
3. Lie-net, not Ynet
Miami Marlin ,   Ramat Gan   (03.12.17)
Enough defeatist Leftist propaganda. Everyone here in Israel is behind the team.
4. I don't know yet how, but it will be somehow linked to Bibi.
(03.12.17)
Oh no, it already has been done by the Y-Jazeera: Miri Regev! (Bibi by proxy)
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