Israel's Baseball Team Is Ready to Rock Coney Island—and Maybe Shock the World
Every four years, if you want to see the Israeli flag waving at the Summer Olympics, your best bet is a brief cameo at the opening and closing ceremonies. The sports where Israelis have taken home medals—judo, sailing and canoeing—don’t get any prime time respect. But there’s another quadrennial international sporting event where you’ll see a dizzying amount of Stars of David: the World Baseball Classic. The qualifying tournament for the last spot in the event begins this week in Coney Island, Brooklyn, and features Israel, alongside Great Britain, Pakistan, and Brazil.
Never mind that most citizens of all four of those nations have no idea how to play baseball, or even care enough to be a fan. The WBC is about spreading the game to new places. Decades before Japan started exporting players to the U.S., Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig did a barnstorming tour there to stir up interest. You have to start somewhere.