Team Israel has made it past the Qualification Round and into the World Baseball Classic. They have a 2-0 start after beating Korea 2-1 in the 10th inning and Chinese Taipei 15-7 later that day on last Monday, March 6. The Kingdom of the Netherlands are also 2-0 and they play Israel tonight at 10 pm Eastern Standard Time.
While the Netherlands have such stars as Loek Van Mil, Shawn Zarraga, Jurickson Profar, Jonathan Schoop, Kenley Jansen, Didi Gregorius, and Xander Bogaerts, and have Bert Blyleven as their pitching coach, Israel has been on an unstoppable roll ever since the qualifiers. They also have Jason Marquis, Ryan Lavarnway, Cody Decker, Nate Freiman, Sam Fuld, Craig Breslow, Scott Feldman, and Ike Davis. Clearly, tonight will prove to be a great game, however the loser will have to play one more game against the winner of tomorrow’s 4:30 am Eastern Standard Time Korea vs. Chinese Taipei game. Even if the loser of tonight’s game lost to the winner of tomorrow’s game, they still would have the tiebreaker over them, for both Israel and the Netherlands have beaten both Chinese Taipei and Korea. Team Israel made its first appearance in the tournament 4 years ago in 2013 when Spain knocked them out in the final Qualifying game with a 9-7 win in 10 innings. They had previously beaten Spain and South Africa, but just couldn’t hold on. This time around, they swept their Qualifying round, beating Great Britain and Brazil, then winning with a 9-1 over Britain in the final game. Can they translate this streak into a week in Tokyo, and then maybe winning it in Los Angeles? In Tokyo, they’d most likely play the Netherlands again, Cuba, and Japan. If Israel can defeat the Netherlands tonight, they’ll be likely to defeat them once more, and Cuba has been on a decline ever since all their best players defected to the US. That merely leaves the always strong Team Japan. Japan has one major leaguer on their squad, Nori Aoki, but plenty of the other names on their team that I can’t pronounce are the top players in Japan’s league. Cuba is an interesting program to think about: here in the United States, we’ve never heard of these players, yet once some of them defect, they’re likely to become some of the biggest names in baseball. Aroldis Chapman, Yoenis Cespedes, Jose Abreu, Yasiel Puig, Raisel Iglesias, Jose Iglesias, Yoan Moncada, Jose Fernandez, Yasmani Grandal, Aledmys Diaz, Yonder Alonso, Rusney Castillo, Jorge Soler, Kendrys Morales, Brayan Pena, Hector Olivera, and Alexei Ramirez are all players who played last year who were unknown when they played in Cuba, but are now very recognizable to the average baseball fan. We don’t know who on this current Team Cuba will become a Major League All-Star, but we can be fairly sure that there are a few great prospects. Many teams in the Classic, like Japan, Cuba, and the Netherlands have players who are hoping to be discovered by MLB scouts. Teams like Israel, who are primarily made up of major leaguers, their players are rather wishing to get adequately prepared for the upcoming MLB season. Israel of course, is an underdog compared to teams like USA, Canada, Columbia, and the Dominican Republic, but if the 1990 and 1991 seasons taught us anything, then we all should know that even the worst teams can swiftly turn into the best. (If you’re wondering, the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves were last place in their respective leagues in 1990, then faced each other in the World Series the next year in ‘91. The Twins won in 7 games) While it seemed quite unlikely a couple months ago, it is becoming more and more of a possibility that the Stars of David may end up as the Stars of the World. If Israel does end up on top, we can all shout the treasured Hebrew expression “נס גדול היה שם” (pronounced “Nes Gadol Hayah Sham”) which means “A great miracle happened there.” We Jews have had many miracles, and that phrase, which the letters on the dreidel stand for, may apply to this Classic tournament. Jesse A. Cook March 8, 2017 “The Yiddish Are Coming!”
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