With a final score of 8-3, Team Japan knocked Team Israel out of the World Baseball Classic. Now, the Jewish holiday of Passover, or Pesach, as it’s pronounced in Hebrew, is almost upon us; during Pesach, all yeast products, including pasta, rice, and of course, bread, must be dropped and replaced with the hard cracker, matzah. While we’re talking baseball, it’s true that everybody wants to come home with the most “bread,” but Israel, being primarily made of Jewish ballplayers had to take home the flavorless, crunchy, and disgusting sheet of drywall, matzah, instead.
The seder started with relief pitcher Josh Zeid asking the four questions, one per inning, with no response, only to be matched by Japan’s Kodai Senga. Everything was calm until the sixth inning when the Japanese lineup unleashed the plagues on Israel’s Zack Thornton, Alex Katz, and Brad Goldberg. Pharaoh let my people go for three runs in the top of the ninth, but Japan still split the sea and crossed all the way to the Finals in Los Angeles alongside the Netherlands. Israel lost their last two games, yet they were the only games they lost. If they had repeated their first bout with the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Israel would be off to Hollywood to compete for the World Title. What went wrong, and led to the death of their first Classic birth? To begin with, while a great deal of the Israeli ballclub has major league experience, none of them are currently in the Big Leagues. Secondly, it’s a miracle that they even beat the Netherlands once! The Dutch lineup boasts several major leaguers including Jurickson Profar, Jonathan Schoop, Kenley Jansen, Didi Gregorius, and Xander Bogaerts. That makes it a tad difficult for a minor league lineup, doesn’t it? Israel actually did remarkably against them: granted, the country formerly known as Holland did crush them 12-2 in their last matchup, it was 4-2 Israel in their only other game back in the first round in Seoul, South Korea. If you switch the two games, Israel still makes it to the round in Tokyo, but they also move on to LA with 2-1 record in each round, in place of 3-0 in Seoul and 1-2 in Tokyo. Israel will be back to play in 2021, but they might have to play in late 2020 for the Qualifiers. There’s a whole system of who does or does not get a bye for the Qualifying Round. Anyhow, while Israel is out throwing away all their food that is not kosher for Passover, the Mensch on the Bench is riding the waves in LA as Japan and the US prepare to fight it out, tonight. Jesse A. Cook March 21, 2017 “As Passover Approaches, Israel Drops Bread”
0 Comments
|
MLBThe Otherside page for all things MLB. Archives
January 2019
Categories
All
|