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the american dream in japan

In fact, his latest major addition to Tokyo 2020, second baseman Ian Kinsler, was champion with the United States at the last World Baseball Classic in 2017.

Only four of the 24 players on the Israeli team were born in Israel: Alon Leichman, Shlomo Lipetz, Tal Erel and Assaf Lowengart.

“It is an honor to represent my heritage, the tradition of my family,” Kinsler said in an interview with AFP on the eve of Thursday’s debut of the Israeli team against South Korea, the nation that won the gold medal in Beijing-2008. last previous time baseball had been on the Olympic program.

Israel did not compete in team sports in the biggest event in sport since it did with football in Montreal-1976.

With its American player base from the Jewish community, New York manager Eric Holtz’s team brings together seven players who have been in the Major Leagues, including four-time All-Star Kinsler and pitchers Josh Zeid and Jon Moscot.

Kinsler played in the majors between 2006 and 2019 and won a World Series with the Boston Red Sox.

Avoid, however, considering yourself the man to follow. “My role is to play second base (…). I just hope to offer my experience to the team and maybe hopefully help the guys win,” he said via videoconference.

– How it began? –

The formula of grouping nationalized American players gave Israel three victories in the first round in the 2017 World Classic, one of which was precisely against South Korea.

“I watched them play with energy. They never gave up,” recalls Kinsler.

That is why when Danny Valencia, another of Israel’s old great leagues, called him on the phone to ask if he was interested in joining the national team, he did not hesitate: “Of course he was interested (…). It was the opportunity to go to an Olympic Games! “.

American migrants introduced the sport to Israel in the 1920s, but it was not until 1986 that the Israeli Baseball Association (IAB).

Today, the IAB governs a league of six teams in its highest category, the tip of a pyramid of training competitions that has 74 teams divided into four different lines. The IAB founded the Israel Baseball Academy in 2014, a program for young players ages 14-21 recognized by Major League Baseball (MLB).

His Olympic participation will be in a country, Japan, that loves baseball.

Kinsler will play outside the United States for the first time, with the exception of MLB games in Canada. “I have played with Japanese in the majors and I have seen the passion with which they live this sport. They adopted baseball as part of their culture. I love that,” he says.

– Serious matter –

Holz was as a player, at age 41, one of the founders of the league.

In 2007 he won the first season of the Israeli championship with the club from Bet Shemesh, a city west of Jerusalem. Ten years later, already retired, he began his career as manager of the national team.

Can the Israeli team be taken seriously?

“They shouldn’t,” Holz joked in remarks to The Forward, an American publication aimed at the Jewish community.

“I prefer that nobody takes us seriously (as in the World Classic), that nobody gives us a chance, and we will see where the chips fall,” he added.

Kinsler is blunt: “Not always the best team wins. Anything can happen and no one better than our team understands that.”

erc / psr

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