L'chaim and Play Ball!

Where's Lil' Chucky? I thought no one cared about baseball.

Baseball has promising start in Promised Land

Israelis can relax as pro baseball makes debut

By Joel Greenberg
Tribune foreign correspondent

June 25, 2007, 8:23 PM CDT

PETAH TIKVA, Israel -- The ballgame began with the national anthem: the Israeli one, sung by an aspiring singer on the pitcher's mound.

Israeli television announcers, broadcasting live on the national sports channel, juggled Hebrew translations of baseball lingo with the English terms, explaining the intricacies of the sport to the uninitiated.

And everywhere around the field there was talk of a "historic" moment. The first professional baseball game in the Holy Land "in 5,000 years."

The Israel Baseball League had its opening game Sunday evening to kick off a summer season with 120 players, including about a dozen Israelis, from eight countries. Six teams, including the Tel Aviv Lightning, Netanya Tigers and Beit Shemesh Blue Sox, each will play a 45-game schedule.

http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/cs-070625israel,1,1944464.story?coll=cs-home-headlines

 

Basketball Hall of Famer Dolph Schayes is Jewish.

 

???

 

That's the only thing I could think of to link the NBA and Israel, for Chuck's sake.

 

And Moishe Horowitz shook his stick like it was a lulav, the sound of ball and bat echoing like a grogger on Purim, and as the crowd yelled L'CHAIM, Horowitz spun like a dreidle around the bases. Mazel Tov! they yelled.

 

I'm guessing night games on Fridays are out.

 

For grand slams the crowds will go nuts and scream:

"Slam Yisrael, chai, CHAI!"