Israeli Baseball League Off To Roaring Start

We're not quite sure they're gonna quite reach the level of the Japanese leagues when it comes to a Major League Baseball farm system, but we have to credit the Israeli Baseball League — which just played its first game yesterday — for rather unbridled enthusiasm.

"Crazy is not a word that can describe what it has been since Saturday night when Shabbos ended," league Chief Operating Officer Marty Berger said. "I originally had one phone, then it went to two phones, and at one point yesterday it was on three phones with three different calls."

Three phones! That league is humming! Amusingly, the league had customs issues with their equipment, because the customs officers weren't sure what the bats and batting helmets were. (They have the same problem on the South Side of Chicago.)

By the way, did you realize that former Red Sox general manager Dan Duquette is the league's director of player development?

In The Big Inning, God Created Israeli Baseball [Lion In Oil]