Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Am Yisrael Chai-Alan's in Israel, so what's up?

Hi everybody...thanks to all who have been checking to see what's going on with me here in Yisrael. It took a while to get here and it's taken a while to settle in (still not sure we have our final room assignments), so naturally, it's taken me a couple of days to get a post out to y'all.
Well, let's start with the flight. Great bunch of guys on the flight...we were about 25 strong. I had a good aisle seat with a seatmate from Chicago (non IBLer) via Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. In between trying to nap, we had some cool chats about work and life. She was off to Zurich for a week's vacation with friends who live there while she is trying to figure out her next professional step. I can tell you from flying into Zurich that she picked an awesome spot to re-charge her battery.
Once in Zurich, we waited only about 40 minutes before boarding our connection to Tel Aviv. Sat next to an Israeli transplant who lives in NJ but was going home to visit. Nice guy, musician and music student trying to make a go of it in a tough business. Smart dude, too as he worked out a couple of gigs in Tel Aviv while he's back visiting. Thought I'd read some on this flight, but couldn't keep my eyes open. Got some sleep before we landed at 2:40 p.m. Tel Aviv time.
That's when the excitement started, though not for me. We all passed through Customs, except for one of us, a young fella just out of college who happens to be of Islamic descent (but is born and raised in the States and no one is more American than a native born guy who plays our national pastime in college). Now in this day and age, I can understand the Customs folks asking him a few questions, even if the league had cleared everyone in advance. But they wouldn't let this guy get his bags while they interrogated him for 1 1/2 hours, repeatedly asking him "where are you from", "what are you doing here", "who are your parents" and "where is your family from". All in all, the kept him in the airport an extra 4 hours while the rest of us were all bused to our destination. When they finally got it that he was with the baseball league, they sheepishly let him go with an apology. He's a great guy, he's from Brooklyn and is going to be one of the better players in the league and he dealt with this mess extraordinarily well.
The accomodations are, well, sufficient. We are three or four to a room. From what a couple of guys said, we're better suited than some Single A minor leaguers. I'll agree with that when the A/C in our room starts to work....but more on that later...

Catch up time....
Our internet connection has been on the fritz for a few days...we're all learning that we have to make do with certain conditions that we're not exactly used to; the bottomline is, it's all about the baseball games, which are played between the lines, and helping run the clinics for the kids....so here's a bunch of catchup for everyone who has patiently awaited news from the homeland...

Thursday, June 21, 2007-Sunday, a.m., June 24, 2007

Well, just finished getting ready to go eat after waking up…eating lunch that is…still adjusting to the time change…roomies and I were up til about 2 a.m. Israel time shooting the breeze about, well, what else, baseball, of course…remembering back to our first trips to a major league game, reminiscing about guys we’ve played with/against that have made it to a higher level of the game…Scott Perlman, a veteran pitcher who has great stuff and came to us from the Westchester/Rockland woodbat league, actually had a couple of guys plucked from his team during the last major league strike. One of the guys, who was going to play in the bigs, got cut after they found out he’d lied about his playing history on his application…yikes…KNUCKLEHEAD!!
Anyhow, got a little extra sun yesterday at the beach, so I’ll be wearing sunscreen and a t-shirt til that resolves…that matzoh must have baked quickly in this crazy hot sun when our forefathers were wandering the desert out of Egypt!
Today, going to try to get in a little more of a baseball workout and run about five miles, maybe to the beach and meet the guys there. The beach area around Tel Aviv is definitely cool….foud a great place to eat and get a reprieve from the cafeteria at the Kfar. Mike’s Place is a cool, good old American sports bar food (better than most I’ve had in the States, actually). Dont' know why the league hasn't worked something out with them to put a banner in the place, have schedules for the taking and maybe even an event with players there. Would be great p.r.
Wandered the backstreets a little bit and found a few places to rely on to pick some things up. Going to have to get a rental car in the next several days. Will make travel much easier. And if you come visit, I’ll be able to pick you up at the airport if I’m not obligated to be at a clinic, game or other league activity (so far, there haven’t really been any, though they tell us our schedule will have activities added soon).ok…more later.
Well, too much excitement to get out for a run…we got our uniforms today and took individual pictures. The league may (or may not) be coming out with …. baseball cards…my guess is that they will do it for the marquee guys, but we’ll see…all in all it was a lot of fun….I scored one of the two numbers I was hoping for…21…the number of my idol growing up, the great ballplayer and humanitarian, Roberto Clemente (for those of you who have not read it, I highly recommend his fairly recent biography by David Marannis). During the uniform distribution, I met a bunch of my teammates… we have a great bunch of guys from what I’ve seen so far…with Ron Blomberg at the helm, I think we’ll be a loose, relaxed, exciting team that will surprise some of these other teams…Eric Holtz is the official assistant coach, but he’s a player, too…the man knows his baseball and will be joined by my roomie, Scott Perlman in helping Blomberg. But it’s clear that this team will all join in on helping things click. I think one of our studs is going to be this guy Johnny Lopez…he’s big…he plays 3rd and 1st and is eager to break a tie by helping us win a homerun derby. We’ve got a young fella with a great baseball name, Sean Slaughter who looks like he’ll get on base a bunch, steal some bases and get us on the board early. We’re deep in pitchers, including a local fella from our “home” town, Bet Shemesh…Jeff Mohr and a Canadian kid with a nice arm, Jason Benson. We’ve got a couple of catchers who are big dudes and look like brick walls behind the plate who can do some damage with the bat..
Gotta tell you that this league, overall, also seems like a really great bunch of guys…incredibly diverse…from all over the country, from Australia, from the Dominican Republic, from Canada, from Japan (we lost our guy from the Ukraine, who we were told had visa issues). Indeed, it was cool to see one of the Dominican guys talking to the Japanese guy…turns out the guy from D.R. speaks some Japanese because he played some pro ball in Japan…very niiiice, I was interviewed by a reporter from Beersheba who came up to interview players in the league for the Jewish Press…we had a great chat…turns out she’s from Brooklyn, too…the center of the universe…so, Google The Jewish Press for an IBL article and hopefully I will not have been edited out.

The room I’ve settled into is terrific. Along with Scott, we’ve got Jim Pierce from Dorchester, MA., a D-III infielder who played his college ball at Thomas College in Maine and Nat Ballberg from Long Valley, NJ, a D-III pitcher/infielder who played his college ball at Haverford College in PA. I’ve warmed up with both of them and they can flat out play. Nat has some nasty movement on his pitches and throws a knuckler with more juice on it than any I’ve ever seen before. Jim is on the Blue Sox with Scott and me while Nat is on the Ra’nana Express. We’d like Nat to stay with us, but we’re waiting to see what the league is deciding about having a mandatory rule that teammates room with teammates. Nat, Jim and I have hit the beach together a couple of times and explored the backstreets of Tel Aviv.
Tomorrow, we have a mandatory meeting at 8 a.m. and then a practice from 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. (Nat’s team practices at 7:30 a.m. and then meets when they get back). So, it’s time for me to get some sleep because tomorrow, the real excitement begins. My first official practice as a pro player….
Practice was cool...took balls in the OF and at 1B and handled it just fine. We have some talented players on this team and we're excited to get out there and show what we got. That's on Monday. First things first, the league opener on Sunday. Only two teams are playing, so the rest of us serve as league ambassadors, meeting and greeting folks coming into the ballpark, signing autographs (yeah, really, I mean, pinch me!) and that sort of thing.
Been working with some of the more senior guys here to sort through some lifestyle issues that we're all facing here at the Kfar...am happy to report that my room now has a working A/C. It got installed today and makes a significant difference.
Well, I've got to go drop this at my room so that I make the bus out to Petak Tikva for the opener. Will update this all more regularly now.
Miss you all...be in touch!




.

8 comments:

Mom and Dad said...

hi alan, enjoyed this update. wish youeverything you are hoping for. Love, mom and dad

lil sis said...

hi,alan. great catch up blog. i hope your frozen ropes go as long! it made for good reading, to say the least. (i hope you got my e-mail, sent in error when i thought i had pressed comment.) keep the blogs coming and have a super time. GO BLUE SOX!!!

Unknown said...

Alan, see you got your first plate appearance... nice sacrifice. Lets get an update on the blog to get some more game details.

DG

Ageeman said...

An update will be on the way shortly...the Sox are on a roll..5-0...we've fast become marked men out here in Yisrael...

Unknown said...

6-0 baby and your first hit... way to go. .333 average would look pretty good on my fantasy team right now.

Anonymous said...

Hi ALan, - enjoyed reading your blog which David was kind enough to send me. Note that you left out the "l" in Israel in your reference to the www.israelballleage.com. Will continue to follow your blog, with great hopes for your career as a BB Player. And here I thought that basketball was your true love.

David's Father, EG

Strouter said...

Alan! Long time, no post, my friend! I hope you're well and having a blast. Update us soon -- we miss you. --Erin

justadam said...

Alan, you're updating your blog far too often. Thanks for keeping us all up to date on your progress. Oh and thanks for answering your e-mails as well ;-) So are you in the playoffs? Did you bring home a Middle East Series ring???