Peter Kurz is the Secretary General for the Israel Association of Baseball.
I was also just voted the First VP of CEB – the European Baseball Federation
Mr. Kurz, thank you for taking the time to chat with us.
Thanks for having me. We are trying to get the message out about baseball in Israel and this is a great opportunity to do so. We are raising funds for our own IAB Home and Field of Dreams facility in Ranaana, so any opportunity to do so is great
Please tell us about yourself.
I was born and raised in New York City. Grew up as a NY Mets fan, celebrating the ’69 miracle Mets as a 12 year old kid. Fell in love with baseball, although I never played the game – only softball.
At the age of 25 I moved to Israel, to raise a family and three kids.
When my son was 9, I heard about baseball in Israel, and took him to a practice. After 2 practices, the coach asked if I wanted to help him. I told him I didn’t know anything about coaching baseball, and he said these kids don’t know anything about playing baseball, so it’s a match.
I started coaching, and after 2 months, the head coach left and I became head coach.
Two months later the powers that be asked me to take a National Team to Holland, as the Team Manager – they said they needed a responsible adult. I agreed and the rest is history.
I attended coaching and umpire clinics, became a Board member and took 8 teams of different age groups overseas to international tournaments. I was elected as Secretary General eight years ago, and in that time we have had in Israel a Professional league for one summer, 2 Maccabiah tournaments, a European Qualifier tournament, and Team Israel participated in the World Baseball Classic Qualifiers last September. I am very proud of all these accomplishments, as membership in the IAB has doubled.
Exciting things are happening with baseball in Israel. Can you share what’s going on?
As I mentioned above, we have seen a doubling of the number of people playing in Israel over the last few years, and our goal is to redouble that in 3 years.
We have hired a new National Director for the IAB – Nate Fish will be moving to Israel in the summer and will be in charge of developing both the little leagues and our national teams.
Nate, better known for his blog The King of Jewish Baseball, attended a D1 college and was the roommate of Kevin Youkilis, went on to play some semi-pro league baseball, played in the professional league in Israel, was our assistant coach in the European Qualifiers, was the bullpen catcher for Team Israel in the WBC and has run a very successful baseball school in NY for over 5 years. He will now be bringing his talents to bear in Israel, after coaching the USA Maccabiah team in July.
We will be holding the Junior Maccabiah Tournament this summer, pitting teams from the USA, Canada and Israel. One of the players from the Maccabiah 4 years ago was just recently a first round pick in the MLB draft.
Although we lost the qualifying round of the WBC, we will soon be building out team for the next qualifiers in 3.5 years. We are building a cadre of native Israelis for that team, and our goal is to have 10 Israelis on that team (we had 3 Israelis last year). If Brad Ausmus is not hired as an MLB Manager before then, we would certainly like to have him back, but I doubt that a man of his talents will still be available.
We are sending a National team to the PONY tournament in Prague in April – last year the Israel team was in the top bracket and this years team should be even better. They are coached by our top National Team Manager, my son, Amit Kurz.
Lastly, we are in the final stages of our plans for the new IAB Home facility in Raanana, on land donated to us by the city and worth over $10 million. This will be a full size field with lights, stands for 1000 people with the possibility of expanding to 5000; clubhouse; gym facility; batting cages; IAB offices, concessions; etc. It will be the center for the IAB activities, and, as they say, if you build it, they will come……we are in the midst of raising the $6 million we need to build the field.
Who were your influences growing up?
The 1969 NY Mets
One of the members of that team, Art Shamsky, is the unofficial Ambassador of Israeli baseball and will be visiting with us in April, touring the country with a UJA group and holding clinics for our kids.
Israel had a pretty good roster for the WBC. What was it like working with the guys? Andrew Lorraine has been a pitching coach in the NWL with Everett. We love Andrew.
The WBC team was the best Jewish baseball team ever assembled. The coaching staff was completely professional and on top of their game. Led by Brad Ausmus, a 19 year veteran catcher and candidate for the Boston Red Sox managerial position, Brad prepared a coaching staff whose jobs were clear and carried out perfectly (almost so, except for the result of the final game, but that’s baseball). Shawn Green was player/coach and he was a great inspiration for all the other players – running the bases with abandon, practicing hard, hitting the batting cage and giving a lot of pointers to budding minor leaguers. Who wouldn’t want to get pointers from an ex-major leaguer with over 300 career home runs. Gabe Kapler was also going to be a player/coach, but due to an injury he was only the bench coach (allowing Adam Greenberg to be on the roster). Andrew Lorraine was the pitching coach, and scouted many of the pitchers in the minors. Mark Loretta was our third base and infield coach, and as he liked to say, “I may not be Jewish, but my wife is….” (there is no such regulation regarding the coaching staff). Matt Martin rounded out the staff as our first base coach. The team was supported by Adam Gladstone out of Baltimore who expertly handled all the logistics; Barry Friedman was our trainer; Glenn Copeland of the Blue Jays was our doctor and gave a truly inspirational speech prior to the last game; and Dan Rootenberg was our strength and conditioning trainer.
The players were all very enthusiastic to play for Team Israel and they totally soaked up the “Israeliness” we tried to give them. We taught them the Israeli National anthem and even had to practice NOT taking off the caps when it was played ( as Jews need to keep their heads covered to God). We together as a team celebrated Rosh Hashannah, the Jewish New Year, probably the most holy of Jewish holidays, which fell 3 days before the qualifiers. For many players it was their first time since they were kids to celebrate that holiday, as it always happens to fall during the baseball season.
Two of the players came to Israel in December to visit
Who is the best Israeli born player?
The player with the greatest potential is Alon Leishman, who is today pitching for Cypress College in California.
Dan Rothem and Shlomo Lipetz, both in their 30’s now, pitched for D3 colleges in their hey day and still pitch for the Israel National team.
Eitan Maoz is a catcher who just graduated from a D1 school in the south
Oren Gal is a Canadian who has played in the highest levels of the Canadian baseball leagues
Guy Stevens is a Junior in a D3 college in California and relief pitching for them.
Amit Kurz played college ball in Korea
Four other Israelis played D3 college baseball in the past
How has baseball been accepted in Israel?
Very well, and as I mentioned before, it is rapidly growing. In an area close to Jerusalem, Bet Shemesh, we already have over 250 kids and need to turn them away because we don’t have enough fields for them all to play.
Our biggest problem is lack of good facilities, and we hope this new field will help.
Mr. Kurz, once again thank you for talking with 9 inning Know it All. Is there anything else you would like to add?
Just log on to our web site, visit us in Israel, donate towards the field and come root us on in 3 years in the WBC Qualifiers.
Thank you
Check out the Israel Association of Baseball website at http://www.baseball.org.il/en/