The number of teams and players gathered in Tel Aviv on that sunny Friday was a testament to just how far baseball has come in Israel. It was not always this way.
Baseball in Israel made history when more than 100 children from 11 cities across the country took part in the first-ever Under-12 National Tournament on July 9 and 10, with games being played simultaneously on four fields.
The American pastime has established a firm presence in the Israeli sports landscape and continues to grow, offering programs throughout the country for players of every age and level, from 5-year-olds all the way to the highest levels of international competition, including the World Baseball Classic.
At Israel’s first-ever U12 National Championship game, played at the Sportek Field in Tel Aviv’s Hayarkon Park on a hot and humid Friday, Efrat defeated Modiin in the final. While Efrat was elated with its championship victory, the achievement represented much more than a win for the players, coaches, and parents. It was also a significant victory for the steady growth and expansion of Israel’s baseball community.
The final was the culmination of two days of baseball featuring nine teams from throughout the country, including Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Ra’anana, Misgav, Efrat, Modiin, Beit Shemesh and Bat Hefer. Teams and clubs from Misgav and Efrat, which have existed for years, met for the first time in the tournament.
The tournament also featured teams from the up-and-coming community of Karmey Gat, as well as a young startup team from Beersheba, founded by one baseball-loving father, Jonathan Leiman. A die-hard Baltimore Orioles fan, Leiman was so determined to have his children fall in love with baseball that he took responsibility for starting a team himself.
Young Israeli baseball players take part in a practice session as the sport continues to grow, with youth programs expanding into communities across the country. (credit: IAB/Courtesy)
Boys and a few girls from all over Israel spent the two days playing baseball, eating pizza, bantering playfully, and watching games together from the stands. At the championship game – held early enough on Friday so that Shabbat observers could get home with plenty of time before the start of Shabbat – children and adults watched together as Efrat cruised to victory.
The parents, many of them immigrants from the United States, enjoyed communicating in English with others who had similarly moved to Israel and found baseball to be a useful tool for providing what many described as a “soft landing” for their children.
The number of teams and players gathered in Tel Aviv on that sunny Friday was a testament to just how far baseball has come in Israel. It was not always this way.
For many Jews around the world, Israeli baseball has typically been associated with the storybook run of Team Israel at the World Baseball Classic and its appearances on the Olympic stage. Many baseball-loving Jews have taken pride in seeing some of their favorite Major League Baseball players – including Danny Valencia, Ike Davis, Kevin Youkilis, and Brad Ausmus – wearing yarmulkes, standing on the base paths for Hatikvah, and competing for or managing Team Israel.
But as the successful U12 championship demonstrated, baseball in Israel is about much more than its national team. It is also about the dedicated parents, coaches, players, and organizers who are building the sport from the ground up.
Each club is run by a dedicated Regional Director, who serves as the engine of growth for baseball in each city. In Jerusalem, Callie Mitchell, a Christian mother of four and daughter of longtime Major League Baseball catcher, coach, and manager Jerry Narron, serves as the Jerusalem Regional Director for the Israel Association of Baseball (IAB) and directs the Jerusalem Lions Baseball nonprofit.
Mitchell has helped introduce baseball to children ages 5 to 18, as well as to adults, and is involved in many of the day-to-day nuts-and-bolts issues unique to running a baseball program in Israel – from setting up WhatsApp groups and ordering buses to making soccer fields work as baseball practice fields and securing baseballs, gloves, and catcher’s equipment through Amazon and US-based baseball connections.
Callie Mitchel, a Christian mother of four and daughter of longtime Major League Baseball catcher, coach and manager Jerry Narron, serves as the Jerusalem Regional Director for the Israel Association of Baseball (IAB) and directs the Jerusalem Lions Baseball nonprofit. (credit: IAB/Courtesy)
Mitchell enjoys watching what her colleagues are accomplishing with their teams and programs throughout Israel. She praises Judah in Bat Hefer, who “brings a baseball aesthetic to the field. He makes dugouts, backstops, a round portable pitcher’s mound, and beautiful shelving for his shed. It’s really inspiring, and I love what he’s doing for the children in his program.”
In Misgav, Yaniv Rosenfeld is introducing baseball to native Israeli sabras. He goes into schools and teaches baseball during sports and English classes. Rosenfeld has built the only real Hebrew-language baseball program in the country so far, expanding the sport in northern Israel even during these past years of war, sirens and conflict.
Jeff Oshrin, manager of the Efrat team, shares Mitchell’s enthusiasm for watching baseball grow in Hebrew.
“In Gezer, they play baseball in Hebrew!” he said, noting that in Misgav and Gezer, more and more Israelis are playing the sport. “There are Israelis teaching Israelis how to play baseball!”
Oshrin has enjoyed watching baseball grow and thrive in his community of Efrat and takes great pride in what the community has accomplished.
“We are immensely proud of what we have brought to Efrat. Baseball is our rock – and it has helped ease the aliyah stresses for many who have moved to Efrat. There are currently programs for all ages and batting cages, bleachers, and a lit field. We play for the love of the game. We have built something very special.”
The primary goal for 2026 and beyond, according to Israel Association of Baseball President Ari Varon, is for baseball in Israel to provide “a complete pathway from first grade through adulthood.”
Baseball is both a team sport and an individual sport, allowing players to pursue personal excellence while also emphasizing cooperation and collaboration with their teammates.
Varon and the IAB executive board, with the organization celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, are focusing on several goals and strategies to continue expanding baseball in Israel. They include an emphasis on increasing participation and strengthening local clubs.
“Excellence remains essential, but excellence cannot be built sustainably without a broad and growing base,” the IAB notes. “For this stage of baseball in Israel, quantity must come before quality.”
The organization stresses that “a larger player base is the foundation from which stronger clubs, better competition, deeper coaching systems, and higher-level national teams can emerge.”
The IAB recognizes that baseball is competing with two hugely popular sports in Israel – soccer and basketball. But the organization believes baseball can offer an important alternative for children who give up on those sports because they are too time-consuming or competitive, yet still desire the opportunity to compete.
The IAB is therefore looking for ways to get more children – especially those in first through sixth grades – playing baseball in more communities across Israel.
Varon and the IAB acknowledge that, unlike soccer and basketball, many Israelis still do not know much about baseball.
“We need school exposure, community events, introductory sessions, visible local activity, social media, tournaments, family events, and repeated opportunities to try the game,” Varon said.
He elaborated on the organization’s long-term vision.
“The long-term objective is the development of a complete baseball ecosystem in which a child can discover the game in first grade, continue through elementary and middle school, compete at higher levels in high school, play in adult and Premier League competition, and eventually return as a parent, coach, volunteer, or club leader with children of his or her own.”
During the past year, baseball has expanded into Kiryat Gat and Beersheba, with further development underway in Even Yehuda. The IAB is also working to create baseball opportunities for people living in communities near the Gaza border and to expand the sport in northern Israel.
Varon notes that “baseball can offer children routine, teamwork, physical activity, personal goals, mentorship, and a safe place to belong.” He says that growing baseball in the Gaza border communities and in the North is “part of both a sports-development strategy and a broader commitment to resilience, excellence, and community.”
The IAB sums up its growth plan with three Ps: Players, people and places.
The leagues will recruit and retain players who will progress through the various age groups. People will include more coaches, umpires, volunteers and commissioners. And places will include additional fields and facilities, including indoor training centers.
Varon concludes with a vision that extends far beyond youth baseball.
“The long-term vision is not a youth program with an endpoint. It is a baseball life cycle. A healthy sports culture should allow a player to enter elementary school, continue through teenage competition, participate in adult baseball, and remain connected to the sport even after regular competitive play ends.
“The Premier League and other adult frameworks are therefore an important part of the development model, even though the largest numerical emphasis remains on younger ages. When former players become coaches, parents, officials, donors, board members, and club founders, the sport begins to reproduce itself.
“That is the point at which baseball becomes more than a collection of programs. It becomes a sustainable community and a permanent part of Israeli sport.”
If all goes according to plan, these homegrown young 12-year-olds may one day grow up to represent Team Israel at the highest levels of international competition – perhaps even at the World Baseball Classic and the Olympics.
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