andre_sternberg.jpgDo you know where there is a source for Baseball in the Torah? It’s in the very first sentence of Breishis/Genesis: In the big inning….

The first ever professional baseball league in Israeli history got off to start this weekend with nearly 4000 fans watching the Petach Tikva Pioneers get clobbered by the Modi’in Miracles.
Albeit quite corny names, the baseball was real enough.

The Israel Baseball League has six teams, made of of players from around the world.

Perhaps my favorite footnote to this: no one had created a lexicon for baseball in Hebrew for the announcers to use. There is no way to say the common expressions that make baseball, well, baseball.

Puzzled broadcasters calling the first professional baseball game in Israeli history struggled with rendering baseball lingo into the holy tongue of Hebrew.

After a valiant effort at translating some of the terms, they gave up _ lacing their broadcast with Hebrew-accented versions of ball, strike, out, majors, pitcher and base hit….

“How do you say ’home plate?’” asked one of the announcers on the cable sports channel, which carried the game live. No one came up with an answer.

Will Israelis tune in for the slow paced game of baseball? The league is hoping for a miracle, maybe even praying for one.

Pictured: Andre Sternberg, a native of Berkeley, California, who recorded the first win in IBL history.