Now an Olympian representing the country, Ian Kinsler traveled to Israel for the first time last year with his wife Tess, just before the coronavirus pandemic became widespread.

"I think we were on one of the last flights to leave Tel Aviv, to come back to Newark," he said. "We want to get our kids over there. I know my dad wants to go. So we definitely want to get back soon."

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A four-time big league All-Star, the 39-year-old Kinsler is playing for Israel's baseball team in the Olympics, part of a 24-man roster that includes former Major League Baseball players Danny Valencia, Ryan Lavarnway and Ty Kelly.

The small nation of 8 million has boosted its baseball profile because of Peter Kurz, a native New Yorker who has lived in the US and Israel since the 1970s. A marketing and export consultant, he serves as the team's general manager and helped recruit Kinsler and the other players.

"Religion was not a part of my upbringing," said Lavarnway, a 10-year major league veteran at catcher. "We celebrated holidays for the Hallmark purposes, for presents and just to have a good time as a family. But I felt like once I dove into the deep end of embracing my Judaism – my wife is Jewish, we had a Jewish wedding, I was part of the Jewish community in Denver – I feel like the purpose and the meaning behind things, it means so much more to me now and just understanding the why behind the what has become really important."
Israel opened with a 6-5, 10-inning loss to defending South Korea, when Lavarnway hit a pair of home runs and Kinsler also went deep, then lost to the United States 8-1, putting it in an elimination game Sunday against Mexico. The team's pitching challenges became evident when Jeremy Bleich, a Pittsburgh front office assistant who last pitched professionally in 2019, hit batters on consecutive pitches for the final run of the opener, and relievers against the Americans included 42-year right-hander Shlomo Lipetz, whose day job is director of music programming at New York's City Winery.

"I play on weekends. I practice as much as possible – early in the morning, late at night," Lipetz said. He retired Boston prospect, Triston Casas, on a groundout, got Todd Frazier to line into an inning-ending double play and gave up a single to Eric Filia."Call me delusional. I think I can get anyone out," Lipetz said.

Infielder Ty Kelly, a three-year big league veteran who last played in the major leagues in 2018, came out of retirement and saw action at Seattle's Triple-A Tacoma before the Olympics. He grew up with a Jewish mother and a Catholic father in Dallas.

"Before the 2017 World Baseball Classic, Peter reached out to me when I was in the Mets organization. I was in Triple-A at the time in Las Vegas," Kelly said. "He found out that I was Jewish. A teammate of mine in 2009, my first professional year, was Jewish, and I guess we had talked about being Jewish. And one of his family friends came to the game in Brooklyn and then we talked about being Jewish, and he knew Peter Kurz."

Manager Eric Holtz, a former assistant coach at Manhattanville and Westchester Community College, was a player-coach in Dan Duquette's Israel Baseball League in 2007. He became an assistant coach about six years later for Nate Fish at the Maccabiah Games – with future major league pitcher Dean Kremer as their left fielder.
Holtz returned to the Maccabiah Games coaching the US, won the gold medal, and at Kurz's behest, became Israel's coach. He relies on a positive nature and knows his limits – especially with someone like Kinsler, who has 1,999 big league hits.

"I have the respect of the guys," Holtz said. "If I see something in Danny Valencia's swing, we're going to talk about it. But at the same token, what am I going to say to a guy that played nine, 10 years in the big leagues about what he's doing? We may discuss his approach a little bit, but for me it's more of the personal side. That to me is a big key in coaching, period, is understanding what makes every one of your players tick. How do I get into them?"

The team played exhibition games in the New York area before going to Japan and received financial support from the Jewish National Fund-USA's Project Baseball, which also is helping build baseball fields in Israel.

Some of the players wore Stars of David on their spikes. While they all take pride in playing for Israel and their Jewish heritage, the team is US-based.

"Tonight it's a little bit more weird, having the national anthem played prior to `Hatikvah,'" Holtz said after the game against the US "It's just neat when you have guys that buy into a dream. And the dream was for us to get here, and here we're competing. And nobody cares about the name on the back. Nobody's playing for money. Nobody's playing for a contract or the next contract. They're all playing for the name on the front of the jersey."

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Jacob Steinmetz's blazing fastball helped make him a baseball draft trailblazer.

The New York native is believed to be the first known practicing Orthodox Jewish player to be selected by a major league team, going in the third round – 77th overall – to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Monday.

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The 6-foot-5, 222-pound Steinmetz, from the Long Island hamlet of Woodmere, is a 17-year-old right-hander whose repertoire features a fastball that sits in the mid- to upper-90s and a knee-buckling curveball. His draft stock rose considerably while playing for the Elev8 Baseball Academy in Delray Beach, Florida, this year after previously competing for his high school team, The Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway.

Steinmetz recently told the New York Post he keeps the Sabbath and eats only Kosher food, but plays during the Sabbath and on Jewish holidays – although he walks to games during the Sabbath rather than taking transportation. No practicing Orthodox Jewish player has made it to the big leagues.

"It's never been frustrating to me," Steinmetz told the New York Post. "It's just something I've always done. It makes me who I am. It's definitely made [my life] different, but in a good way."

Steinmetz's summer coach Daniel Corona told the New York Post that he believes Steinmetz's dual commitment to baseball and Judaism has made him truly special.

"There's a difference between being committed, doing all this hard work and having this extra layer," Corona said. "I don't know if there's ever going to be another Jacob, as far as this whole process goes. He set an example that anything is possible as far as being committed to multiple things at once and still believing in yourself, your dreams, to make them happen."

Prior to the draft, Steinmetz had already committed to Fordham University in the Bronx and didn't want to pitch anywhere else. Now, however, after the Diamondbacks called his name, he has an important decision to make: go to college and play for Fordham, or sign with the Diamondbacks.

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Israeli basketball star Deni Avdija, who played his rookie season for the NBA's Washington Wizards this year, had the honor of throwing out the ceremonial first pitch before Thursday's MLB game between the Nationals and Dodgers.

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Avdija handled himself relatively well by throwing or rather lobbing his pitch in the general vicinity of the plate to Nationals pitcher Joe Ross.

"For me, it's a new experience but I had fun, got my arm ready a little bit, practiced some throws, got it [near] the plate so that's all that matters," Avdija told the Wizards official website after the event.

Considering the many horrendous first-pitches we've seen from celebrities and even other athletes in the past, Avdija can still sleep well at night.

You be the judge:

Couldn't have pitched it Deni better! @nationals pic.twitter.com/3TERFtv1RZ

— Washington Wizards (@WashWizards) July 1, 2021

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