by www.baseballeurope.com
An International Baseball Tournament is currently being played within the framework of the Maccabiah Games at the Sportek field in Tel Aviv, Israel. This tournament, involving National Teams from the United States, Canada, Mexico and host Israel, will run from July 12 through July 28th when the finals will be held.
During this tournament, at the Opening Ceremonies attended by, among others, Jamie McCourt, owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers; Joel Mael, vice-Chairman of the Florida Marlins; Marvin Goldklang, part owner of the NY Yankees and five minor league baseball teams; Jeff Rosen, owner of the Haifa Heat; the US Ambassador to Israel, Ambassador Cunningham; Sam Pelter, CEB Secretary General; as well as other dignitaries, the Israel Association of Baseball (IAB) signed a contract with Field of Dreams (a new company backed by Goldklang, Rosen and Jeff Royer, owner of the Arizona Diamondbacks) to explore the possibilities of establishing a new professional baseball league in Israel. This initiative, with the full backing of prominent Major League baseball owners, calls for a due diligence process and the full exploration into the proper formulation, financing, groundwork and development for a league within 24 months.
Both Goldklang and Rosen expressed their optimism that this venture would bear fruit and Haim Katz, the President of the IAB, said this would be a major boost for Israeli baseball, raising it to the European level and beyond.