Apr 24, 2019
and now, introducing, the Hebrew Nationals!
An all-Jewish softball team, playing in a church league, contacted the brand manager of Hebrew National asking for permission to use the name "the Hebrew Nationals" for their team. They decided to not just allow the team to use the name, but ended up sponsoring the team and designing a new uniform for them...
an excerpt:
UW: Tell me about your team and the league that you play in.
SF: It’s a city league, called the Church League. Almost every team is affiliated in one way or another with a church. There’s a church on every corner here in Albuquerque, so there’s a lot of teams, in five divisions.
Our team, we’re not a super-religious bunch, but we were affiliated for many years with one of the four Jewish synagogues here in Albuquerque. But we recently decided to change the name of our team, and also to end that specific affiliation. Most everyone on our team is Jewish, and maybe involved with the Jewish Community Center, the Jewish Federation, or any number of other Jewish organizations, but we didn’t feel we needed that connection to this one synagogue.
UW: Are the other teams all affiliated with Christian churches, or are there Muslim teams, Buddhist, or whatever?
SF: I wish there was more diversity, but all the other teams are affiliated with Christian churches. At one point a few years back our group had enough players to field a second team, so there were two Jewish teams.
UW: What was your team’s previous name?
SF: We were the Congregation Albert — that’s the name of the synagogue — Lions.
[...]
UW: I think a lot of people would have just chosen the name and not worried about asking the company for permission. I mean, if you had simply gone ahead and done it, they probably would never have heard about it, and probably wouldn’t have cared even if they did hear about it, don’t you think?
SF: Probably. But we have some lawyers on my team, and I was thinking I might as well call them, because I didn’t want to get in any trouble. But I had another motive, which was this: If they were okay with us using the name, would they also be willing to send us a logo that I could put on our jerseys? I liked the font, the colors, the whole thing.
UW: So instead of that, they offered to make a full uniform set for you?
SF: Exactly. Dan Skinner, our contact at Conagra [Hebrew National’s parent company], he said, “I don’t know if it’s okay to use the name — let me check with our legal department.” And then he got back to me and said, “Not only are we fine with it, but we all love the idea and want to sponsor the team.”
UW: And what was your reaction?
SF: I was like, are you kidding me? That sounded great! I said yeah, let’s do that.
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Jul 8, 2010
NYPD vs Hatzolah Softball (video)
I am surprised the large key chains and beepers didnt weigh down the Hatzolah guys.. :-)
Mar 25, 2010
Simple solutions
The Black Hebrews are one of the best teams in Israel, perhaps the best though that is debatable.
So this morning why kids were asking about the game and laughing about how badly they beat us.
So my 8 year old son suggested I leave my team and join the Dimona team so I could learn to play better. And I should paint my face black so they would take me on the team...
Jul 16, 2009
The Games Must go on!
Maccabiah Softball is back in business!
They worked out all their issues, got through the bureaucracy, and got that last piece of paper they needed. I guess they realized how bad press this could be, and how damaging for future Maccabiahs or other international events...
Unfortunately, some of the athletes are upset and disturbed by what happened.. and even said:
Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke at the opening ceremony imploring the world's top Jewish athletes to move to Israel, and the very next day the police storm a field to break up a softball game over some bureaucratic bull***t," exclaimed Israel team member Michael Hochman.
"How does that play well for anybody?"
Even more painful to hear, from an enraged foreign softball player who was one of hundreds to shell out thousands of dollars for the opportunity to represent their countries at the Maccabiah in the Jewish homeland:
"I will NOT be making aliya. After four years of training, this nonsense has made my decision very easy. It was easy for the Maccabiah to take our money, and now they have housed us an hour away, and much worse, they did not make sure to be well organized. What a shame. We are totally disgusted and many people1s plans have been ruined...This really hurts," said the player who did not want to give her name.
Why did all this have to go down like this?
Indeed, the timing of the legal enforcement by the municipality - in the middle of an Israel-Mexico game during an event that is widely-viewed as the perfect opportunity to extol Israel's virtues to visitors from abroad rather than expose them to its murky administrative underbelly - seems peculiar at best, even suspicious.
However, those in charge of the decision maintained that there is no evil agenda at play and there was ample warning given that games would be halted if a business license wasn't1t secured.
"The Maccabiah and the Baptist Village were well aware of what had to be completed," explained Petah Tikva spokesperson Hezi Hakak.
"They just chose not take care of things in a timely matter."
Asked why this licensing issue never became an issue before at the Baptist Village, which has hosted a pair of previous Maccabiahs as well as 2007's professional Israel Baseball League, Hakak stated, "you cannot ask why we didn't enforce things properly in the past. There are very good and well-established reasons for requiring venues with a certain amount of people in attendance to have a business license to operate. This is not a new law and the blame for the games being canceled cannot be shifted to the municipality of Petah Tikva."
Regardless of what happened and who is to blame, fortunately the snafu has been corrected in time to accommodate the entire softball schedule.
Play Ball!
Jul 15, 2009
Classic Israeli bureacracy at the Maccabiah
The Maccabiah used to be a fun event, on a small scale, where Jewish athletes could compete against each other. The Maccabiah was small, and interest in it could be found mostly among the non-native Israelis - all the people who have made aliyah finally got to see some of their favorite sports played in Israel. Israelis pretty much knew nothing about the Maccabiah.
This year the Israelis and the Maccabiah board did a tremendous job of marketing. they made it into a real large scale event, to the point that one could really consider it a small-scale Olympics, as it was originally intended to be. The Opening Ceremony was reminiscent of the Olympics Opening Ceremonies, the games are played to greater fanfare, the news is disseminated to the public, etc.
I even heard last night on the radio a broadcaster talking about how she, and the guy sitting talking with her concurred, had never before heard of the Maccabiah and had no idea what it was when they started to make the news regularly a short while ago. She called in a "Sports expert" to explain it all on the show. 10% of the country tuned in to watch the Opening Ceremony. The exposure the Maccabiah is experiencing is unprecedented.
All because of some smart marketing.
The funniest thing, especially considering how much effort they put in to marketing the Maccabiah this year and making it a success is an incident that happened yesterday.
This incident is classic Israeli bureaucracy - it seems there was a problem with Yarkon Field not having applied for a business license. Instead of helping to get it done, or letting the games be played and deal with it afterwards (leagues play there all year round for a few years already, including the short-lived Israel baseball League 2 years ago and the Israel Softball Association), the police raided the field in the middle of a softball game and put an end to play.
they raided the field as if they were raiding the meeting point of the biggest mafia dons in the country. The biggest problem the police have to deal with is an illegal softball game, putting everything they worked for to make the Maccabiah a success into jeopardy?
On Tuesday morning, just as the second inning of an Israel-Mexico contest was about to begin, members of the Petah Tikva Police suddenly turned up and put an immediate stop to the game, as well as canceling the remainder of the Maccabiah softball schedule until further notice.
Evidently, the police were enforcing a stoppage order issued by the Petah Tikva Municipality following a decision late Monday to deny the application for a business license for the Baptist Village.
While the tournament organizers were aware that the venue lacked the license, they were under the impression that it was just a matter of formality in processing the application and that the license, or at least a temporary respite to allow the games to go on as scheduled, would be issued.
"This is not a case where we did not prepare properly," Maccabiah public relations director Yaron Michaeli told The Jerusalem Post.
[...]
Ami Baran, executive director of the Israel Softball Association - and manager of the Israeli men's Maccabiah squad - said the situation could turn into a real debacle if the entire softball event is scrapped, especially with 10 teams from abroad having traveled to Israel specifically for the tournament, and the average foreign player paying in excess of $5,000 to participate.
"The real shame is that we've had four years to prepare for this, and it could all be ruined by a bunch of bureaucratic nonsense. It is doubly strange because the Baptist Village has hosted two previous Maccabiahs, plus [it] was one of the main venues for the Israel Baseball League in 2007 - all without requiring any sort of business license," he said. "I really hope this can get fixed before it is too late."
Hopefully that will get resolved quickly, and they can move on to play the games....
In better news, Israel is offering special packages to encourage athletes in the Maccabiah to make aliyah.
Jun 8, 2009
Clinched!!!
This week's Israel Softball Association games saw Penticon and Shimshon Hi Tech clinch first place in the A and B Pools, respectively, while the Galil Twisters were relegated to the B Pool.Playoffs, here we come!
Apr 14, 2009
Touring in Eretz Yisrael: CHol Hamoed Pesach: Turtle Urine and Fresh Chalav Yisrael Milk
We started out the afternoon in Park Britania. Park Britania is just a few minutes out of Bet Shemesh and is a prime location for visitors from all over the country because of the beautiful grounds, park equipment for kids, and abundant picnic areas and benches. There are also multiple trails originating inside Park Britania, so those who wish to hike will have plenty of options.
We found a spot that was reasonable. It was all pretty similar, with crowds of people in all the sections, but we located one that the tables seemed a bit more spread out and there was a decent open area there for us and our extended family to enjoy.
After getting settled, we first inaugurated the day by shooting off a rocket. As we were preparing it, we saw a hawk in the sky above us hovering. We did not see the hawk again after that, so maybe the rocket hit the hawk and killed it. Truth is, we did not look for the hawk again, and I doubt the rocket hit him. It was a small rocket and disappeared fast. It was a one time rocket that breaks apart so we did not try to retrieve it. We were a bit worried about starting a forest fire, but I could not remember Smokey the Bear ever warning us from shooting rockets in the forest, so I figured it must be ok.
Then we got the bbq going. We built two fires. One for hot dogs and potatoes, and one for the steaks. The hot dog fire seemed to require more work, but thankfully there was plenty of wood available in the forest for burning (without even needing to cut down any trees!) so we got it going nicely.
After a long lazy lunch, all we did was relax in the park. My handy 12 year old son built an Omega (in English that would be a zip line) with the help of his brothers. They hung rope between the trees with knots and hooks. When they eventually finished, the only kids daring enough to actually try it were my 16 month old daughter and 3 year old son. And we were the only parents willing to let our kids go on it. It did not have much zip, but they seemed to enjoy it anyway.
Eventually it was time to go and we started packing up. As I am loading up the car, my son comes running that he needs a bottle of water. He found a shepherd with sheep in the mountainside beneath us and the shepherd had run out of water. I gave him one and then he comes back a short while later with a cup of milk. He tells me that because he gave the shepherd the water, the shepherd let him help milk a sheep and take the milk. Does a 12 year old boy have the ability to make milk into Chalav Yisroel by his supervision of the milking process (and assistance) or do you have to be bar mitzvah? I have no idea but nobody wanted to drink this milk anyway - we were all fleishige from lunch and the milk was starting to smell as the time went by.
So I took some of the other kids down to see the sheep. The shepard (Bedouin I think) was friendly. He even pointed to a turtle crawling in the grass for my son to take, but when he picked it up it urinated on him so he decided he did not want it... The shepard told us that he was from Beer Sheva. He comes to this area with his sheep and stays for about 2.5 months letting them graze. the grass in the Bet Shemesh area is much better than in the Beer Sheva area... This discussion reminded me about the fight between the shepherds of Avrahama and the shepherds of Lot about whether to allow the sheep to graze in the pastures of other people... In the meantime, he lives in a tent he pointed out to us in the distance. He had 250 sheep with him.
Eventually we went home. Later in the evening I had a softball game to play in Kibbutz Gezer. Most of the family came to watch and cheer me on. We won the game, I played ok with two hits and 3 RBI..We got home close to midnight and conked out...
May 21, 2007
good sportsmanship
The story is very inspiring...
Last night I was witness to a similar display of good sportsmanship (albeit not quite as emotional).
My softball team was playing the Dawgs last night. Our center fielder was stealing second base and somehow pulled a muscle as he pulled into second. He could hardly move, yet we could not replace him. We only had nine players. Taking him out of the game meant a forfeit (and this game was going to be a fairly easy win - we ended up winning something like 16-7).
He stayed in the game. We just figured he would be an easy out and on defense would move over to first base and I would move over to Center Field (and I had a great game in center with 4 catches).
So, he is on second and the next batter is on first. The next batter comes up to bat. He hits a long double. The crippled guy should easily have been able to score, but he could not move. He was limping around third base as the throw came in to the first baseman from the outfield.
He could have easily thrown the cripple out at home. But he held onto the ball and let him score.
That was a display of great sportsmanship.
The irony was that we had an opportunity to reciprocate.
Later on the game, the opposing first baseman hurt himself legging out a single. He stayed in the game thinking he could play. He got caught off first base on a long fly ball that was caught. We could have easily thrown him out while he hobbled back to first. We held onto the ball and let him hobble back. He then came out of the game and was replaced by somebody else, as they had an extra player.
Apr 6, 2007
Pesah softball
I always say that baseball (and softball too) was created to be played during the day....
Today we played the team from Eilat in the Israel Softball League (fast pitch). We beat them 14-1 on fabulous defense and great hitting by everybody on the team. Because it was Hol Ha'Moed, plenty of fans came out to watch and cheer us on (guys brought their kids and wives....)
The requisite post-game handshake saying "good game!"
Mar 1, 2007
Softball season has begun
Feb 22, 2007
Softball season is starting! (video)
here is a video of a great catch for you to be impressed by...
Jan 19, 2007
bring on those steaks!
Softball season is fast approaching. Today is the day we had to take our stress tests to ensure that we would not collapse on the field from the overly strenuous sport being played, and if we do at least we would be insured.
At the end of my stress test I asked the technician how I did. The technician responded by saying, "As far as I am concerned, fine. You are in shape and fit. Keep doing what you are doing!"
I never thought I was in shape. At best, maybe not in bad enough shape to have a heart attack on the basketball course or softball field. But now I know I am in shape.
And not only that but they want me to continue eating red meat and hardly exercising (she said to keep doing what I am doing)!! There is a God!!!
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