A Little Help from our Friends

The support for first ever Maccabiah baseball tournament has been overwhelming. Volunteers from the USA and Europe have been pouring in and immediately rolling up their sleeves to get to work. First to arrive was Yeshiva University baseball coach Norman Ringel and his assistant David Green who led a series of pre-Maccabiah coaches clinics. Norman will be on hand at the games and give IAB coaches a view of the games from the man with experience. Next to arrive were the European certified scorekeepers, Hauke Brockmann and Jeanette Anneberg. Immediately upon arrival they met with the Israeli scorekeeping team, led by Ariel Kornberg and spent two fascinating evenings on the ins and outs (and hits and errors etc) of being an official scorer.

The next IAB airport visit was for the umpires and technical commission members,Bob Alexander, John Funk, Johnny Puma, Steve Sulligan who will join IAB's own Craig Dunning as tournament umpires. Jere "Iceberg" Parker came to join the one and only Leon Klarfeld to serve on the Technical Commission.

Additional friends of the IAB also came to be on hand for Israel baseball's big day, including Dave Altop, Head Baseball Coach of Lee University in Cleveland, TN and a member of the NAIA coaches Hall of Fame, Jeff Segal and former Atlanta Brave pitcher Marty Cleary.

The IAB owes a debt of gratitude to Jiri Votinsky of the Czech Baseball Federation, who is responsible for the Maccabiah web site where were will be able to view the statistics of all the games, teams and players. Jiri is busy hosting the CEB Championship in the Czech Republic and was not able to attend our games.

The Israel Association of Baseball thanks all of them for coming and wishes them a great visit.