The Israel Association of Baseball is offering our biggest and best ever baseball training ‎camps in ‎the ‎summer. For the first time, we will be offering 4 weeks of ‎summer baseball training camps in two separate ‎sessions:‎

First session: Baptist Village ‎
Week 1: July 6 – 10‎
Week 2: July 13 – 17‎

Second session: Kibbutz Gezer ‎
Week 3: August 10 - 14‎
Week 4: August 17 – 21‎

The camps are open to players from minors through cadets (ages 6-14)‎. ‎

Staff will include Leon Klarfeld, chief umpire; Nate Fish, National Director; ‎Richard ‎Kania, Senior National Team coach; as well as other top ‎coaches from ‎our ‎organization.‎

Each day will start at 8:30 and go through to 14:00‎.‎ Participants will have use of ‎the ‎swimming pools at both locations, and will receive a mid-morning snack.‎
Players can register on our website registration page under “Summer Clinics” and can sign up for ‎all ‎‎4 weeks or any of the four weeks in any combination, for ‎example, for week 1 and ‎week ‎‎3.‎ ‎
Payment can be made by credit card or by check to the Israel Association of Baseball ‎in ‎up to three equal payments for the beginning of July, ‎August and September.‎

These camps are an excellent way for ‎players to increase their skill levels and have a ‎lot ‎of fun in the process. They are also a great opportunity for new players ‎to ‎gain ‎baseball knowledge before starting to play for the first time, so players should feel ‎free to ‎bring along their friends.‎

Join us next week for the first Israel Baseball Summer Classic. This year’s Summer ‎Classic, taking place on June 19-24, will be a best of 5 series between the top two ‎teams in Israel - the Senior National Team and the Under-21 National Team. Both ‎teams will bolster their rosters with players joining us from America for the games. ‎The tournament takes place exactly one month before the Senior National Team ‎travels to Slovenia for the European Championships. Both teams will be sure to ‎provide Israel Baseball fans with an exciting week of baseball. ‎

So come and watch the best players in Israel compete to be champions of the First ‎Annual Israel Baseball Summer Classic.‎

Schedule
Game 1: Thursday, June 19, 19:15, Baptist Village
Game 2: Friday, June 20, 10:30, Sportek Tel Aviv‎
Game 3: Sunday, June 22, 19:15, Baptist Village
Game 4: Monday, June 23, 19:15, Baptist Village‎

Finals
Tuesday June 24, 19:15‎, Baptist Village

Noam Calisar, 16, from the Tel Aviv Comrades, was selected to participate in an MLB ‎camp. Noam was sent to Prague in April to try out for the MLB camps with another ‎‎360 players from around Europe. Noam was chosen to participate in a hitting mini-‎camp to take place in Hoofddorp in the Netherlands at the end of June.‎

We spoke to Noam after he received the good news from Major League Baseball ‎International, which organizes camps for talented players throughout the world. ‎

What was the selection process?‎
I travelled to Prague for the tryouts. Richard Kania, the Israel Senior National Team ‎coach who lives in Prague, hosted me at his home and helped me to prepare for the ‎tryouts. The tryouts included infield drill – 60 yard (55 meter) sprints, ground balls to ‎each side and from shortstop to first base, and finally two batting rounds of eight ‎pitches.‎

How do you feel having been selected for the camp?‎
I am very proud to be chosen to participate in an MLB training camp and to represent ‎Israel baseball and the State of Israel as well.‎

What do you hope to gain from the camp?‎
I am looking forward to the opportunity to train as much as possible with MLB ‎coaches, to improve my playing capabilities and to be exposed to MLB coaches and ‎scouts. ‎

What age did you start playing baseball?‎
I started playing baseball when I lived in Japan at the age of 9.‎

What are your baseball ambitions?‎
I want to be the first Israeli in the MLB and of course to help develop baseball in Israel.‎

• Israel Baseball
• Noam Calisar

Israel Baseball has taken one step closer to building its own baseball facility in Bet ‎Shemesh. On Friday May 16, Bet Shemesh Mayor Moshe Abutbul came out to Kibbutz ‎Gezer to watch the Cadets game between the Bet Shemesh Comets and the Rehovot ‎Raptors and also to throw out the first ball. The mayor accepted an invitation from the ‎IAB to attend a game, see how the field is used and to experience the enthusiasm and ‎enjoyment of the players and their families. ‎

The City of Bet Shemesh is offering the IAB the opportunity to build a baseball facility in a ‎prime location in Bet Shemesh and is currently rezoning the area for sports recreation. ‎Currently, there are about 250 youth playing baseball in Bet Shemesh, the largest center ‎of baseball in the country. With the active assistance of Mayor Abutbul, the IAB and JNF ‎have joined forces to fundraise and build the complex. ‎

During a chat with the players, their coaches and members of the IAB, Mayor Abutbul ‎said that the Bet Shemesh municipality wants to offer facilities for the various groups in ‎the city to use for sports and other leisure activities, and building a baseball facility is one ‎way to achieve this goal. The IAB also presented the mayor with his own personalized ‎Israel Baseball sweatshirt and an Israel baseball hat.‎

‎"We look forward to seriously expanding our baseball program in Bet Shemesh from the ‎‎250 players today to over 1,000 once the field is built next year," noted IAB President ‎Peter Kurz. "As the saying goes, 'if we build it, they will come'. With the generous support ‎of the Bet Shemesh Mayor, we will be able to make this facility a reality and include ‎many more players from all over Bet Shemesh in baseball activities."‎

Baseball summer camp 2014 will be bigger and better than ever before, and registration ‎is now open!‎

For the first time, the IAB will be offering 4 weeks (yes, that’s four weeks) ‎of ‎summer ‎baseball training camps in two separate ‎sessions.‎ The clinics are open to players from ‎minors through cadets (ages 6-14)‎. ‎

Clinic staff will include Leon Klarfeld, Chief Umpire; Nate Fish, National Director; ‎Richard ‎Kania, Senior National Team coach; as well as other top ‎coaches from ‎our ‎organization.‎

"Last year, the summer camps were so successful and the kids had such a great time, ‎that we realized that this year we had to expand the program and give the players more ‎time and more coaching," says camp organizer Leon Klarfeld. ‎

The program will be divided into two sessions of two weeks each, and players can attend ‎any or all of the weeks on offer. The first session takes place at the Baptist Village ‎- week ‎‎1 from July 6 – 10‎ and week 2 from July 13 – 17‎. The second session is at Kibbutz ‎Gezer ‎- week 3 from August 10 - 14‎ and week 4 from August 17 – 21. Each day will start ‎at 8:30 and go through to 14:00‎.‎ Participants will have use of the ‎swimming pools at both ‎locations, and will receive a mid-morning snack.‎

‎“We’ve already seen that baseball summer camp is an excellent way for ‎players to ‎increase their skill levels and have a lot ‎of fun in the process,” says National Director ‎Nate Fish, who is one of the head coaches at the camp. “In addition, if there are new ‎players planning on starting baseball in the fall, the camps are a great way for them to get ‎a head-start on their baseball learning before starting to play for the first time.”‎

Players can register through our website under “Summer Clinics” and can sign up for ‎all ‎‎4 weeks or any of the four weeks in any combination, for ‎example, for week 1 and ‎week ‎‎3.‎ ‎Players who register before June 1 will receive discounted prices. ‎

For more information, email Nate Fish – ‎