Documentary, 2008
Directors: Erik Kesten, Brett Rapkin
USA/ English
84 minutes
This documentary follows the unlikely formation of the Israel Baseball League (IBL) by Larry Baras, a Jewish Boston bakery owner with no prior sports management experience but a dream of bringing baseball to Israel.
His biggest problem isn't that most Israelis don't care about baseball, but that most don't even know what it is. (For Americans who care nothing about soccer and don't understand cricket at all, it makes you feel a lot better. It's not American ignorance, we all just have our own things.)
They call for players from all over giving many a second chance at a dream and a few Jewish players a dream they had never even dared to have. Six teams comprised of players from America to Israel to the Dominican Republic are finally chosen for the first professional baseball league ever in the Middle East. Nothing goes smoothly and there are a multitude of problems both foreseen and unforeseen. But throughout you can't help rooting for the underdog against all odds.
Will they make it to see that opening day pitch thrown? We'll see.
Lucy Cruell