I start too often, I know, by apologizing for not writing lately. I am like an absent father who shows up and apologizes for disappearing before disappearing again. But sometimes a King of Jewish Baseball must leave his blog behind and venture out into the world to coach baseball. Ah yes, the call of the wild, the triumph of the spirit, the open sea, youth sports.
I must tell you, dearest idiotic reader, the Senior National Team aka the Greatest Jewish Baseball Show on Earth, began practice last week. We got the dates for our tournament, July 27 – August 3rd, in Vienna, Austria. We will play Austria, Poland, Sweden, Lithuania, and Belarus. Winner goes up to the A-Pool in 2016. And so, as the weather changes and spring approaches, in Israel, at least, after a grueling 6-week winter where temperatures plummeted to nearly 60 degrees Fahrenheit, we begin again, a new season, a new mission, Vienna, this time, the dawn of a new era, the natural cycles of the universe.
Another experiment yesterday with the new technology called “radio”, where thoughts and the voices that express them are broadcast through the air using complex formations of female astronauts, I’ve been told, and magic. Every time I do an interview I think, this is it, this is the time I hit them with the real stuff, the poetry, like Mohammed did it. People ask me who my favorite baseball player is, and I tell them, that’s easy, Mohammed Ali. But when the interview starts, it’s not Ali, it’s just me, and I sound more like Derek Jeter than Mohammed Ali. I may not have sung it on the radio, but the great thing about writing is… you always get the last word. So as we prepare for our greatest challenge yet, as we set out on the long hard ROAD TO VIENNA, as we train, every week, road work, sparring, jumping rope, I say here and now…
YISRAEL BOOMBAYEH, YISRAEL BOOMBAYEH, YISRAEL BOOMBAYEH.
http://tlv1.fm/sports/2015/01/20/sporting-mensches-the-many-guises-of-israels-baseball-king/