I got this e-mail yesterday from Haim…
I am pleased to announce that Nate Fish has agreed to serve as national director of the IAB.
Nate is no stranger to Israel Baseball. He was a golden-glove third baseman for the Tel Aviv Lightning in the IBL a coach for the senior national team in the 2011 European Qualifiers and more recently actively assisting our fundraising and organizational efforts for the WBC. Nate was chosen by Brad Ausmus to be the bullpen catcher for the team. I can testify to the instrumental contribution Nate made to the team both in terms of binding the players to each other and to their Israeli heritage. He will be coaching the USA team in the Maccabiah this summer.
Nate helped establish and managed an indoor baseball facility in New York which organizes clinics, baseball lessons, and travel teams for over 1500 players.
Nate has a strong passion for baseball, coaching and developing the game. We feel this passion is contagious and that he will quickly infect 100’s then 1000’s of Israeli youth with baseball fever and motivate our existing player to excellence.
He will be arriving in Israel with the USA team in July and will remain, as an Oleh Hadash, to be the national director of the IAB. We have high expectations from him as outlined in the job description we presented to him. While we realize there will be growing pains and numerous obstacles in his path we have every confidence that Fish will make his mark on Israeli baseball and its advancement in Israel.
Fish has a blog as the self proclaimed King of Jewish Baseball.
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Self proclaimed? – Self proclaimed, Haim?!? This was divined, I tell you.
That’s right, ladies and Ju Ju Beans, I am back, back in velvet, in cape and crown, in royal regalia. Just months after writing, “One cannot simply be the King of Jewish Baseball forever…”, I am saying now, one can, at least for a while longer. So I am returning to the land of Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham, to take my place amongst my fellow kings and prophets; King David, King Solomon, the King of Jewish Baseball. I will spare you all the details, for now, as they will surely present themselves to us along the way. I will just say only, I’m going in – moving to Tel Aviv, applying for Israeli citizenship, learning Hebrew – the whole deal. And you’re coming with me.
Resurrection!
At the end of the tournament in Florida Peter asked me, “Do you want to move to Israel?” I said I couldn’t. I had a whole world in New York to return to, a girl friend, a hopeful career as an e-publishing pioneer/mogul/giant, an app to develop, rocks to paint, friends, fun, family, a life. But I could not shake the thought that moving to Israel was the right thing for me. I am, after all, the King of All Jewish Baseball. So I called Peter in December and asked if the offer still stood.
My official title will be National Executive Director for the Israel Association of Baseball (though we’ll stick with “King of Jewish Baseball”). I have the honor and challenge of being dubbed… sole full-time employee in baseball in the country. Like Haim said, ’twill not be easy. But I— nay, WE, will do our best. Not by might, and not power, but by spirit alone, and the internet, of course, and some magic, we shall succeed.
We’re going to the Mother Land.
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