Assaf Lowengart, the first Israeli-born professional baseball player and the only sabra on Team Israel in the World Baseball Classic, was eager to have his parents come from Timorim to see him in action in 2023.
But he broke his ankle three weeks before the tournament began and his parents stayed home.
Lowengart healed, came back to Team Israel and prepared to welcome his parents to Miami for the 2026 World Baseball Classic. But then war broke out with Iran, and his parents canceled their baseball trip for a second time.
Instead, he talks with his family before taking the field due to the time difference.
“I’m healthy, I can play and they can’t come because of the war,” Lowengart told JNS after finishing battling practice. He wore cleats inscribed with am Yisrael chai, Hebrew for “the nation of Israel lives.”
He described having a range of emotions at the same time: “special” and “awesome,” but also both “happy” and “sad.”
Lowengart got into Monday’s game, playing center field against the Dominican Republic. He snagged a long fly ball off the bat of outfielder Juan Soto (New York Mets) in the final inning of the 10-1 loss.
“When you play, obviously when you get between the lines—it’s baseball,” he told JNS. “So you gotta clear the head, focus on the task at hand, win the game.”
Players said that they were aware of the ongoing war with Iran, even as their main focus all week remained on baseball.
“We obviously are in support of Israel,” outfielder Zach Levenson (St. Louis Cardinals) said, responding to a JNS question at a press conference.
“I try not to look at it that way,” he told JNS. “I try to just keep my eyes on the field and do what we can to play winning baseball on the field and to raise awareness for Israel.”
Dean Kremer (Baltimore Orioles), the winning pitcher in Sunday’s game against Nicaragua, was born in California to Israeli parents, regularly visits the Jewish state and acknowledges what’s going on in his ancestral homeland.
“It’s not the first time that they’ve had to deal with this and probably won’t be the last time,” Kremer said at a different press conference during the World Baseball Classic.
“But they’re a strong group of people,” he said. “We’re a very resilient group of people—my family over there holding tight as best as possible. They’re just staying strong.”
Others had different experiences. Outfielder RJ Schreck (Toronto Blue Jays) said that he hasn’t experienced much Jew-hatred.
“I have been lucky enough not really to feel much antisemitism in my life,” he told reporters. “I grew up in L.A. around a lot of Jews. Went to a couple of colleges that you meet some people that have never met Jews before, but there’s still a large Jewish population at both colleges.”
“I’m lucky to have not experienced it, and just really excited to play baseball here,” he said. “That’s been fun.”
Team Israel’s bench coach and former Red Sox, Kevin Youkilis, pushed back recently on social media against a critic who suggested he was more loyal to the Jewish state, since he wasn’t on Team USA in the tournament. (A Boston Herald reporter noted that he wasn’t asked to be part of the American team.)
“It’s kind of interesting how people just want to put stuff out there and you just gotta correct the record and just let people know that you’re proud of your heritage, you’re proud to coach this team,” Youkilis told JNS.
“Online is just online,” he said. “That’s their real world. We’re living the real world on the field, and we do this for a living because we love it.”
“Social media is a whole other world in itself where people are living a whole different kind of life,” he said.
Youkilis, who spent 10 years in the major leagues, primarily with the Red Sox, told JNS that he made no apologies for embracing his late father’s heritage.
“I’m not gonna not stand up for our Jewish heritage and our pride,” Youkilis said. “So for me, I don’t shy away from it. It’s never going to get me down, because I’m just gonna keep living my life, loving baseball, loving my family and loving my heritage.”
“With all the criticism normally directed at players at the ballpark, you develop a thick skin,” he said.
“I’ve gotten a lot of things directed at me. You can either let it bother you, or laugh,” Youkilis told JNS. “So you either have a choice to get angry and let it take on that energy, or you can just take the high road and laugh and have fun with it.”
Team Israel manager Brad Ausmus (New York Yankees) said that he wouldn’t have said anything, but Youkilis is a different kind of animal.
“That’s Youk being Youk. Youk likes to engage,” Ausmus told JNS during a press conference. “I tend to be a little more private on social media. But Youk is—I mean this in the best possible way—unique and fun to be around and fun to have around.”
“It’s unfortunate in this world and in an age where there’s anonymity on social media, people say stuff that they wouldn’t say to someone’s face,” Ausmus said. “He enjoys the back and forth. Others don’t.”
JNS asked Ausmus, who served as bench coach on Team Israel three years ago before becoming manager this year, about running the team at a time of peace and amid war.
“Well, obviously the state of the world is different,” Ausmus said. “But at the end of the day, this is baseball. And truthfully we’re all the participants in the WBC. We’re representing our heritage and hoping to bring some joy to people even in tough times, which these are—tough times.”
“I remember that’s what happened in the United States when 9/11 occurred and baseball came back and brought joy to people across America,” he told JNS. “We hope in some of these tough times we can do the same thing.”
Ausmus has been involved with Team Israel since 2012, including two stints as manager and one as a bench coach.
“I have enjoyed it so much that I’ve continued to come back,” he said. “I still have good friends from the 2012 team, and some of those people are in Israel right now.”
A team from Venezuela also participated in the World Baseball Classic. In January, U.S. forces invaded the country and captured its president, Nicolás Maduro, who is now standing trial in New York City.
Veteran major league player and manager Dusty Baker, manager of Nicaragua, described the World Baseball Classic as a “sanctuary” from violence elsewhere.
“It’s all baseball right now,” he told JNS at a press conference. “There’s not a whole bunch that we can do about the political scene in the world. I mean, there’s a lot going on. But hopefully baseball is a sanctuary away from the problems at least for a few hours, which I’m hoping that we have peace, keep peace, at least through this classic.”
