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Even now, 20 months after qualifying, it’s rather astonishing that Israel is going to the Tokyo Olympics in baseball.

The only previous Israeli Olympic team qualifiers were in men’s soccer in 1968 and 1976 (both reached the quarterfinals) and for a preliminary round in men’s basketball in 1952.

So to break through in baseball, which is returning to the Olympics for the first time since 2008 with a field of just six teams, is a wonderous achievement that the pandemic and one-year postponement of the Games pushed far under the public radar. Particularly since just two months out from the Tokyo Olympics, U.S. and Cuba are among the traditional baseball powers still are not qualified with only two berths still open.

The World Baseball Softball Confederation Americas qualifier, originally scheduled for metro Phoenix in March 2020, will be held May 31-June 5 in Florida. The winner qualifies for Tokyo with second- and third-place teams playing in the final WBSC qualifier, June 16-20 in Taiwan. 

Netherlands didn’t expect to be facing the final Olympic qualifier after it won the European Championships in September 2019. And certainly not to lose days later 8-1 to Israel in the Europe-Africa Olympic qualifier. 

Israel had to make it through two European pool B tournaments just to earn the final spot in main Euros, where it finished fourth behind Netherlands, Italy and Spain. But the Israelis beat all three of those teams in the Olympic qualifier, plus South Africa during the Olympic qualifier in Italy with a team that includes many Americans of Jewish heritage.

“For me, it was incredible,” said Peter Kurz, Israel Association of Baseball president. “I usually don’t sit in the dugout because I can’t sit still. In the eighth inning (against South Africa) I came into the dugout to be with the guys. I had tears in my eyes. It was an incredible dream and saga and ending.”

Really the beginning, though, of what became a COVID-lengthened 22-month run-up to the Olympics that the Olympic Committee of Israel and Israeli government were not prepared to absorb. So the philanthropic Jewish National Fund-USA, perhaps best known for planting 250 million trees in Israel since its founding in 1901, created a baseball task force to bridge the Olympic team funding gap and help to build baseball and softball fields in Israel.

The JNF-USA is more than a third of the way to a $1 million fundraising goal through its 25th player campaign in support of the 24-player Olympic team, softball national team and fields project.

“This team is more about Israel and they have a chance to medal,” said Lou Rosenberg, JNF-USA Project Baseball task force executive director. “The opportunity to see the Israeli flag raised on the podium is just incredible to fight anti-Semitism. It’s a very strong statement.”

Team Israel came to Arizona last week for a training camp and two games at Salt River Fields. The pre-Olympic expanded roster includes more than 40 players, many with major- or minor-league pro experience. 

Infielder Ian Kinsler, an Arizona native born in Tucson (he played at Central Arizona College and one season at Arizona State) is a lock to be on the Olympic team given his 14-year MLB career that ended in 2019. 

Josh Zeid of Gilbert pitched for Israel for the first time in 2012, taking a loss in the final game of qualifying for the 2013 World Baseball Classic, and four years later a win in the game that sent Israel, then ranked No. 41 in the world, to the 2017 WBC. He also was the winning pitcher over South Korea in the WBC, a career high that he might have a chance to replicate at the Olympics.

Zeid last pitched in the minors in 2017 and currently is an Arizona-based pitching analyst for the Chicago Cubs.

“It’s been a roller coaster, but that’s kind of what’s made me successful and Team Israel successful,” Zeid said. “We’ve ridden that wave of underachieving then getting to 2017 where were finally on the world stage. The guys picked us up in the Olympic qualifying and now we’re on the way to the Olympic Games. 

“The entirety of this concept is surreal to me, where Peter started was way different than even when I started in 2012. Now where we’re at today, getting to train at Diamondbacks facility, stay at the nice hotels, getting Olympic treatment. We’ve come a long way in a really short period of time. It’s been a journey I don’t think anyone could have predicted.”

Kurz has a soft spot for Zeid because of his early commitment to Team Israel, now ranked No. 18 in the world and with a 50 percent chance winning an Olympic medal.

“He has heart that’s huge,” Kurz said. “What he did for us in 2016 and 2017 is incredible. We know if he’s on that mound in the Olympics and it’s a pressure situation, he’ll be a game pitcher. We’re looking forward to having him.”

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Reach the reporter at [email protected] or 602-444-8053. Follow him on Twitter @jeffmetcalfe.

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