1:05PM on a nice Sunday afternoon in Baltimore. A tall young man with shoulder length hair steps up on the mound at Camden Yards. He looks in, gets his sign, fires! Strike! So began the career of one Dean Kremer. Like many others before him, he was making his major league debut. Unlike many of them, he was doing so before an empty stadium for such are the times we live in. Also unlike many of the rest, he bears on his shoulders the hopes and expectations of an entire nation, an entire people. You see, Kremer was the first MLB draftee who is a citizen of Israel, a small, middle eastern nation forged in fire. He has represented Israel in several international tournaments but now he isn't wearing the blue and white of Team Israel but the orange and white of the Baltimore Orioles. Yet, this is perhaps the most important game of his young career. He is being asked to host the Magen David higher than ever before. But how did this moment arrive? Where did this heir to Greenberg and Koufax pick up the art of pitching and how did he arrive in Baltimore?
Like the UFC's Diaz Brothers, Kremer reps the 209. (he was born in Stockton, CA to Israeli parents who moved there after their IDF service) Growing up, his time was split between Israel and the United States. He ptiched high school and college ball on the side of the Atlantic and was originally drafted by the Padres (38th round in 2015) though he chose to attend UNLV for a year. He was then drafted again by the same Los Angeles Dodgers with whom Sandy Koufax pitched his way into Cooperstown. (14th round) This time, he signs and the long, perilous march to The Show begins.
In parallel, he begins to log innings for the blue and white of the emergent Team Israel. This nation the size of New Jersey is hardly a baseball hot bed. The game has something of a following mainly among Americans who have made aliyah in recent years. There was an experiment with a professional league in 2007 but the league folded after its maiden season. Yet a Team Israel did attempt, and narrowly failed to, qualify for the 2013 World Baseball Classic. Granted most of the team was Jewish Americans but they had to start from somewhere. The brainchild of one Peter Kurz was not to be down for long however. Israel was to feature in subsequent years in multiple European tournaments and steadily enjoy more and more success. The culmination of this steady determination would be qualification to the 2017 WBC and a surprise showing that was to be immortalized in the documentary Coming Home. And then, in 2019, the unthinkable! A lazy fly ball caught by right fielder Simon Rosenbaum to close out South Africa and book Israel's first ever Olympic berth in baseball.
The hero of our story features prominently in this Hollywood-esque baseball tale. First however, a mitzvah for Team USA with whom Kremer wins a gold medal at the 2013 Maccabiah Games. Then in 2014, he announces himself with 13 scoreless innings with 20 K's for Team Israel in a C-level qualifier for the 2016 European baseball championship. The following year in the B-level qualifier he again ptiches solid innings as Israel just misses out on qualification. 2016 would see him pitch in the WBC qualifier and earn a roster spot on the 2017 WBC team that would upset Korea , Taiwan, the Netherlands and Cuba in that order before the clock struck midnight at the hands of Japan the same same Dutch they previously beaten.
Amidst all of this, he continues to scale the minor league ladder, putting up impressive numbers along the way. And then, a massive trade seeing multiple prospects to including Kremer from LA to an Orioles team very much in the worst of a rebuild, now.forced to part with superstar Manny Machado. The unexpected move out east does little to dsrail him though. By the beginning of the new decade he is top 10 prospect in the Baltimore system. His major league debut now seems imminent.
And so it is that arrive at that Sunday September 6th in Baltimore. He pitches a clean 1st and strikes out two. You see the mid-90s fastball and sharp breaking ball that must have piqued the attention of scouts, and Peter Kurz, a few years back. He runs into trouble in the second however, loading the bases and conceding a run to the Yankees. But he also shows poise and dances out of the jam with minimal damage. Over the next four innings, he makes the Yankees pay for letting him off the hook. He ends up throwing 88 pitches over six quality innings with only the one run allowed. The Orioles lead 2-1 as he leaves but add a few to close out the reeling Bronx Bombers and make a winner out of Kremer in his debut.
So what is the significance of all this? Why would I write about Kremer's debut? The significance lies in the prospects for the further expansion of our game. The game is growing in Israel to the tune of now thousands of Israelis playing organized ball at some level or other. The infrastructure has grown from one playable field at Kibbutz Gezer to a full blown academy for players 14-21 years of age from which Kremer is an alumnus. A juvenile national team has recently been assembled and more and more improved baseball infrastructure is springing up across the Holy Land. The Israeli military is even starting to treat elite ballplayers like it does elite soccer players or judokas. More generally, Israel is a country with a rapidly growing economy and a strong affinity for all things America. Now, they see a native son of theirs in a major league uniform. He speaks their language. He has worn their uniform and has lived on their land. This is different from 2017. Most of the players on that team were eligible for Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return but not citizens. (though some would claim it to join the run to the Olympics) Kremer has lived in Israel and has been involved with Team Israel for as long as anyone. If he succeeds, there will be many Israeli children who will want to be him. They can relate to him and have access to updates on his progress that didn't exist in the era of Sandy Koufax. In Hank Greenberg's era, there wasn't even an Israel. Today is different. Thanks to technology, Israelis and Jewish Americans are connected like never before and here you have someone who is part of both communities. If Kremer succeeds, he can move the dial of Israeli baseball forward in a way that other successful Jewish American players like Max Fried and Alex Bregman cannot. Who knows? Maybe he's the final push needed for reviving that Israeli baseball league I mentioned earlier some time down the road . Maybe other countries with diaspora communities in America will look to follow the Team Israel model Kremer has helped push forward. Ultimately, we do not know what impact Dean Kremer will have on baseball in Israel and beyond but we do know that for Jewish communities in America and in Israel, a star (I mean a Magen David) is born.
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