Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Superfan cheers Israeli team
Booster from Boca finds he’s ‘living a dream’
Zack Raab was a believer even before Team Israel became the surprise sensation of the World Baseball Classic during the past week.
The Boca Raton native may be the ultimate authority, and is clearly the No. 1 fan, of the underdog team that swept unbeaten through three games in Seoul, South Korea, and shocked Cuba with a 4-1 victory in the first game of the second round in Tokyo before suffering its first loss Monday to the Netherlands.
Raab, 24, has been an animated and highly visible presence at all the games in the two Asian cities, as he has at every game Team Israel has ever played, beginning with a first unsuccessful attempt to qualify for the 2013 WBC.
“I’m just living out a dream now,” Raab said via email from Tokyo. “It’s been a crazy — not to mention expensive — ride, which has been totally worth every dollar, shekel, won and yen that has been spent.
“Hearing the Hatikvah [Israeli national anthem] gave me goosebumps each time.”
The Israel team is on a dream run to the delight of a growing base of support from Jerusalem to South
Florida.
Their success was unforeseen, except perhaps by Raab. They faced the longest odds of the 16 teams in the field at 200-to-1, coming into the tournament ranked only 41st in the world.
None of their players are currently on the 40-man roster of any major league team, though some — such as designated hitter Ike Davis, pitcher Jason Marquis, catcher Ryan Lavarnway and outfielder Sam Fuld — have played in the majors. But the most prominent eligible JewishAmerican players, including Ryan Braun, Ian Kinsler and Joc Pederson, elected not to play for Israel.
“People really see in this story of this team kind of a microcosm of the Jewish people — underdogs and don’t ever count them out,” said Efrem Goldberg, senior rabbi of the Boca Raton Synagogue. “It’s been a very exciting run.”
Composed almost entirely of Jewish Americans — there are only about 1,000 baseball players in Israel — the Israeli team has won with a united effort and chutzpah. They also have a good-luck charm in the dugout, a 5-foot doll known as the “Mensch on a Bench,” and their most ardent fan leading the cheers in the stands.
Raab is Team Israel’s version of Marlins Man, often showing up on the MLB Network telecasts in the team cap and garb, passionately waving the Israeli flag.
He was featured in a MLB.com story about superfans at the WBC, and in Korea he was at the center of a photo of Israeli fans that was stripped across the top of a page of the Korean-language game program.
As soon as he turned on his phone after Saturday’s win against Cuba, texts started coming in from family and friends with screen captures showing him on the TV broadcast.
“It was pretty amusing because that’s not why I’m here, by any means,” Raab said. “That’s just an entertaining byproduct for the hundreds of people — and I’m not exaggerating — that have been living vicariously through me for the past week or so through social media.” (@ZackRaab on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram).
Having the games in Asia starting in the wee hours of the morning, Eastern time, has minimized the TV audience in South Florida, “but people are following,” Goldberg said. “The way I know that is on social media, I see that community members are posting. They’ll be updating the score or they’ll post stories that link.”
One of the popular links was a video of the team wearing matching kippot, instead of their baseball caps, during the playing of the Israel national anthem in Seoul.
On Sunday, team members celebrated Purim by reading the Book of Esther from a scroll in the dugout before their win against Cuba.
“The Jewish faith has a concept of the Kiddush Hashem, [meaning] trying to sanctify God’s name to show that you can be religious and spiritual and not have to compromise anything,” Goldberg said. “So to have a team of players competing at the highest level and winning who also can be proud Jews is something extraordinary.”
No one is prouder than Raab, who endured the disappointment of Team Israel’s loss in the 2012 WBC qualifier in Jupiter. He was in Brooklyn, N.Y., last fall when the breakthrough came with a win against Great Britain providing entry into this year’s tournament.
Raab describes that day, Sept. 25, as “the worst and greatest day of my life as a baseball fan.” In the morning he learned that his favorite player, Marlins pitcher Jose Fernandez, had been killed in a boating crash.
He flew to South Florida after Team Israel’s win and attended Fernandez’s funeral and the emotional final three home games of the Marlins’ season in Miami.
“Incredible joy and relief, and the incredible sadness and disbelief, as you can imagine,” he said. “That week totally renewed my love of the game of baseball and I realized again how much it means to me.”
Raab, who attended the Weinbaum (now Katz) Yeshiva High School in Boca Raton and earned two degrees at Bar Ilan University in Israel, resolved to do whatever it took to follow Team Israel on its journey in the WBC. He said he’s grateful that his employer, online diamond and engagement ring retailer James Allen, has been supportive in allowing the time to pursue his passion with the team.
“The players are having a blast and playing loose, and the family members in the stands that traveled all the way to Korea and Japan [from the U.S.] are enjoying it a ton too. It’s been a blast meeting them and chatting with them at the games,” said Raab, expressing hope that their success will help some of the players get opportunities with major league organizations.
Team Israel faces its toughest challenge for keeping alive the dream of reaching the final stage of the tournament in Los Angeles when it faces twotime WBC champion Japan on Wednesday (6 a.m. Eastern) at the Tokyo Dome.
However it turns out, the team’s run has given the Jewish community, in Goldberg’s words, “something which is invigorating, inspiring. It re-energizes. It’s beautiful.”
Raab said: “My friends keep asking me to describe the experience I’m having, but honestly I can’t yet. I’ll describe it when I wake up from this dream ride, hopefully with a Team Israel win in the final game in Los Angeles.”