For at least a few hours on a Monday night in Jerusalem, news about Israel’s war with Iran was replaced by carefree sports banter as many of the city’s “baseball families” gathered to watch Team Israel play in the World Baseball Classic.

For the Israeli team’s game against the Dominican Republic — at 6 p.m., the only competition of the series scheduled during normal waking hours in Israel — several dozen Jerusalem little league players and their parents got together at the Anglican International School to watch the game on a big screen, eat popcorn and pizza, and remember that sometimes, rivalry between nations is just a game.

“This is really nice, watching the game with a group of people I consider my friends,” said Sarah Weller, whose oldest son is playing on the Jerusalem Lions high school baseball team. “It feels like a little bit of normal, a slice of normalcy.”

Israel lost Monday’s game 10-1 against a dominant team loaded with Major League stars and future Hall of Famers, eliminating it from advancing to the next round of play in the global baseball tournament.

Despite Israel’s baseball team becoming a mainstay of top-flight international competition, America’s pastime still hasn’t caught on with most Israelis.

The Israel Association of Baseball (IAB), which oversees the sport’s development in Israel, counts only about 500 players of different ages around the country, spread across teams in 11 cities.

Jerusalem has just 75 players aged 4-18, divided into six age divisions. Nearly all are from families of American immigrants, said Callie Mitchell, IAB’s regional director for........

© The Times of Israel