In the words of the late Hall of Fame baseball franchise owner Bill Veeck, “There are only two seasons: winter and baseball.” It’s a timely quip as the 2026 baseball season gets underway, along with the much-anticipated World Baseball Classic (WBC) set to begin March 4. During this two-week baseball extravaganza, fans will see Team Israel return with a mixed roster of Major League Baseball players. The roster includes current and former athletes, as well as some minor-league standouts. Unlike with Olympic baseball, eligibility for Team Israel does not require Israeli citizenship. Thus, the diamond will feature mostly American Jewish players.
According to Wayne Stofsky, director of athletics at Posnack, “You don’t need to have an Israeli passport. You don’t need to make Aliyah. If there’s just some Jewish lineage somewhere down the line, you can play for Team Israel in the World Baseball Classic.” Stofsky knows a lot about this topic. He’s had a long history with baseball, playing with his dad at age 5. He played throughout high school and then at LSU, where he received a baseball scholarship. He went on to play professionally in the United States and even played a year in Italy. Sitting behind his desk at the Posnack athletics office, Coach Stofsky talks about his ties to Team Israel in the WBC. “My connection to Team Israel in the World Baseball Classic goes back several years. I was on the coaching staff of Team USA for the World Maccabiah Games in 2022, and I’m the head coach this year. So I have a working relationship with the Israeli Baseball Federation. And in the past, I’ve actually recommended players. Aside from that, players whom I have coached in the past have gone on to play for Team Israel.”
Coach Stofsky’s connections can come in handy for Posnack students who play baseball. Asher Belfer is a junior at Posnack who has a lengthy baseball résumé. Possessing a love for baseball at just 2 years old, Asher has played baseball on travel teams and played for Posnack teams through middle school and high school. He currently plays shortstop and also pitches. This summer, Asher will join Coach Stofsky on his journey to Israel for the World Maccabiah Games.
“It’s cool being able to represent the United States in Israel this summer. It’s going to be a lot of fun to be able to play baseball in Israel and represent Judaism,” he said.
For Asher, his involvement in baseball is not just about the game itself, but about the growing connection to his Jewish identity. This sentiment is hardly unique to Asher. In fact, baseball has been a continuous part of American Jewish culture. Stofsky hones in on the significance of baseball to American Jews, stating, “I think baseball as a game has a lot of history in the Jewish community because of Jewish grandfathers from New York, specifically Brooklyn … specifically fans of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Jewish grandfathers love to take their kids and their grandkids to baseball games.”
But even that rich history comes with some modern-day limitations. “Posnack and Katz Yeshiva in Boca are the only two Jewish high schools in South Florida that have a baseball team. The other Jewish schools don’t even have baseball teams. It’s more about soccer and basketball.”
Despite this surprising fact, Stofsky noted that Team Israel is critical to the American Jewish population because “it gives Jewish kids an identity in the baseball world.” Stofsky also noted that Team Israel’s significance is growing given the birth of more Jewish baseball-oriented organizations in the United States. He states, “I think it’s becoming more and more significant because there are actually organizations within the United States that are trying to promote baseball in Israel. ‘Israel Baseball of the Americas,’ for instance, is a new organization here, and they’re running Jewish baseball camps around the country, trying to drum up interest from Jewish kids.”
This rings true for both Asher and Payce Grossman, a junior at Posnack who has played on the Posnack baseball team in middle and high school. Both attended one such Jewish baseball camp last February. Payce shared his experience, referring to a special encounter he had with one of the Team Israel coaches who spent time with him on his pitching.
“It was a very fun experience to get coached by a professional independent league player. He gave a lot of insight, and I learned a lot about the different grips on the ball.”
Asher also shared his reflection on the event, stating, “It’s always cool to be able to play baseball with other Jewish athletes. It was a really good experience to be able to represent Judaism and see the prominence that Jewish baseball athletes have in the sport.”
Asher and Payce were both at the same Team Israel WBC game the last time they played in Miami in 2023. For Payce, “It was very fun. I got to meet a couple of the players. I got to watch them hit, and it was cool to see people from Major League Baseball actually play on Team Israel. A couple of players that I really enjoyed watching were Harrison Bader, who is now on the San Francisco Giants, and Garrett Stubbs, the Philadelphia Phillies catcher. I also really enjoyed watching Joc Pederson.” Smiling, he added, “I tried to get an autograph with Joc, but it didn’t work out. Nonetheless, it was a very fun time.”
Asher plans to come back to support Team Israel again this year. “I went to their game against Nicaragua, and it was really cool. I really enjoyed being there and watching. It was really cool watching Team Israel play and being able to watch a team representing Israel play baseball. And it was even better that they won. It was a really fun game. I’ll be back to see them again.”
The game Asher referenced was a tense matchup in which Israel and Nicaragua kept the score deadlocked at 1-1 until the eighth inning, when Garrett Stubbs hit a ground-rule double, allowing two players to score and ending the game in a 3-1 win for Team Israel.
This exciting finish to the Israel-Nicaragua matchup counters some common misconceptions people have about baseball. Coach Stofsky states, “I think baseball is a much different game than other sports. I think it’s good and bad for the same reason. I think a lot of people have an issue with the fact that it’s a slow-moving game. There’s time in between every pitch, although Major League Baseball is working to speed it up.”
However, the slow-moving aspect of the game is what makes it unique and brings a benefit to the sport. Stofsky highlights this, stating, “It’s very mental … 50% of it is mindset.”
There are other aspects of baseball that make it special and unique from other sports. Stofsky highlights one of them being its complexity, stating, “Baseball is a little different than some of the other sports. I believe it’s a lot more difficult just because of the skills that are involved and the number of years you have to play. It’s not like football, where if you’re big and strong and fast, and maybe you’re aggressive and you hit, there’s a place for you. Baseball is really an individual sport. It just happens to be played by teams. So you have to be able to catch, throw, hit and run. There’s nobody there to help you, so to speak.”
This individuality aspect of the sport within a team setting is one that Asher greatly appreciates.
“What I like is the aspect of how it’s an individual sport in a team sport … It’s very much like an individual game, whether you’re hitting or a ball is hit to you in the field … you have to be able to come through for your teammates. And I like the aspect of being able to do something individually while also helping out my teammates at the same time,” he said.
All in all, Team Israel coming to the World Baseball Classic this year should be seen as vitally important, and not just because baseball has been and continues to be an important part of Jewish American life. It’s also symbolic of the Jewish spirit and helps foster Jewish identities for Jewish ballplayers and Jews alike. It helps to promote Jewish unity by bringing Jews together in support of a team. Its significance also lies in the fact that baseball is simply special.
For Stofsky, Payce and Asher, baseball holds a special place in their hearts. For Stofsky, it was something he grew up with and thrived at. He explained, “For me, baseball is important because, number one, it taught me camaraderie, teamwork. It paid for my education, and it paid for me to see the world.”
This year will perhaps carry even more significance as global antisemitism in a post–Oct. 7 world feels unsettling for many Jews. Stofsky offered a personal message:
“If I was a member of the team or coaching the team, I would want to use the platform. You’re literally in the World Baseball Classic. You are on the world stage. It is truly the Olympic Games for baseball. They truly have the best players from around the world. And I think when Team Israel is there, they need to use the platform. Don’t be afraid to speak out against antisemitism … I think they need to teach other countries about what’s going on and get them to be on board to try to stop this.”
Stofsky added, “One thing we did the last time the World Baseball Classic was here — I took the Posnack baseball team down there, and they did a combo thing with the Dominican Republic.”
Together, the Posnack baseball team, along with local Dominican teens, met with both Team Israel and Team Dominican Republic and brought awareness to the dangers of antisemitism and other forms of hatred.
In these ways, Stofsky believes that Team Israel specifically should use the platform to address the great amount of antisemitism that exists today, concluding, “Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there and educate other people about antisemitism and why it’s just not acceptable.”
Baseball is many things. It’s a sport that goes beyond the plays on the field. It’s a sport for the soul. And coming soon is an opportunity for Jews to rally around a team that includes some of the Jewish community’s best athletes.
Good luck, Team Israel!
