Baseball may not be as hard – hitting in Israel as it is in some countries, but that’s changing as fervor for the game grows there – along with the number of fields and training facilities. Here, some winning facts about America’s favorite pastime, blue-and-white style.

1. The first real Israeli baseball field was built in 1979, at Kibbutz Gezer in central Israel.
2. Nate Fish, a former minor leaguer from Ohio and the self-described “Jewish King of Baseball,” serves as national executive director of the Israel Association of Baseball.
3. The Israel Association of Baseball opened the country’s first and only Israel Baseball Academy in 2014 to elevate the skills and profiles of the country’s top players.
4. Dean Kremer, drafted by the San Diego Padres this year, is the first Israeli baseball player to be tapped by the MLB.
5. Israel’s senior national baseball team finished third in the summer 2015 Pool B European Baseball Championships in Vienna.

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