Israel’s European winning streak in 2014 advances team to 19th place worldwide in int’l baseball rankings, above South Africa and Great Britain.

By i24news

 

 

Israel has moved up in the most recent International Baseball Federation (IBAF) men’s world rankings, Israeli daily Haaretz reported on Friday.

Israel is now ranked 19th in the world, surpassing several notable countries such as Nicaragua, South Africa and Great Britain.

In order to compile its list of rankings, the IBAF relies on several criteria including results from 2014 baseball events. According to Haaretz, Israel managed to improve its ranking this year due to winning the European Championship C-Pool tournament in Slovenia in July, winning second place in the PONY tournament in Prague, and winning second and third places in the Tuscany Series baseball tournaments in Italy.

“Israel baseball has taken major steps over the past year, increasing in size by 25 percent and expanding activities, so that we improve the level of play throughout the leagues,” Israel Association of Baseball President Peter Kurz told Haaretz.

Kurz also added that the country was working on establishing an MLB-sanctioned Israel Baseball Academy that will allow top players to compete internationally.

The countries that topped the IBAF’s list this year are, in order, the United States, Japan, Cuba and Chinese Taipei.

 

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