''Heading Home: The Tale of Team Israel'' is a 2018 documentary film about the underdog

Israel national baseball team The Israel national baseball team ( he, נבחרת ישראל בבייסבול) represents Israel in international competitions. It is managed by Israeli-American former Major League Baseball World Series champion, World Baseball Classic champion, ...

competing for the first time in the

World Baseball Classic The World Baseball Classic (WBC) is an international baseball tournament sanctioned from 2006 to 2013 by the International Baseball Federation (IBAF) and after 2013 by World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) in partnership with Major Leagu ...

. The 87-minute film was directed by Seth Kramer, Daniel A. Miller, and Jeremy Newberger, the three of whom produced it along with Jonathan Mayo, and starred baseball player

Ike Davis Isaac Benjamin Davis (born March 22, 1987) is an American former professional baseball first baseman. From 2010 through 2016, he played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Mets, Pittsburgh Pirates, Oakland Athletics, and New York Ya ...

and other baseball players.

Plot

''Heading Home'' follows Team Israel’s surprising success in the World Baseball Classic in March 2017. Every player on the team was either an Israeli or a

Jewish American American Jews or Jewish Americans are American citizens who are Jewish, whether by religion, ethnicity, culture, or nationality. Today the Jewish community in the United States consists primarily of Ashkenazi Jews, who descend from diaspora Je ...

eligible for

Israeli citizenship Israeli citizenship law details the conditions by which a person holds citizenship of Israel. The two primary pieces of legislation governing these requirements are the 1950 Law of Return and 1952 Citizenship Law. Every Jew in the world has ...

under Israel's

Law of Return The Law of Return ( he, חֹוק הַשְׁבוּת, ''ḥok ha-shvūt'') is an Israeli law, passed on 5 July 1950, which gives Jews, people with one or more Jewish grandparent, and their spouses the right to relocate to Israel and acquire Isra ...

. Ryan Lavarnway, the Team Israel catcher, referring to the Nazi “

mischling (; " mix-ling"; plural: ) was a pejorative legal term used in Nazi Germany to denote persons of mixed "Aryan" and non-Aryan, such as Jewish, ancestry as codified in the Nuremberg racial laws of 1935. In German, the word has the general denota ...

” law that defined a Jew by even one grandparent mused: “Two generations ago, the way this team was put together would have meant that we were being rounded up to be killed… For us to be able to stand up here and have the Israel flag and Jewish star hanging in the stadium, it eanswe’re here.” The documentary follows the team winning the qualifier, practicing before hundreds of local baseball players in Israel, seeing Israeli sites such as the

Western Wall The Western Wall ( he, הַכּוֹתֶל הַמַּעֲרָבִי, HaKotel HaMa'aravi, the western wall, often shortened to the Kotel or Kosel), known in the West as the Wailing Wall, and in Islam as the Buraq Wall (Arabic: حَائِط � ...

Yad Vashem Yad Vashem ( he, יָד וַשֵׁם; literally, "a memorial and a name") is Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; honoring Jews who fought against th ...

, the

Dead Sea The Dead Sea ( he, יַם הַמֶּלַח, ''Yam hamMelaḥ''; ar, اَلْبَحْرُ الْمَيْتُ, ''Āl-Baḥrū l-Maytū''), also known by other names, is a salt lake bordered by Jordan to the east and Israel and the West Bank ...

, and

Masada Masada ( he, מְצָדָה ', "fortress") is an ancient fortification in the Southern District of Israel situated on top of an isolated rock plateau, akin to a mesa. It is located on the eastern edge of the Judaean Desert, overlooking the Dea ...

, and taking part in a groundbreaking ceremony for a new baseball field in

Bet Shemesh, Israel Beit Shemesh ( he, בֵּית שֶׁמֶשׁ ) is a city located approximately west of Jerusalem in Israel's Jerusalem District, with a population of in . History Tel Beit Shemesh The small archaeological tell northeast of the modern city wa ...

. It then chronicles the team's performance at the 2017 World Baseball Classic in South Korea and Japan—as they sweep the

first round First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and reco ...

, and play well into the

second round The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds e ...

. The odds against Israel were 200-1, and it was ranked 41st in the world - while the other teams were primarily the top 15 ranked teams in the world.

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

compared Team Israel to the

Jamaican bobsled team The Jamaica national bobsleigh team represents Jamaica in international bobsleighing competitions. The men's team debut in the 1988 Winter Olympic Games four-man bobsleigh in Calgary, Alberta, was received as underdogs in a cold weather sport ...

. Israel beat top-ranked teams from Cuba, South Korea, China, Taiwan, and the Netherlands, all ranked in the top 10 in the world, and came in 6th in the tournament.

Cast

as himself *

Cody Decker Cody Marshall Decker (born January 17, 1987) is an American former professional baseball player who played for the San Diego Padres of Major League Baseball (MLB). A right-handed power hitter, he played first base, third base, left field, and coul ...

as himself *

Sam Fuld Samuel Babson Fuld (born November 20, 1981) is an American former professional baseball outfielder and the current general manager of the Philadelphia Phillies. He played eight seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Chicago Cubs, Tampa B ...

as himself *

Ty Kelly Tyler Patrick Kelly (טיי קלי; born July 20, 1988) is an American-Israeli professional baseball utility player who is a free agent. He has played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Philadelphia Phillies and the New York Mets. He plays ...

as himself *

Ryan Lavarnway Ryan Cole Lavarnway ( ריאן לווארנוויי; born August 7, 1987) is an American-Israeli professional baseball catcher who is a free agent. He has previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Boston Red Sox, Baltimore Oriole ...

as himself *

Jerry Weinstein Jerry Weinstein (born November 9, 1943) is an American professional baseball manager. He most recently managed the Hartford Yard Goats, a Minor League Baseball (MiLB) Double-A team in the Eastern League, an affiliate of the Colorado Rockies. ...

as himself *

Josh Zeid Joshua Alexander Zeid ( ; born March 24, 1987) is an American-Israeli former professional baseball pitcher. He plays for Team Israel. He formerly played for the Houston Astros of MLB. Zeid played for the gold-medal-winning Team USA Youth Natio ...

as himself

Production

The movie was the idea of

MLB.com MLB.com is the official site of Major League Baseball and is overseen by Major League Baseball Advanced Media, L.P. (a subsidiary of MLB). MLB.com is a source of baseball-related information, including baseball news, statistics, and sports column ...

reporter Jonathan Mayo, who initially wanted to create a movie that reflected both his affection for baseball and his Jewish background by creating a documentary about Jewish major leaguers traveling to discover their roots, and ended up with a documentary that was about the team's "

Cinderella Story In sports, the terms Cinderella, "Cinderella story", and Cinderella team are used to refer to situations in which competitors achieve far greater success than would reasonably have been best expected. Cinderella stories tend to gain much media and ...

" run in the

. Mayo and three friends of his from Jewish summer camp ( Camp Young Judaea Sprout Lake) -- Daniel Miller, Jeremy Newberger, and Seth Kramer, of

Ironbound Films Ironbound Films is an American independent documentary film production company. Their films focus on stories of how people succeed and fail to connect. Their 2008 film ''The Linguists'' and 2010 film ''The New Recruits'', were about characters wh ...

—were the producers. The producers raised $73,000 through

Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...

Release

''Heading Home'' was first released in the United States on August 5, 2018.

Critical response

The ''

Atlanta Jewish Times Atlanta ( ) is the capital city, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georgia, Fulton County, the mos ...

'' in its review opined that the documentary "is just as inspirational and exciting as Team Israel's run in the World Baseball Classic." The Israeli newspaper ''

Haaretz ''Haaretz'' ( , originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , ) is an Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel, and is now published in both Hebrew and English in the Berliner f ...

'' said that ''Heading Home'' "is at the same time emotional and highly entertaining." The Florida ''

Sun Sentinel The ''Sun Sentinel'' (also known as the ''South Florida Sun Sentinel'', known until 2008 as the ''Sun-Sentinel'', and stylized on its masthead as ''SunSentinel'') is the main daily newspaper of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, as well as surrounding Br ...

'' called it a "moving underdog story that should inspire people."

Accolades

''Heading Home'' won the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the 2018

Gold Coast International Film Festival The Gold Coast International Film Festival launched in 2011, on the north shore of North Hempstead, New York. The festival, now held every November, completed its 7th year in 2017. The festival is produced by the Gold Coast Arts Center, a not-for- ...

, the Audience Award for Documentary at the 2018

Washington Jewish Film Festival Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

, the Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 2018

Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival The Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival (also known as the Gershman Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival (GPJFF)) is an annual film festival in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States that presents movies and film-related programs about the Jew ...

, the Best Documentary Film Award at the 2018 Boca Raton Jewish Film Festival, and the Best Documentary Award at the 2018 Jewish Arts and Film Festival of Fairfield County.

References

External links

Official trailer
* * *
Heading Home: The Tale of Team Israel
on Twitter {{DEFAULTSORT:Heading Home 2010s sports drama films American baseball films American sports drama films Baseball in Israel Films about competitions Films set in Brooklyn Films set in Japan Films shot in Israel 2018 documentary films Documentary films about baseball 2018 films Films set in 2017 Films set in South Korea Sports films based on actual events Documentary films about sportspeople 2010s English-language films 2010s American films

Plot

Cast

Production

Release

Critical response

Accolades

See also

References

External links