The Netanya Tigers ( he, נתניה טייגרס) was an Israeli

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

team from

Netanya Netanya (also known as Natanya, he, נְתַנְיָה) is a city in the Northern Central District of Israel, and is the capital of the surrounding Sharon plain. It is north of Tel Aviv, and south of Haifa, between Poleg stream and Wingate I ...

in the

Israel Baseball League The Israel Baseball League (IBL; Hebrew: ליגת הבייסבול הישראלית, ''Ligat ha-Beisbol ha-Israelit'') was a six-team professional baseball league in Israel. The first game was played on June 24, 2007. League structure The six ...

. The Tigers finished the inaugural 2007 season in fourth place, 19-21 (.475), and were defeated by the Bet Shemesh Blue Sox in the semifinals of the 2007 championship, 6-3.

History

The team's Manager was Israeli Ami Baran, who was originally frohistory Of ideal The first player selected by the Tigers in the inaugural 2007 draft was outfielder Dan Rootenberg. He is a former

Midwood High School Midwood High School is a high school located at 2839 Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn, New York City, administered by the New York City Department of Education. It has an enrollment of 3,938 students. Its H-shaped building, with six Ionic order, Ionic co ...

and

Binghamton University The State University of New York at Binghamton (Binghamton University or SUNY Binghamton) is a public university, public research university with campuses in Binghamton, New York, Binghamton, Vestal, New York, Vestal, and Johnson City, New Yor ...

left-handed In human biology, handedness is an individual's preferential use of one hand, known as the dominant hand, due to it being stronger, faster or more dextrous. The other hand, comparatively often the weaker, less dextrous or simply less subjecti ...

hitting

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to cat ...

, who hit .407 for Binghamton during his senior year, garnering All-SUNYAC and All-State honors, played in the

Frontier League The Frontier League is a professional independent baseball league with teams in the Northeastern and Midwestern United States and Eastern Canada. Formed in 1993, it is the oldest currently running independent league in the United States. The le ...

, the Swiss professional league, and for the Pleasantville Red Sox, and in 2006 batted .351 in the Westchester Rockland Wood Bat League. The first pitcher drafted by the Tigers was right-handed 6'5" pitcher Leon Feingold, who pitched for the

State University of New York at Albany The State University of New York at Albany, commonly referred to as the University at Albany, UAlbany or SUNY Albany, is a public research university with campuses in Albany, Rensselaer, and Guilderland, New York. Founded in 1844, it is one ...

1990-1994, the

Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. Since , they have played at Progressive F ...

system from 1994-1995, the independent Atlantic League in 1999, and also played for the Pleasantville Red Sox. Both Rootenberg and Feingold were among the group of four players first signed by the League.

Stadium

Located at the

Sportek Baseball Field The Sportek Baseball Field, was the home ground for Israeli baseball teams Netanya Tigers and Tel Aviv Lightning in the Israel Baseball League. Sportek was originally supposed to be open for the start of the IBL season in 2007, however due to cons ...

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...

, due to a lack of appropriate facilities in

Update

For the first week of the season the Tigers did not have a home field, due to stadium construction delays in

. However, Sportek Stadium opened in mid-July 2007 at the intersection of Ibn Gvirol and Rokach Streets in Tel Aviv, and was home to both the Netanya Tigers and the

Tel Aviv Lightning The Tel Aviv Lightning ( he, תל אביב לייטנינג) was an Israeli baseball team from Tel Aviv in the Israel Baseball League. The Lightning finished the inaugural 2007 season in second place with a 26-14 (.650) record, and lost to the M ...

Roster

Footnotes

External links

Official site of the Netanya TigersNetanya Press Link
Baseball teams in Israel {{asia-baseball-team-stub