Petach Tikva Pioneers
Encyclopedia
The Petach Tikva Pioneers is an Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

i baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

 team from Petah Tikva
Petah Tikva
Petah Tikva known as Em HaMoshavot , is a city in the Center District of Israel, east of Tel Aviv.According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, at the end of 2009, the city's population stood at 209,600. The population density is approximately...

 in the Israel Baseball League
Israel baseball league
The Israel Baseball League was a six-team professional baseball league in Israel. The first game was played on June 24, 2007...

.

They finished the inaugrual 2007 regular season in last place (9-32; .220), and lost to the Modi'in Miracle
Modi'in Miracle
The Modi'in Miracle is an Israeli baseball team from Modi'in in the Israel Baseball League.The Miracle finished the inaugrual 2007 season 22-19 in third place, and after upsetting the # 2 Tel Aviv Lightning in the semi-finals, lost to Ron Blomberg's Bet Shemesh Blue Sox 3-0 in the championship...

 in the quarterfinals of the 2007 championship.

History

The name for the Pioneers was chosen in recognition that Petah Tikva
Petah Tikva
Petah Tikva known as Em HaMoshavot , is a city in the Center District of Israel, east of Tel Aviv.According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, at the end of 2009, the city's population stood at 209,600. The population density is approximately...

 was founded in 1878 by religious pioneers from Jerusalem, who were led by Yehoshua Stampfer
Yehoshua Stampfer
Yehoshua Stampfer was one of the founders of the city of Petah Tikva in Israel, and a member of its original municipal council. Petah Tikva was founded in 1878 and is nicknamed "Mother of Settlements" since it was the first renewed modern Jewish agricultural settlement in Palestine at the...

, Yoel Moshe Salomon, Zerach Brant, and David Gutmann, as well as Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...

n Rabbi Aryeh Leib Frumkin
Aryeh Leib Frumkin
Aryeh Leib Frumkin was a rabbi, Zionist, a founder and pioneer of Petah Tikva, the first yishuv created in the pre-state of Israel. He also was an author of halachic texts, a teacher, and operator of a wine shop, L. Frumkin and Company....

.

The first player selected by the Pioneers in the inaugural draft was Dominican
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...

 outfielder Reynaldo Cruz, who later suffered a concussion and did not play for the rest of the season.

Ken Holtzman
Ken Holtzman
Kenneth Dale Holtzman is a left-handed former starting pitcher in Major League Baseball who played most of his career for the Chicago Cubs and Oakland Athletics...

 managed the Pioneers in the 2007 inaugural season of the Israel Baseball League, up until the last week of the season. Holtzman in his major league career was the only pitcher since the 1880s to throw 2 no-hitters for the Cubs, and his 174 career victories are the most in the major leagues by a Jewish pitcher. He also held the record for most pitching appearances by a Jewish pitcher until 1998.

External links

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