Members of Team Israel took advantage of a rain delay at the Bethesda Big Train baseball game on July 17 to mingle with attendees during Jewish Baseball Heritage Night.
Pitcher Shlomo Lipetz and utility player Assaf Lowengart wore their uniforms but were not there to play. Instead, they watched the Big Train defeat the DC Grays 16 to 4 in the last game of the regular season.
“We are not playing tonight. They brought us here as part of Heritage Night to mingle,” explained Adam Gladstone, chief operating officer of Israel Baseball Americas. The nonprofit was established to empower youth development, foster a global community of fans and build a talent pipeline for Team Israel.
Both Lipetz and Lowengart have made the United States their home since growing up in Israel and serving their time in the military there. Lowengart spent his childhood on a moshav in Timorim, and Lipetz was raised by the beach in Tel Aviv.
A love of baseball didn’t come naturally to Lowengart. As a youngster, he was too short to play basketball. He recalled one time when he was going up for a shot, his opponent just reached over and grabbed the ball.
But he spent time playing baseball in several American colleges and has stuck with it ever since.
He is 26 now and has been with Team Israel since 2015, even playing in the 2020 Olympics. He became the first Israeli-born position player to sign a professional baseball contract in the United States when he joined the New York Boulders in the Frontier League earlier this year.
He served with the Israel Defense Forces in its extraordinary athletic program so when Hamas invaded Israel on Oct. 7, he was not called up.
But Lowengart returned to his homeland, picking fruits and vegetables on farms that didn’t have enough workers and also being a good friend to children who were evacuated and scared.
“I took their minds off what they went through,” he said.
“If you go back to Israel now, you won’t feel the war. Israelis are strong people. Wherever there is adversity, they still go on,” he said. People are going to work and spending time at the clubs. “Everything is back.”
However, he added, “The life of the hostage families has not changed. It’s still Oct. 7.”
Lowengart didn’t want to talk about politics but explained that he uses his social media as a platform to explain what he can.
“Hamas has been there for 20 years. They have indoctrinated everybody,” he said. Children who have followed Hamas’ teachings since they were 5 years old and are now 20, they don’t know any better, he said.
Israel, he said, “is fighting against evil. It’s a war. Innocent people get hurt.”
Lowengart hopes to continue playing ball this winter, perhaps in Australia or Latin America.
Lipetz also served in the IDF’s extraordinary athletes program. At 45, Lipetz has been with Team Israel for 35 years. When he joined the organization as a 10-year-old, he was the first generation. The adult professional team hadn’t even been formed yet.
He’s been pitching ever since, with college teams or Team Israel. He estimated that he now can throw the ball 81 miles an hour. When he was 22, he could reach 89 mph. But he still gets the batter out, he stated proudly.
“I love the game. I deeply love the game,” he said, admitting that lately he has been asked to become a coach. “That isn’t happening,” he said. “I get to be a kid. As an adult, you lose that love and foolishness of a child.”
Baseball not only is a physical sport, but it also teaches tons of real-life lessons that have helped him pivot his pitching immediately when he is having trouble. He doesn’t have time to stop and think about what is wrong with his mechanics, he explained.
When not playing baseball, Lipetz is president of venues for Capital Winery.
He came to the U.S. and pitched at a junior college in San Diego. He’s been here 23 years and tries to stay away from politics, because “Both sides are so uninformed,” he said. They know a few one-liners and speak more with emotion than fact, Lipetz said.
“I don’t post anything on social media. It’s very easy to get sucked into uneducated discussions.”
Like Lowengart, he returned to Israel after Oct. 7.
“For the first time, I could not relate.” Everywhere he went, he saw posters of the hostages and bloody clothing from the attack.
“The only thing you hear about are funerals and interviews of parents who lost their kids,” he said. “Israel is so used to having the upper hand, but now, they don’t know what is coming next.”
Now, he said, “My life is here. Israel is a little too sharp around the edges,
too intense.”
During the game, Washington, D.C.-based Char Bar sold kosher hot dogs, and the Jewish Council for the Aging of Greater Washington was honored as Community Heroes. Jewish music was provided by oySongs before the game started.
The previous evening, 60 people mingled with members of Israel Baseball and documentary filmmaker Aviva Kempner at the Pooks Hill Marriott.
Major League Baseball trainer Barry Weinberg spoke about his time as Team Israel’s head trainer and shared some of the stories from his book “Eating My Way Through Baseball.”
Baltimore Orioles pitcher Dean Kremer also headlined the event in support of Israel Baseball.
Suzanne Pollak is a freelance writer.
