Israeli baseball player selected in MLB draft for first time

19-year-old pitcher Dean Kremer, the ace of Israel’s national baseball team, was selected in 38th round of MLB draft by San Diego Padres last month Instead of signing with the Padres, Kremer enrolls in college, and his stock is only expected to rise.

The 6-foot-2 Kremer is the golden boy of Israeli baseball, the first citizen to be selected in the major league draft and the country’s greatest hope of lifting the sport from its decades-long second-class status.

I like to represent my country in any way possible,” Kremer said before practice at the country’s only regulation baseball field in the Baptist Village, in central Israel.

Baseball has historically been the most popular sport among American Jews, and there are currently about 15 playing in the major leagues, including All-Stars Ryan Braun and Ian Kinsler.

In 2007, a group of American supporters launched the Israel Baseball League, a professional league comprised almost entirely of foreign players that folded after just one season.

Israel fielded a qualifying team for the 2013 World Baseball Classic that was similarly staffed by top-notch American Jews who were eligible to play for it under a “heritage” clause that allowed players with the loosest of ties to join the teams.

But Kremer, who enrolls at the University of Nevada Las Vegas on a baseball scholarship this fall, has deeper roots in Israel.

However, the sport has made great strides since the arrival two years ago of Nate Fish as the Israel Association of Baseball’s first paid full-time national director.

Regardless, he said it means a lot to the status of baseball in Israel and he envisions a bright future for his current teammate on Team Israel, the 22nd-ranked squad in the world.