The bases are...

Baile Rochel Plays Ball!

This little announcement about baseball starting in Israel brings back old memories...

I used to be the girls' Gym Teacher here in Shiloh. Actually that "temporary, just until we get a real gym teacher" job lasted thirteen years!

It's not like I was ever a great athlete or anything, but I had taught Creative Dance in Jerusalem before we moved here, and I also taught a women's exercise class during our first year in Shiloh, so... When they needed a gym teacher for the school, I was the "obvious" choice.

Since we had neither equipment nor a sports facility, even classrooms were hard to come by, and it didn't help that I was totally untrained, I did my "creative thing."

In those days Israeli sports were confined to soccer, meaning ball kicking. The concept of "passing balls," accurately throwing from one to another was an unknown concept. And when I tried teaching them "punchball," a favorite from my school days, I realized that the entire culture of Baseball was as unknown as bacon to my Orthodox Jewish Israeli students.

When I was a kid, we played it in the school yard, PS 46, Bayside, NY. Punchball was a "poor man's baseball." The only equipment was a spaldeen ball and some kids. it was set up like baseball, but instead of a bat, we used our fist, unlike stickball.

I thought that it would be the perfect game for the girls to learn, especially since I had no sports equipment, besides the rare ball. Being so "American" it never occurred to me that my students hadn't grown up with the same sports culture.

Let it suffice to say, that my punchball lesson was a total disaster. And honestly, I can understand why. It's a boring game, too much time waiting around. I had lots more success with dodgeball, but that's another story...