Olympic Dreams

When you look at the lineup for the 2020 Olympic baseball competition, there were five baseball teams you'd expect to see: the United States, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, South Korea, and Japan. If you kept reading the down scorecard you'd find the sixth team: Israel. Israel's national baseball was slated to make its first appearance on the Olympic stage this past summer, but few of the devotees to the American national pastime could name an Israeli baseball player, let alone a full roster. In this first episode, join host Chana Weinberg to understand how Israel's first team in the Olympics in forty years was a baseball team made up of all different types of dreamers. This limited-run podcast will tell the story of how a small country the size of New Jersey which features no professional baseball league managed to produce a world-class team that beat a string of baseball Goliaths to secure a trip to Tokyo. With unprecedented insider access to players, coaches, and managers, the show will tell the stories of the ragtag team of athletes -- some former Major Leaguers, some underdogs -- who managed to pull off one of the greatest upsets in modern sports history, touching on larger themes like faith, friendship, and nationhood.