Management
The League was the brainchild of Larry Baras, a businessman from Boston.
Martin Berger, President and Chief Operating Officer, is a Miami trial attorney. The league's Director of Baseball Operations is Dan Duquette, former general manager of the Boston Red Sox and Montreal Expos. Berger and Duquette were involved in selecting the inaugural season players. Bob Ruxin is Director of Business Operations; Ruxin has served as vice president of a sports products and management business. Leon Klarfeld is Director of Israeli Operations; he is a resident of Even-Yehuda, and has been involved in Israeli Baseball for over 20 years, was the president of the Israel Association of Baseball (IAB) between 1994 and 2002, and is a certified umpire for the Confederation of European Baseball. Jeremy Baras is the Director of Game (fan) Experience.
The Commissioner in 2007 was Dan Kurtzer, former U.S. Ambassador to Israel and Egypt. The league's Board of Advisors in 2007 included: Bud Selig (Major League Baseball Commissioner), Wendy Selig-Prieb (former Milwaukee Brewers owner), Marshall Glickman (former president of the NBA Portland Trail Blazers and former president of a minor league baseball team), Professor Andrew Zimbalist (baseball economist), Marvin Goldklang (minority owner of the New York Yankees and principal owner of four minor-league teams), Randy Levine (President of the Yankees), and Marty Appel (former NY Yankees public relations director).
On November 15, 2007, Kurtzer and nine advisory board members (including Zimbalist, Goldklang, Levine, and Appel) resigned. They commended Baras for having the vision to bring pro baseball to Israel, but in their letter of resignation, summing up the concerns of all, Goldklang and Zimbalist wrote that: "it has become apparent that the business leadership of the league has ceased to perform in an effective, constructive or responsible manner and has failed to manage its capital and other resources in a manner likely to produce successful results." The advisers who resigned said the league was unwilling to provide financial information. Berger, the league president, said: "They were asking us for things that we didn’t have yet. We haven’t done our financials for this year. We are upset and disappointed that they’re leaving, but we are going ahead for next year. We have been talking to people who potentially are going to purchase the teams."
Read more about this topic: Israel Baseball League
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