JTA — Eric Holtz, the manager for Israel’s national baseball team over the past four years, has stepped down from his post.
Team Israel failed to medal in the recently concluded Tokyo Olympics, finishing fifth with a squad of nearly all Americans, including former major league All-Star Ian Kinsler. Some had predicted that Israel, making its Olympics debut, would finish in the top 3 of the six-team field.
Team Israel was also forced to apologize after a video of its players breaking a bed at the Olympics went viral on TikTok.
Holtz, 55, informed Jordy Alter, the president of the Israel Association of Baseball, and Team Israel’s general manager, Peter Kurz, of his decision earlier this week, Israel Baseball said in a statement.
“Israel Baseball thanks Holtz for his hard work in advancing the game during his tenure with the national team and wishes him much success in his future endeavors,” the statement said.
Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition
by email and never miss our top stories
By signing up, you agree to the
terms
Guided by Holtz, Israel earned its historic Olympics berth by winning the Africa/Europe Qualifying Event in September 2019, emerging from the second tier of European baseball along the way.
Israel’s Scott Burcham, right, dives and cannot reach a ball picked up by Rob Paller, center, as Blake Gailen (2) looks on during a baseball game against the United States at the 2020 Summer Olympics on July 30, 2021, in Yokohama, Japan. (AP/Sue Ogrocki)
A former player-coach in Israeli professional baseball, he was an assistant on the Team USA that won the gold medal in baseball at the 2013 Maccabiah Games and the head coach of the Under-18 US club that took gold at the ’17 Maccabiah.
It's not (only) about you.
Supporting The Times of Israel isn’t a transaction for an online service, like subscribing to Netflix. The ToI Community is for people like you who care about a common good: ensuring that balanced, responsible coverage of Israel continues to be available to millions across the world, for free.
Sure, we'll remove all ads from your page and you'll unlock access to some excellent Community-only content. But your support gives you something more profound than that: the pride of joining something that really matters.
Join the Times of Israel Community
Join our Community
Already a member? Sign in to stop seeing this
You're a dedicated reader
We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.
That’s why we started the Times of Israel - to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.
So now we have a request. Unlike other news outlets, we haven’t put up a paywall. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community.
For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you,
David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel
Join Our Community
Join Our Community
Already a member? Sign in to stop seeing this