Dean Kremer and Team Israel

Where terror and baseball intersect

Just before dawn last Saturday, a multi-pronged ambush by the terrorist organization Hamas left hundreds of Israelis dead and thousands more injured. A few days later, Dean Kremer, an Israeli-American, took the mound for the Orioles in Game 3 of the ALDS.

In 2017, while still part of the Dodgers organization, Kremer was the youngest member of the Team Israel squad that brought pride to Israelis and Jews around the globe in the World Baseball Classic. (He was 20 during the qualifying round in late 2016.) That team shocked the baseball world, sweeping its way through Pool A, defeating South Korea, Chinese Taipei, and the Netherlands. They ultimately fell short in the next round, but not before beating Cuba.

Kremer, who was born in California to Israeli parents, spends time in the offseason in Israel. He mentioned prior to his playoff outing on Tuesday that the events in his parents’ homeland would be on his mind. Of course they would be.

Those events — the massacre of hundreds of Israelis on their own soil by hate-fueled extremists — have weighed on my mind all week. The global reactions, which include celebrations in support of the vicious executions and torturing of Jews, prevent me from writing about anything other than the these atrocities.

All week I have looked for responses from teams, from the sports world. I felt both relieved and grateful to find them — to find a social media post from the Mets unequivocally supporting Israel, to see that LeBron James had done the same. In turn, I realized that using this space for anything but my own declarations would be hypocritical and frivolous. Silence is complicity.

The impact of the attacks in Israel have profound impact across the world. Hamas has fomented global anti-Semitism. Prominent universities pour gasoline on the fire; college administrators bury their heads in the sand. Anti-Semitism persists.

Jewish places of worship and gathering around the U.S. today employ a bolstered security presence.

I stand with Israel. I mourn the death and suffering of all the families, and I send my condolences to everyone impacted by these depraved acts of terror.

A break in the playoffs until Sunday feels appropriate. I wish everyone a peaceful and meaningful weekend.