Decker, Team Israel dream of shaping country’s baseball destiny

Cody Decker started in left field for the Israeli team that lost the final of a 2013 World Baseball Classic qualifier in heartbreaking fashion in September 2012. Four years later, he’s expected to make Israel’s 28-man roster for next month’s WBC qualifier in Brooklyn.

And Decker knows there is far more at stake than a trip to Seoul, South Korea, for WBC pool play in March.

“If we win this tournament and get into the WBC, it could change the dynamic of baseball in Israel altogether,” Decker said last week in a telephone conversation. “Israelis would see Jewish players on a grand stage, representing their country at the highest level.

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“I’m so excited about it. This is something that could have a real, legitimate impact on people’s lives. Usually, me playing baseball doesn’t have an impact, other than on me or my teammates. This is something that’s much bigger.”

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Decker is Jewish-American, like most players on Israel’s 2012 and ’16 national baseball teams. (World Baseball Classic rules permit players to represent nations for which they meet the qualifications of citizenship, even if they do not hold passports.) But Israel’s domestic baseball culture has grown in recent years, with an academy for elite players now operating in Petah Tikva, east of Tel Aviv.

Decker, who plays for the Boston’s Double-A affiliate in Portland, Maine, said he receives weekly updates from Peter Kurz, president of the Israel Association of Baseball, on the federation’s progress.

Even though Kurz knew the 2012 team would be comprised largely of Jewish-American players, he believed it was important to bring a group of Israeli-born players to Florida for training prior to the final roster cuts.

“That week was so much fun,” said Decker, who has yet to visit Israel. “It was like a short Spring Training. We were working right alongside the young Israeli players — them with us, us with them. It really allowed us to learn more about Israel itself, and their baseball past.

“There aren’t very many Jewish players in pro ball, so to be together was really meaningful to all of us. We had the full backing from Israel and the baseball federation.”

Decker, who played eight Major League games with the Padres last season, has …

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