MODIIN, Israel — On a grassy knoll in this suburb of Tel Aviv and birthplace of the Maccabees, nearly two dozen fresh-faced youngsters, ages 7-to-9-years-old, have gathered every Friday afternoon since late October to hone their baseball skills, ahead of the busy Israel Association of Baseball’s (IAB) Little League season, which runs from March through June.

The growth of America’s pastime in the Holy Land is directly linked to the more than 30,000 North Americans who have made aliyah to Israel during the past decade. The IAB, which was founded in 1986 in order to, “create an infrastructure for baseball in Israel by teaching youth baseball and build bridges between Israeli and North American youngsters,” has grown enormously in recent years. For the 2013 season, there are four different youth leagues –Minors (lower elementary school), Juveniles (upper elementary school), Cadets (lower high school) and Juniors (upper high school), as well as a “Premier League,” which boasts college-age players and former expatriate American post-college athletes.

The Minors Division has no fewer than 12 teams. And all of the teams barnstorm across the country to play each other during the course of the official season. Modiin and Beit Shemesh, the two fastest growing cities in Israel with English-speaking populations, each feature two “Minors” squads. The teams are coached by volunteers who played the game at different levels in the United States. Their goal: to turn native Israeli sabras and the sons of American new immigrants into the next Ryan Braun (whose father is Israeli) or Matt Holliday.

Oren Ben-Ami, the senior coach of the Modiin Miracles who played Little League ball in Madison, Wis. made aliyah in 1995. He became a coach when his Israeli-born son, Rohm, expressed an interest in the game when he was in first grade.

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“I also saw it as an opportunity to spend more quality time with my son,” said Ben-Ami. “As the season progressed, I found myself enjoying it more and more and getting to know the other kids and recognizing their talents. This year, my son’s skills are much improved. Also, most of the players from last year returned to the team, which makes my job easier since they already have the basic skills.”

    Manson Ho, the senior coach of the Modiin SuperSmashers, who played Little League ball in Fort Worth, Texas and made aliyah last summer was thrilled to discover he could coach the local youngsters. “I love playing the game and teaching baseball, so being able to coach during my ‘rookie year’ in Israel has been a pleasant surprise,” he said. “I want to teach them about responsibility, self-confidence, team work and sportsmanship.”

During the past few months, both coaches have worked together to sharpen their teams’ offensive and defensive skills on the field, as well as playing “spring training” games against each other. During the course of the games, the two coaches will literally stop an intra-squad inning to explain how each offensive or defensive scenario should play itself out.

 “We teach them the basic skill sets they need to succeed in baseball,” explained Ben-Ami. “We start out every practice with drills, practicing the basics. After certain plays during the scrimmage, we will stop play and tell them how they should have handled things differently. We always emphasize thatthe most important thing is the effort they give. It’s important that they show up for every practice and give 100 percent. Winning or losing will take care of itself.”

He added that he is most impressed with kids who don’t have that much talent because after working with them, they tend to make plays that they wouldn’t have made at the beginning of the year. “For me, that’s the ultimate satisfaction,” he added.

Both the Miracles and SuperSmashers have Israeli-born players. Coaches Ben-Ami and Ho agree that the Israelis have as much potential as the American kids.

 “Israeli kids are athletic from playing soccer and basketball,” said Ho. “And that athleticism helps immensely in learning the fundamentals and mechanics of baseball.”

Ben-Ami added, “The Israeli kids really like little league baseball, but sometimes it’s hard for them because things that are first nature to the American kids don’t come that easy for the Israeli kids. But they work just as hard, and we can explain the field tactics to them in Hebrew. There is a real camaraderie between the American and Israeli youngsters.”

Ben-Ami’s 8-year-old son Rohm loves playing games against other teams in the league. But like a lot of ball players, including major leaguers, he says the hardest thing for him is hitting home runs. “But I am improving,” he adds. “Last year, I hit mostly singles but this year I’m starting to hit doubles and triples. Most importantly, I like being in the league and I like all of my teammates.”

Seven-year old Netanel Werblowsky of the Modiin SuperSmashers, who idolizes injured New York Mets pitching ace Johan Santana, says his biggest challenge  “has been learning how to play the field and trying to catch a fly ball or line drive.”

Despite the fact that the boys are young and still learning the game, even friendly scrimmages between the Miracles and SuperSmashers are very competitive.

“Yalla, Re’i, rutz, rutz, rutz maher (C’mon Re’i, run, run, run as fast as you can),” yelled one of the Miracles players as his teammate tried to beat out a ground ball. When the SuperSmashers best hitter stepped up to the plate with runners in scoring position, one of his teammates yelled at him in English, “Hey, we want to win, so hit a good pitch will you?”

Coach Ho just smiled and kvelled, “You’ve got to love this piece of Americana in Eretz Yisroel!”