GOODYEAR, Ariz. –– New Cincinnati Reds assistant pitching coach Alon Leichman grew up playing baseball on a small sandlot field where the bases rested on the outfield grass. It was about 250 feet from home plate to center field. Beyond the perimeter of the baseball field, there was a big sunflower field.
And beyond that sunflower field, almost no one else in Leichman’s home country knows anything about baseball.
“I grew up in Israel in a kibbutz, a small community of about 250 people,” Leichman said. “It was founded by Americans in the 1970s. They decided to build the only baseball field in Israel.