40 | SEPTEMBER 12 • 2024
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li Katz admits he’d never heard
of the JCC Maccabi Games
until six months or so before
they took place in Detroit this
summer.
The Ann Arbor Pioneer High
School freshman is glad he learned
about the Maccabi Games, signed up
and joined the 14U Detroit baseball
team. Make that the gold medal-
winning 14U Detroit baseball team.
“I want to play in the Maccabi
Games again next year,” Katz said. “It
was so much fun to meet Jewish kids
from around the United States and
other countries who play the same
sport as I do. It was an amazing
event, run very well. It was great to
have time to build relationships with
other athletes at The J.”
Katz said he got to know Mexican
baseball and soccer players who
spoke English, Spanish and Hebrew,
and he’s become friends with a few
players on the Los Angeles 14U
baseball team and is keeping in
touch with them.
He has some bragging rights with
those LA baseball players. Detroit
beat LA 11-8 in the gold medal
game.
“That was a really good team.
They beat us in pool play,” he said.
“We thought we’d have a tough time
beating them if we met in the gold
medal game.”
As it turned out, the opposite was
true. LA couldn’t beat Detroit in the
gold medal game, played at West
Bloomfield High School.
Detroit led LA from start to finish,
but there were anxious moments.
After scoring 10 runs in the top of
the first inning, Detroit scored just
once the rest of the way and LA
climbed within 10-8 after six innings
of the seven-inning game.
Ryan Rubin hit a home run for
Detroit on the second pitch of the
game. Katz was the starting and
winning pitcher. He pitched four
innings and left the mound with
Detroit ahead 10-6.
Katz had a great tournament.
He was the Detroit catcher for 19
innings even though he hadn’t
caught in games for several years,
and he threw out 33% of runners
trying to steal. On the flip side, he
stole nine bases.
Chris Chesney was Detroit’s
coach.
“Baseball is all about the little
plays during a game that are easy to
overlook,” he said. “The walks that
the bottom of the order works, the
nine-pitch at-bat that results in an
out but gives your teammates an
opportunity to see all of the pitcher’s
pitches, the hits behind a runner that
allow the runner to advance a base.
“We had many of those plays.”
Chesney’s team played seven
games in four days and won five of
them, including the last four in a
row.
Detroit went 2-2 in pool play July
29-30. After beating St. Louis 5-2, it
lost 5-2 to Los Angeles and 11-6 to
Team Ohio but rebounded to defeat
Team Mexico 8-7.
In single-elimination bracket play,
Detroit beat St. Louis 8-5 in the
quarterfinals and Team Boston 12-3
in the semifinals July 31 before its
gold medal win over Los Angeles on
Aug. 1.
Aside from the gold medal game
win, Chesney said, the victory over
Mexico was his team’s biggest and
most important accomplishment.
Down 5-0 in the bottom of the
That’s what the Detroit 14U baseball team did at the
JCC Maccabi Games to win the gold medal.
Beat LA!
STEVE STEIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
SPORTS
ALL PHOTOS ARE SUBMITTED PHOTOS
Happy Detroit
14U baseball
teammates Eli
Katz (left) and
Josh Dorfman.
The Detroit 14U baseball team
celebrates winning the gold medal
at the JCC Maccabi Games.