Here Are The 40 Countries Ranked Higher At Baseball Than The 2-0 Team Israel

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By Jeffrey Boxer March 8, 2017

Despite being the consensus underdogs heading into the World Baseball Classic, Team Israel is 2-0 and stands on the cusp of qualifying for the second round of tournament play. The unheralded collection of Jewish athletes has defeated the No. 3 (South Korea) and No. 4 (Japan) teams in the world, and face the Netherlands on Wednesday for a chance to win Pool A.

Israel is ranked 41st internationally by the World Baseball Softball Confederation rankings. No other country at the tournament is lower than 19th.

In honor of their achievement, we present a partially-annotated list of the 40 teams that somehow are ranked higher than Israel.

Japan
USA – Despite inventing the game, has never placed higher than fourth at a WBC.
South Korea – Israel’s first victim.
Chinese Taipei – Israel’s second victim.
Cuba
Mexico
Venezuela
Canada
Netherlands – Israel plays the Dutch on Wednesday.
Australia
Italy
Puerto Rico
Dominican Republic
Czech Republic
Panama
Nicaragua
Brazil
China
Colombia
Germany
Spain
Argentina
Russia
Pakistan
France
New Zealand
Hong Kong – Not actually a country.
South Africa
Great Britain – the national British baseball team’s homepage includes this desperate plea for donations:
Belgium
Austria
Sweden – The Swedish Baseball and Softball Federation’s website opens with this gem: “To understand Swedish baseball requires an appreciation for a culture that emphasizes an active outdoor life. How else could you rationalize playing baseball 200 kilometers from the Artic [sic] Circle?”
Croatia
Philippines
Thailand – Former All Star Johnny Damon’s mother is Thai. He may be singlehandedly responsible for this ranking.
Guatemala
Lithuania
Slovakia
Ukraine – We are guessing that nobody has fact checked the Ukrainian national team’s Wikipedia page.
Poland

There are only 72 countries that have even a single point in the WBSC (Nepal is ranked 72nd). Fifty-one other teams are tied at NR.

Jeffrey Boxer is the Deputy Digital at the Forward. Contact him at [email protected], or follow him on Twitter @jeffboxer.

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