The former Major League Baseball player savored the sweat dripping off his face onto the dugout floor, knowing he had found a second calling in the game of baseball.
The 36-year-old Valencia, who played nine years in the majors, is one of many Jewish-American players handpicked by Team Israel President Peter Kurz, who has labored for more than a decade to piece together a competitive baseball roster on the international stage.
Prospective Jewish-American players had to go through a process of “making Aliyah,” which includes gathering required documentation of family lineage, traveling to Israel and going through a process to become an Israeli citizen.
“It was inspiring and spiritual, it was a lot different than I was expecting,” Valencia said of his experience making Aliyah.
Team Israel was an afterthought on the international baseball stage until 2017, when it finished in a surprising sixth place in a 16-team field at the World Baseball Classic.
In the WBC, players only needed to provide documentation that they could become a citizen of the country if they applied.
Baseball is returning to the Olympics after being dropped for 2012 and 2016.
The Israeli Olympic organization usually only has to help a few individual athletes in sports like judo make the trip.
“Let’s face it, Israel’s Olympic reputation is built on tragedy,” Rosenberg said.
Kurz talked with the players about the current violence going on in and around Israel after one of the practices this week.
“After having a nice big-league career, this is kind of icing on the cake, some closure in a sense,” Valencia said.