Little Palestine Classic promotes international baseball

Young talent shines, tough decisions loom for China

The Little Palestine Classic brought hundreds of fans to Ozinga Field in Illinois as Palestine hosted Pakistan in a two-game series this past weekend.

The Palestine Baseball and Softball Federation doesn’t have a home field to play on because of Israel’s brutal occupation which extremely limits Palestinians on their land. So with that in mind, volunteers in the United States scheduled three games to promote the team and help prepare and evaluate the talent for the Asian Baseball Championship in China in September.

Palestine and Pakistan—both ranked amongst the best 40 teams in the world—qualified for next month’s tournament by advancing to the finals of the West Asia Cup in Iran last May. Palestine defeated Pakistan 5-4 in 10 innings to become the first Palestinian team to win a West Asia Cup tournament.

Pakistan originally agreed to a three-game set, but ultimately the teams only played two exhibition games before Palestine finished the weekend with an inter-squad game.

There’s more than a month left until Pakistan and Palestine will travel to China to represent West Asia against some of the best teams in the world such as Japan, Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) and South Korea. This past weekend gave Palestine’s coaching staff a lot to consider, especially since Pakistan swept the weekend.

Things to consider

Yacoub Rayan will be a part of this team for as long as he wants and rightfully so. He stole the show Saturday night when he entered the game in relief in the third inning.

The young infielder and pitcher dominated Pakistan’s hitters for 5 innings before Paul Baba—another fairly new member of the team—finished off the game on the mound.

Rayan made his first appearance with the team during the Baseball United Arab Classic in Dubai last November, where he first showed his capabilities. Last weekend, the 18-year-old picked up where he left off. He made an amazing defensive play at second base during Friday’s game before shoving on Saturday.

Baba, who is based in Texas, made his debut for Palestine in Iran last May. The hard-throwing right hander is a sight for sore eyes because of Palestine’s lack of depth at that position. Right now the pitching is limited to Steven Mufareh, Brent Powers, Muhammad Abdelfattah, Adam Musa, Yunis Haleem, Baba and Rayan.

The team is still waiting on ace Zaki Hajj to make a full recovery. He has been out since 2023 with a torn labrum. Last week he began throwing again. He’ll give this pitching staff a huge boost when he’s back in action.

In addition to Rayan and Baba, Palestine added two new players that can both catch and play first base at high levels.

Anthony Batshon and Luke Shahin started Friday’s game as extra-hitters. Shahin, who grew up in Toronto, finished the first game behind the plate. He started Saturday’s game at first base while Batshon started game two at catcher. Both proved to be valuable assets to the team.

Batshon has to make sure he has the green light from his collegiate coaches before he can confirm if he will travel with the team to China next month, but having him as an option behind the plate is huge.

Despite there being plenty of young talent, some of the core players who have been with the team since its inception aren’t going to hand over their positions overnight. Tariq Suboh, Rumsey Yasin, and Yunis Haleem each proved they deserve to have a key role at the Asian Baseball Championship in September.

Suboh, the team’s all time home run leader, produced at the plate as most of the team struggled against Pakistan’s pitchers. Yasin had a few web gems at first base, proving he’s more than just a big bat.

Haleem continued to prove he can do whatever is asked of him. He pitched two innings during the first game before playing the entire second game at second base.

Being swept by your rivals at a tournament you are hosting isn’t ideal, but winning wasn’t the only goal of this weekend. This weekend was meant to give the diaspora community a chance to celebrate their champions; the coaching staff the ability to evaluate new and old talent against proper competition without risking a game with stakes attached.