It was perhaps the worst defeat ever suffered by Israel at the hands of an Arab country. Luckily, the lopsided battle took place on a baseball diamond.
In what was the first-ever sports encounter between Israel and Saudi Arabia, a group of 11-and 12-year-old Saudi boys overwhelmed their Israeli counterparts and handed them a humiliating defeat by a score of 30-0.
The players in the historic match were taking part in an international junior baseball tournament, held annually at the U.S. Air Force base at Ramstein, near Frankfurt.
This was the Israeli team’s first international baseball meet.
The Saudis, who are the European and Middle East divisional little league champions, said they agreed to play Israel — against the wishes of their government — because they feared that refusal would mean the automatic loss of their right to defend their title this year.
A Jordanian team refused to meet the Israelis and was placed in a second pool among the 10 teams participating.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
