Valencia Helps Make Israel's Olympic Dream a Reality
By David Villavicencio
HurricaneSports.com
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – Danny Valencia knows what it’s like to be the underdog.
Despite being one of the top players in Florida growing up, Valencia began his collegiate career at UNCG before transferring to the University of Miami and becoming a standout. He also overcame long odds as a 19th round pick and reached the Major Leagues, establishing himself over a nine-year big league career.
While Valencia has accomplished so much over the course of his baseball career, his most recent accomplishment might also be his most meaningful one. The Boca Raton, Fla., native helped Israel’s national baseball team make history by winning the six-team Europe/Africa Olympic qualifying tournament, assuring itself a spot in the Tokyo Olympics in July 2020.
“It was a pretty amazing experience,” Valencia said. “Going into it, I didn’t know what I was getting into. But, going and seeing Israel, and meeting people who traveled there and said nothing but great things about the country, it was inspiring, it was spiritual, it was really an experience.”
Valencia, who was arguably the most accomplished member of Team Israel, lived up to his reputation as an impact bat. The 35-year-old batted .375 in the Olympic qualifying tournament, leading the tournament in runs (7), home runs (3), RBIs (9), walks (5), and slugging percentage (1.000).
His final at-bat at the tournament in Parma, Italy was an unforgettable one, as Valencia hit a three-run homer that gave Israel a 10-run lead over South Africa and put them in position to earn a victory after eight innings due to the 10-run mercy rule.
“The more time you have with your teammates you realize you have the same common goal, which is to do well for the country and to chase your goal and become an Olympian,” Valencia said. “It made it so much easier. It was just an amazing experience. I am very thankful and blessed that I was able to have this opportunity and that I was able to honor this commitment.”
Despite being recruited for the better part of the last decade by President of the Israeli Association of Baseball Peter Kurz, Valencia could not accept Kurz’s invitation to join the national team. As an active big leaguer, Valencia was unable to play in World Baseball Classic qualifiers in September 2012 and against in the 2017 WBC due to Spring Training obligations.
Valencia and Kurz kept in touch following the 2017 World Baseball Classic and the President of the IAB’s persistence paid off in 2019. With Valencia unsigned for the first time since he broke into the Majors in 2010, he was suddenly available to play for the Israeli national team.
“I got in touch with him two months ago and told him, ‘I’m trying to qualify for the Olympics and I want in,'” Valencia said. “Obviously being disappointed I wasn’t playing affiliated baseball, I followed the team and I was like ‘Wow, what an opportunity this could be. I’ll be able to play competitive baseball in Europe. It’ll be a good time.'”
But Valencia’s path to Team Israel was not as simple as just agreeing to play for them. First, Valencia needed to become an Israeli citizen before he would be eligible to play on the country’s national team. Born and raised in a Jewish household, Valencia qualified for citizenship through ‘Aliyah’ or Israel’s Law of Return — which requires a Jewish parent or grandparent, or even marriage to a Jewish spouse. But there was so much more that went into gaining his citizenship.
“The process to become an Israeli citizen is called Aliyah. And with that you have to give FBI background reports, you have to have a letter from a rabbi saying that you’re Jewish, you have to have copies of your marriage certificate, your birth certificate, a lot of different things and you have to get them all sealed and notarized. And then you have to go over there for your interview. You go over to the Minister of Interior for your interview. Any Jewish person worldwide is entitled to become a citizen of Israel. It doesn’t matter where you are. That’s what Israel was founded on. Me, being Jewish, I’m entitled to become a citizen there and I was able to get my passport and become an Israeli citizen. And from there, that made me eligible to play in their qualifier for the Olympics and the European Championships. In the Olympics, all members of these teams have to be citizens of the country they represent.”
The 2020 Tokyo Games will mark baseball return to the Olympics for the first time since the 2008 Beijing Games. Since 1904, baseball has had an on-and-off Olympic history, usually as a demonstration sport. It finally became an official Olympic event in 1992, but was dropped in advance of the London Games in 2012 and also was absent from the 2016 Rio Games.
Tokyo 2020 may well be a one-time opportunity for a generation of players, as the sport is not currently slated to be part of the 2024 Paris Olympics and it is unknown if it will be played at the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028.
“Nobody would have thought that this would turn into me becoming an Olympian and now being one of six teams representing Israel in the 2020 games in Tokyo,” Valencia said. “It’s literally a dream come true. It’s super surreal. It’s something that I don’t think I’ve quite really processed. People dream about that, but it’s just so hard to make reality. Baseball is now in the Olympics for the first time in a very long time and it won’t be back in 2024 because they’re taking it out. It’s really an amazing accomplishment. I’m super proud of myself and my team.”
Israel’s appearance in Tokyo will mark the first time the country has been represented in a team sport at the Olympics since its soccer team in 1976.
“If you would’ve asked three to four months ago if I would be an Olympian, I would’ve probably said, ‘That seems like a long shot,'” Valencia said. “But, here we are today in a position where the team is going to play in Tokyo 2020. It’s crazy.”
Valencia believes he never would have become the baseball player he is today without his time at the University of Miami. Two-time national champion head coach Jim Morris made an impression on Valencia at the conclusion of the 2005 season and that helped motivate the then sophomore infielder to be the best player he could be from that moment forward.
“We lost to Nebraska in the Super Regionals back when they had Joba Chamberlain and Alex Gordon,” Valencia said. “Cesar Carrillo and Ryan Braun were on our team and it was their junior year. I remember losing to that team knowing that we were definitely the better team. And I remember like it was like yesterday, Jim Morris right after the game came on the bus and told us, ‘This is going to be one of the most disappointing teams in University of Miami history.’ At the time, we are young kids thinking like, ‘Wow, how can he say this? We got to Super Regionals. There’s teams that would die to be in the tournament.’ But, he was right. Our team was stacked and it never sat well with us. I knew we all underachieved by not getting to at least Omaha that year and competing for a national championship. I think after that happened, it set off this ‘Never get complacent. Never feel like you’re too good. Always strive for more. Always strive to be better’ attitude inside of me and I think that helped me going into my junior year of college and into my pro career.”
Valencia also had his fair share of unforgettable moments, including a 3-for-3, two-homer, seven-RBI game that included a game-winning grand slam at Ole Miss that clinched a trip to the College World Series for the 2006 Hurricanes. His two seasons at Miami were very successful ones, batting .312 with 25 doubles, 15 home runs and 124 RBI.
“UM instilled a work ethic in me and a competitive nature in me and I think without that I wouldn’t be the person I am today,” Valencia said. “I was around guys constantly that were striving to be the best players they can be. I still tell guys to this day that when we were at UM, and you can ask guys from the teams that I was on, we always felt the best competition we had and the best games we played were intrasquads among ourselves because we knew we were the best.”
“I think that mindset that we had and that desire to be the best and that relentless drive that we had as a team back then just really helped me achieve the things I have in my career,” Valencia said. “I was drafted as a nineteenth round draft pick. I wasn’t physically the most gifted and I wasn’t the best baseball player on the field at all times, but I feel like the mental part of my game, which I got playing at UM and being around coaches like Jim Morris and Gino [DiMare] and players like Jon Jay and Ryan Braun made me mentally tough and had my mental game which would help me separate myself from being just good, maybe an average to above-average to somebody who comes in to sustain a career as long as I did and achieved some of the things I did.”
Valencia has a busy fall ahead of him, as he is still enrolled at Miami and will be involved in helping promote the Israeli National Team as it prepares to compete in the 2020 Olympics. Then there is also preparing physically to play in Tokyo, which Valencia has a plan for, too.
“Maybe I’ll ask Gino if I can practice with this year’s team,” Valencia said. “If I don’t end up playing, maybe I can practice with the team when fall comes around to stay in shape and play in those intrasquads and just be around baseball.”
There is also an opportunity to play winter ball in the Dominican Republic. A good showing there could potentially get Valencia offers to play in affiliated baseball again with a chance to work his way back up to the big leagues. But his MLB dreams have been realized and he has different goals ahead of him.
“I’d love to play Major League Baseball again, of course,” Valencia said. “But, right now, the most important thing I have going is being prepared and ready to play in Tokyo because I wouldn’t want to change that opportunity out for anything else in this world.”
