When Alon Leichman steps into the dugout as the new pitching coach of the Colorado Rockies, whose starting staff last year was perhaps the worst in recorded history, it won’t be the first time he’s faced down an unusual challenge.

When he was 10, Leichman got a chance to represent Israel at a baseball tournament in the Netherlands. But the team had no travel budget, so Leichman had to work extra hours at Kibbutz Gezer, his hometown in central Israel, to help pay for the plane ticket.

To the budding ballplayer, the extra toil was worth it.

“It was really cool,” he recalled to The Jewish Telegraphic Agency in 2022. “A sense of pride. That’s the first time I think I felt like: ‘You’re not just Alon, you’re not just representing the kibbutz anymore — you’re representing a whole country.’

In the more than two decades since, Leichman, 36, has stayed in the world of baseball. After IDF service and a brief college career cut short by injury, he’s played and coached for Team Israel at the World Baseball Classic and the Olympics, and worked his way up as a coach in the United States — first in the Seattle Mariners’ system, and then as an assistant pitching coach for the Cincinnati Reds and Miami Marlins.

On Wednesday, the Rockies named Leichman their pitching coach. The appointment makes him the first person born in Israel to hold that senior position for a major league team.

Leichman got the call from the Rockies the day after his wedding, according to MLB.com. He is now in Israel, in part to celebrate his marriage with family.

“Thank you Miami! You’ve........

© The Times of Israel