Josh Zeid

Zeid was born on March 24, 1987, and grew up in Woodbridge, Connecticut, where both of his parents are Jewish.[1] He was raised in the Conservative tradition, attending Bnei Jacob synagogue in Woodbridge, going to Hebrew school three times a week, and attending Saturday morning services until the age of 14.[3] He has described being Jewish as something of which he was always proud.[3]

At Hamden Hall Country Day School in Hamden, Connecticut, Zeid developed into an elite pitching prospect, setting a school strikeout record of more than 400 and winning two New England championships.[1] In his senior year he was named the Gatorade Connecticut High School Player of the Year, and Baseball America ranked him 27th among national prospects.[1] He went on to attend Vanderbilt and Tulane University before entering professional baseball.[1]

Zeid was drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies in 2009.[1] He eventually reached the major leagues with the Houston Astros, appearing in 25 games in 2013 and 23 games in 2014.[1] Across those 48 appearances, he compiled a 5.21 ERA, one save, 42 strikeouts, and 48⅓ innings pitched, finishing with a 0–1 win–loss record.[1][4]

After his MLB career, Zeid moved into player development. In 2019 he became a rehab pitching coordinator and player-development pitching analyst for the Chicago Cubs and ran the organization's Pitch Lab in Arizona.[1]

Zeid's connection to Israel's national program began in 2011, when he was playing in the Arizona Fall League and met reporter Jonathan Mayo, who asked him about joining an all-Jewish baseball team connected with Israel.[3] His first involvement came the following year, in the 2012 World Baseball Classic qualifying campaign. Zeid gave up a lead in the final inning of Israel's elimination game, after which the team missed a place in the tournament.[5]

The loss stayed with him for years. When the team reconvened for another qualifying attempt in 2016, Zeid addressed his teammates about the blown lead, saying the memory was still eating him up inside.[5] Teammate Ryan Lavarnway later recalled that Zeid's words helped the players recognize that representing Team Israel carried greater weight than they had initially appreciated. Lavarnway also described Zeid as a close friend and identified the 2012 defeat as one of the lowest points of Zeid's baseball career.[5]

His experience in 2012 also gave him direct exposure to Israeli-born players whose passion for the game deepened his own sense of purpose in the program.[3] He became one of four players to take part in each of Israel's competition cycles from 2012 through 2019: the 2012 and 2016 qualifying campaigns, the 2017 World Baseball Classic, and the 2019 Olympic-qualifying tournaments.[1]

Israel made its debut in the World Baseball Classic proper in 2017. In the tournament opener, held in Seoul, Israel defeated host South Korea 2–1 in ten innings.[6] Zeid entered in relief and pitched three scoreless frames, striking out slugger Dae-Ho Lee to end the game after throwing 49 pitches.[6] He called the victory the top team win of his career to that point.[6]

His first-round dominance continued beyond that opener: across 4⅔ innings in the pool stage he posted a 0.00 ERA.[7] He was subsequently named to the 2017 All-World Baseball Classic team.[1]

Zeid later described the tournament as the most fun he had experienced on a baseball field and said the three-week run brought his playing career to a culmination.[3] He also described becoming Israeli as creating a deeper sense of belonging, transforming the players from American Jews competing for a country into American Israelis connected with it.[1]

Zeid was named to Israel's 24-player roster for the baseball tournament at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games as one of the team's pitchers.[2] In Israel's opening game against South Korea, he entered with the Koreans holding a 5–4 lead and pitched 2⅓ innings without surrendering a run, holding the lineup in check long enough for Ryan Lavarnway to hit a game-tying home run in the ninth inning.[8] South Korea ultimately won 6–5 in ten innings.[8]

In Israel's game against Mexico, Zeid started and Israel won 12–5, recording the first Olympic baseball victory in the nation's history.[9] Zeid began the game sharply before losing his rhythm; Mexico trimmed the deficit to 6–4 after three innings following a difficult stretch for both Zeid and his reliever Jake Fishman, before Israel pulled away.[9]

Zeid delivered three quality performances across the tournament, giving Israel a legitimate chance to win in each of his appearances.[10] Israel finished the tournament with a 1–4 record and without a medal.[10]

Beyond his playing contributions, Zeid worked to grow the infrastructure of baseball in Israel. He gave a pitching seminar for new coaches as part of the country's development efforts and identified fundraising to build and update fields as one of the most practical ways to support the sport's expansion there.[3]

Zeid has spoken at length about the relationship between his Jewish identity and his athletic career. Growing up Conservative, attending synagogue and Hebrew school through his early teens, and having a bar mitzvah formed the foundation of an identity he has consistently described as a source of pride.[3] His years with Team Israel deepened that connection. "I was Jewish first, and then I was a baseball player," he said, "and now I'm a baseball player whose Judaism has created so many different pathways."[1] Lavarnway's account of Zeid's 2016 speech to the team captures how that identity translated into the competitive arena: Zeid's willingness to speak about personal failure on behalf of something larger moved a group of professional athletes to rethink what playing for Israel meant.[5]