Wagman Set to Pitch for Team Israel in Olympic Games at Tokyo
7/15/2021 2:30:00 PM | Baseball
"I really could not be more excited. I feel prepared and ready to represent Israel, the entire Jewish people, the Bay Area, San Luis Obispo and my friends and family. This is a special opportunity and I am thankful to be in this position." -- Joey Wagman
By Eric Burdick
Director of Athletics Communications
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- Confidence.
That has been the cornerstone of success for Joey Wagman as a baseball pitcher.
When Wagman arrived at Cal Poly in the fall of 2009, he probably didn't have a whole lot of confidence on the mound. After all, in three varsity seasons at Monte Vista High School, he had pitched a total of 16 1/3 innings.
By 2013, he broke Cal Poly's school record for wins in a season, earning his 13th at the NCAA Los Angeles Regional inside Jackie Robinson Stadium as he pitched eight innings in a 9-2 victory over San Diego.
Drafted by the Chicago White Sox in the 17th round, Wagman earned 21 wins in five minor league seasons, compiling a 4.43 ERA. He also played on four independent teams, notching seven more wins.
Today, Wagman can call himself an Olympian.
Wagman, who recently wrote a chapter in the book The Successful Spirit -- "My journey to success has been found through three main practices—goal setting, building confidence, and mindfulness" -- will be pitching for Team Israel at the 202One Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, beginning July 23, two days prior to his 30th birthday.
"It's surreal, representing a country that has not had a team in the Olympics in more than 40 years," Wagman said in an interview with The Jewish News of Northern California in May.
Israel regularly sends dozens of individuals in sports from gymnastics to weightlifting, but the last time it sent a full team was in 1976, when it competed in men's soccer in Montreal. Team Israel also qualified in men's soccer in 1968 and for a preliminary round in men's basketball in 1952.
"Being able to wear Israel across my chest — it's a huge honor," added Wagman, who grew up in a "mixed" home (his dad is Jewish) and has formed a strong connection to his Jewish heritage and to the Jewish state. He made aliyah, as all players on this version of Team Israel are required to do, in 2018.
"It's so much bigger than myself, so much bigger than the guys on the team or even baseball," he said. "It's not only representing a country, it's representing a people."
Wagman was not drafted out of high school and received only one Division I scholarship offer. That was from Cal Poly, where he became a two-time team captain, two time First Team All-Big West Conference pitcher, and an NCAA Division I All American.
Wagman's 27 career wins are the most in Cal Poly's 27 Division I seasons and tied for No. 2 all-time. His 318 1/3 career innings pitched and 259 career strikeouts both are No. 5 on the all-time list.
In addition to his seven years of play in the minor and independent leagues, reaching as high as Double-A, Wagman has competed at some of the highest levels of professional and international baseball, including the 2017 World Baseball Classic for Team Israel. Ranked No. 41 in the world at the time, Israel beat No. 3 South Korea, No. 4 Chinese Taipei and No. 9 Netherlands in the first round, and then No. 5 Cuba in the second round before bowing out.
In 2019 Wagman led the Israel National Baseball Team through four qualifying tournaments, successfully advancing to the Olympics for the first time in history.
The squad won qualifying tournaments in Bulgaria and Lithuania, finished in the top four in Germany and defeated top seeds Germany, Italy, Netherlands and Spain in Italy to win the tournament and become one of only six teams from around the world to qualify to play in the Tokyo Olympics.
With his four-pitch arsenal of fastball, curveball, changeup and slider, Wagman was named Most Valuable Pitcher in both Germany and Italy, allowing one earned run in 26 innings with 22 strikeouts and no walks. He was the only pitcher in the four tournaments to throw a complete game, a three-hit shutout to kick off the finals in Italy against Spain.
Wagman did not play any baseball in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Olympics were postponed one year for the same reason. "I spent the entire year training and relocated to the Southern California area to pursue new training opportunities," he said.
"It was heartbreaking to receive the news of the postponement, but it was necessary," Wagman added. "We were riding so much momentum coming off the qualification in 2019, and to have it stalled out was disappointing. But the health and safety of everyone was much more important, and still is.
"It's surreal to finally get going for the Olympics after so much has happened. The Olympics has been in the news a lot, and it hasn't always been good news, but we have stayed ready and this is what we have been preparing for ever since we qualified. Israel has also been in the news as of late, and this is a chance to showcase Israel in a positive light. Sports always has a way of bringing people together and we hope to accomplish that while achieving success on the field."
Wagman has been preparing for the Olympics by playing for Tempo Praha in Prague, Czech Republic. He compiled a 5-2 win-loss record and 1.98 ERA with one complete game and 74 strikeouts over 71 1/3 innings. Opponents hit just .218 against the right-hander and Wagman struck out 11 batters three times and 10 in another game.
"The experience of playing for Tempo Praha in Prague has been good for me and a learning experience," said Wagman. "It has been a good environment for me to refine some things on the mound, especially after an 18-month layoff.
"Leaving California as things started to open up COVID-wise and arriving in Prague in April was like going back into the heart of the pandemic," Wagman added. "But since then, the city has come alive once again, the weather has heated up, and I have really enjoyed a one-of-a-kind experience."
While Team Israel arrived in Scottsdale, Arizona, in early May for a training camp and two games at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick, Wagman remained in Prague until July 7 and flew to New York to join the Olympic team for its pre-Olympic training camp.
Team Israel will play a series of exhibition games before flying to Tokyo later this month. The nine-game tour from July 11-20 includes stops in New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland.
The six-team Olympic Baseball Tournament will run from July 28 through August 7. Team Israel faces Korea on July 29, four days after Wagman turns 30, and Team USA the next day. Also in the field are teams from the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Japan.
"I have been to some crazy places on my birthday as it is in the summer and I am always playing baseball on my birthday," said Wagman, "but this will easily be the coolest of them all."
On July 8, Olympic officials announced that no fans will be allowed at any of the venues due to the state of emergency that currently exists in Tokyo.
"I will have lots of friends and family watching us play in the Olympics, just not in person in Tokyo," said Wagman. "I know there will be some watch parties back home and I have lots of love and support."
In the book, available on Kindle through Amazon, Wagman writes about his Cal Poly experiences, including how he prepared for each start during his final two years with the Mustangs in 2012 and 2013.
"During my junior and senior years of college, I was our team's Friday night starting pitcher. This meant I pitched once a week, every Friday night. Each week I would set goals for what I wanted to accomplish on Friday night and work backwards. With those goals in mind, I would start to map out what I needed to do each day to achieve them, essentially creating a routine," Wagman wrote.
"I would leave no stone unturned, jotting down everything from throwing programs, weight lifting exercises, and conditioning workouts, to blocking off time for visualization and planning what I was going to eat before the game. As the week went along and game day approached, I was continuously checking off items that I had completed, each check mark acting as another weapon in my bag of confidence to bring to the mound on Friday.
"By game day, all the work was done and there was nothing left to do but have fun and trust everything I had done leading up to that point was more than enough to bring me success."
Wagman earned his degree in international business at Cal Poly in 2013. He joins first baseman/outfielder Jimmy Van Ostrand as former Mustang baseball players in the Olympics. Van Ostrand, who played at Cal Poly from 2005-06, played for Team Canada in the 2008 Olympics and went 4-for-15 (a .267 average).
"It has been quite the journey," Wagman said. "I am thankful and appreciative for every step along the way. Cal Poly and San Luis Obispo are very special to me. I grew up at Cal Poly, I learned a lot about what it takes to be great. The best memories I have from Cal Poly are the lifelong friends I made on the baseball field. To this day some of my best friends are guys I played with."
Team Israel Olympic Baseball Schedule
All Games at Yokohama Stadium
July 29 vs. South Korea
July 30 vs. Team USA
August 1-5 -- Knockout Stage
August 7 -- Gold and Bronze Medal games
By Eric Burdick
Director of Athletics Communications
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- Confidence.
That has been the cornerstone of success for Joey Wagman as a baseball pitcher.
When Wagman arrived at Cal Poly in the fall of 2009, he probably didn't have a whole lot of confidence on the mound. After all, in three varsity seasons at Monte Vista High School, he had pitched a total of 16 1/3 innings.
By 2013, he broke Cal Poly's school record for wins in a season, earning his 13th at the NCAA Los Angeles Regional inside Jackie Robinson Stadium as he pitched eight innings in a 9-2 victory over San Diego.
Drafted by the Chicago White Sox in the 17th round, Wagman earned 21 wins in five minor league seasons, compiling a 4.43 ERA. He also played on four independent teams, notching seven more wins.
Today, Wagman can call himself an Olympian.
Wagman, who recently wrote a chapter in the book The Successful Spirit -- "My journey to success has been found through three main practices—goal setting, building confidence, and mindfulness" -- will be pitching for Team Israel at the 202One Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, beginning July 23, two days prior to his 30th birthday."It's surreal, representing a country that has not had a team in the Olympics in more than 40 years," Wagman said in an interview with The Jewish News of Northern California in May.
Israel regularly sends dozens of individuals in sports from gymnastics to weightlifting, but the last time it sent a full team was in 1976, when it competed in men's soccer in Montreal. Team Israel also qualified in men's soccer in 1968 and for a preliminary round in men's basketball in 1952.
"Being able to wear Israel across my chest — it's a huge honor," added Wagman, who grew up in a "mixed" home (his dad is Jewish) and has formed a strong connection to his Jewish heritage and to the Jewish state. He made aliyah, as all players on this version of Team Israel are required to do, in 2018.
"It's so much bigger than myself, so much bigger than the guys on the team or even baseball," he said. "It's not only representing a country, it's representing a people."
Wagman was not drafted out of high school and received only one Division I scholarship offer. That was from Cal Poly, where he became a two-time team captain, two time First Team All-Big West Conference pitcher, and an NCAA Division I All American.
Wagman's 27 career wins are the most in Cal Poly's 27 Division I seasons and tied for No. 2 all-time. His 318 1/3 career innings pitched and 259 career strikeouts both are No. 5 on the all-time list.
In addition to his seven years of play in the minor and independent leagues, reaching as high as Double-A, Wagman has competed at some of the highest levels of professional and international baseball, including the 2017 World Baseball Classic for Team Israel. Ranked No. 41 in the world at the time, Israel beat No. 3 South Korea, No. 4 Chinese Taipei and No. 9 Netherlands in the first round, and then No. 5 Cuba in the second round before bowing out.
In 2019 Wagman led the Israel National Baseball Team through four qualifying tournaments, successfully advancing to the Olympics for the first time in history.
The squad won qualifying tournaments in Bulgaria and Lithuania, finished in the top four in Germany and defeated top seeds Germany, Italy, Netherlands and Spain in Italy to win the tournament and become one of only six teams from around the world to qualify to play in the Tokyo Olympics.
With his four-pitch arsenal of fastball, curveball, changeup and slider, Wagman was named Most Valuable Pitcher in both Germany and Italy, allowing one earned run in 26 innings with 22 strikeouts and no walks. He was the only pitcher in the four tournaments to throw a complete game, a three-hit shutout to kick off the finals in Italy against Spain.
Wagman did not play any baseball in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Olympics were postponed one year for the same reason. "I spent the entire year training and relocated to the Southern California area to pursue new training opportunities," he said."It was heartbreaking to receive the news of the postponement, but it was necessary," Wagman added. "We were riding so much momentum coming off the qualification in 2019, and to have it stalled out was disappointing. But the health and safety of everyone was much more important, and still is.
"It's surreal to finally get going for the Olympics after so much has happened. The Olympics has been in the news a lot, and it hasn't always been good news, but we have stayed ready and this is what we have been preparing for ever since we qualified. Israel has also been in the news as of late, and this is a chance to showcase Israel in a positive light. Sports always has a way of bringing people together and we hope to accomplish that while achieving success on the field."
Wagman has been preparing for the Olympics by playing for Tempo Praha in Prague, Czech Republic. He compiled a 5-2 win-loss record and 1.98 ERA with one complete game and 74 strikeouts over 71 1/3 innings. Opponents hit just .218 against the right-hander and Wagman struck out 11 batters three times and 10 in another game."The experience of playing for Tempo Praha in Prague has been good for me and a learning experience," said Wagman. "It has been a good environment for me to refine some things on the mound, especially after an 18-month layoff.
"Leaving California as things started to open up COVID-wise and arriving in Prague in April was like going back into the heart of the pandemic," Wagman added. "But since then, the city has come alive once again, the weather has heated up, and I have really enjoyed a one-of-a-kind experience."
While Team Israel arrived in Scottsdale, Arizona, in early May for a training camp and two games at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick, Wagman remained in Prague until July 7 and flew to New York to join the Olympic team for its pre-Olympic training camp.
Team Israel will play a series of exhibition games before flying to Tokyo later this month. The nine-game tour from July 11-20 includes stops in New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland.
The six-team Olympic Baseball Tournament will run from July 28 through August 7. Team Israel faces Korea on July 29, four days after Wagman turns 30, and Team USA the next day. Also in the field are teams from the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Japan.
"I have been to some crazy places on my birthday as it is in the summer and I am always playing baseball on my birthday," said Wagman, "but this will easily be the coolest of them all."
On July 8, Olympic officials announced that no fans will be allowed at any of the venues due to the state of emergency that currently exists in Tokyo.
"I will have lots of friends and family watching us play in the Olympics, just not in person in Tokyo," said Wagman. "I know there will be some watch parties back home and I have lots of love and support."
In the book, available on Kindle through Amazon, Wagman writes about his Cal Poly experiences, including how he prepared for each start during his final two years with the Mustangs in 2012 and 2013."During my junior and senior years of college, I was our team's Friday night starting pitcher. This meant I pitched once a week, every Friday night. Each week I would set goals for what I wanted to accomplish on Friday night and work backwards. With those goals in mind, I would start to map out what I needed to do each day to achieve them, essentially creating a routine," Wagman wrote.
"I would leave no stone unturned, jotting down everything from throwing programs, weight lifting exercises, and conditioning workouts, to blocking off time for visualization and planning what I was going to eat before the game. As the week went along and game day approached, I was continuously checking off items that I had completed, each check mark acting as another weapon in my bag of confidence to bring to the mound on Friday.
"By game day, all the work was done and there was nothing left to do but have fun and trust everything I had done leading up to that point was more than enough to bring me success."
Wagman earned his degree in international business at Cal Poly in 2013. He joins first baseman/outfielder Jimmy Van Ostrand as former Mustang baseball players in the Olympics. Van Ostrand, who played at Cal Poly from 2005-06, played for Team Canada in the 2008 Olympics and went 4-for-15 (a .267 average).
"It has been quite the journey," Wagman said. "I am thankful and appreciative for every step along the way. Cal Poly and San Luis Obispo are very special to me. I grew up at Cal Poly, I learned a lot about what it takes to be great. The best memories I have from Cal Poly are the lifelong friends I made on the baseball field. To this day some of my best friends are guys I played with."
Team Israel Olympic Baseball Schedule
All Games at Yokohama Stadium
July 29 vs. South Korea
July 30 vs. Team USA
August 1-5 -- Knockout Stage
August 7 -- Gold and Bronze Medal games
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