Teams line up on the field at Lou Berliner Sports Park in Columbus, Ohio. (Photo by 2026 Columbus Baseball Invitational)
(Israel Baseball) – “Is this heaven?”
No, it’s Ohio.
Every May, something unusual happens at Lou Berliner Sports Park in Columbus. The high school baseball teams of Jewish day schools throughout the country — spanning the full width of the United States, from the Atlantic Seaboard to the Pacific Coast — descend on a Midwestern city for three days of competition.
They sleep in local hotels. They pray together in the morning before games. And then they play ball.
This phenomenon is the Columbus Baseball Invitational (CBI), which runs this year from May 17 through May 19. It is the largest Jewish high school baseball tournament in the United States. It is also, improbably, the creation of two parents who just wanted their kids to have a few more games to play.
