Assaf Lowengart’s introduction to American baseball didn’t go well: A fan accidentally doused him in beer when his family, having relocated from Israel to Milwaukee for a year, attended a Brewers game. Then in first grade, he cried.⁠ ⁠ Yet Lowengart soon caught the baseball bug, rising in the ranks of Israel’s nascent baseball scene. And despite setbacks and injuries along the way, he’s now making history as the first Israeli-born position player to sign a professional baseball contract in the United States.⁠ ⁠ Lowengart, 25, is set to join the New York Boulders in the Frontier League, an independent league that’s affiliated with Major League Baseball but not part of the official minor league system. Playing in Rockland County, just north of New York City, he’ll have the chance to win over a heavily Jewish local fan base, as well as the MLB scouts who routinely scope out independent-league talent.⁠ ⁠ “I’m trying to break as many ceilings as I can for Israeli players,” Lowengart told th...