de MARTE Jonathan

General
INJURIES IMPACT DRAFT OPPORTUNITIES
He was not drafted out of university which he believes is due to the injuries he suffered during his studies. "I'd had plenty of exposure to plenty of teams, but they asked, 'What are you going to bring us at age 23 with multiple injuries and five surgeries for arm, elbow, shoulder and a double hernia?' All I wanted to do was play professional baseball. I wanted to enjoy it as much as possible on a given day, whether from pitching, playing the infield or training." After finishing his master's degree in human resource management, he played for a number of independent league teams in the United States of America and Canada, and signed a contract to play with Australian side Perth Heat in 2020. He has not yet given up on his dream of playing in the majors. "I'm hoping that everything that has happened this year [2019], there were a lot of scouts there, I'm hoping to get a spring training invite [in 2020]." (styleweekly.com, 14 Jan 2020)

REPRESENTING ISRAEL
He was scouted to play for Israel by coach Eric Holtz. Holtz's son had played against De Marte in college. De Marte received a call from Holtz asking him to play for Israel. "He [Holtz] says, 'You don't know me, but I feel like I know you. If you're healthy and ready to play you can pitch for the team.' [To represent Israel] you have to make aliyah, which means going up to Jerusalem. I sought a letter from my rabbi who said, 'We'd love to help out'." He then applied and was granted Israeli citizenship. (styleweekly.com, 14 Jan 2020)