This Cubs Draft Pick Will Tug Your Heart
Itamar Steiner is one of the Chicago Cubs biggest fans, how he became the clubs biggest fan is heartbreaking. Itamar’s father, David, was the team’s biggest fan until his untimely death in a car accident in Uganda.
The Steiners, who currently live in Skokie, had lived in Tel Aviv, Israel. While there, David studied to be a Rabbi and would stream Cubs games at 3 AM while on Skype calls with friends back in the states.
“[David] was the biggest Cubs fan,” said Joe Steiner, David’s father. “[David] was studying to be a Rabbi and he always said Wrigley Field was his temple.”
David and Itamar would watch these games together, and would end their birthdays praying the same prayer, “I wish the Cubs would win the World Series.”
Their wishes for the Cubs to win the World Series would take them to Jeruselum, where they would place notes to God asking for the Cubs to win a championship. Like so many fathers and sons, and mothers and daughters before them, they bonded over the game together. They did finally get to see the Cubs win the World Series, just a few months before David’s tragic accident.
They also bonded over David’s work as a filmmaker. On a trip for the Come True project, Itamar joined David in Uganda to help him film a documentary. On December 26th, the day after David played Santa Claus for Ugandans, their bus was rammed in the side by an oncoming car. The accident would injure 18 and kill David. Itamar was on the bus and was one of the 18 that suffered injury but more importantly lost his father and the man who introduced him to the game of baseball.
How did the Cubs get involved?
David Rugendorf, a friend of David, sent a packet to Jason McLeod, senior vice president of scouting and player development.
Living in Skokie and attended Niles North, Itamar, known as ET, was a left fielder for the Niles North Vikings. While good, ET’s baseball career wasn’t going to take off and it was likely to end this past month at the end of the Vikings season.
Rugendorf used to listen to a Baseball Prospectus podcast, hosted by Kevin Goldstein and Jason Parks where he was first introduced to the idea that some teams made honorary picks at the end of their drafts. Knowing this, and that Parks, who had introduced him to this theory via the podcast, had joined the Cubs (but left before the package could be sent) Rugendorf decided to send a package to McLeod.
Rugendorf compiled newspaper clippings of David Steiner’s accident, his accomplishments, and that his son, Itamar was finishing up his Senior season at Niles North. He decided to send the packet to the Cubs in December of this past year, knowing this would be the best opportunity to get the package in front of Jason and the Cubs.
“It came in the mail, a letter to my office, and I opened it,” McLeod recalled. “As you can imagine, we get a ton of mail. I just had time on my hands going through the mail that day and I was just reading through it. I was like, ‘Wow.’”
So the Cubs called Itamar, however, he assumed friends from school were pranking them.
“I thought someone was messing with me,” Itamar recalled. “You don’t want to be messed with when it’s something so near and dear to your heart.”
Cubs scout John Pedrotty continued to call and leave messages, but each was ignored. Finally, McLeod himself reached out to Itamar himself. From there he explained the Cubs intention of drafting him with their 39th round pick.
As draft day approached, the odds seemed less likely that the organization would be able to follow through. Wednesday night before the 39th round, Jason called Itamar again to let him know it wasn’t looking good. Many of the draftees were planning on attending college instead of agreeing to terms, which meant every pick remaining was going to be important.
“I told him anyway, ‘Thank you for even considering me. I really appreciate it. I really enjoyed talking with you. It was an honor to even be considered,’ Steiner said.
“I was pretty letdown.”
That is when Itamar got a call from Rugendorf telling him to watch the 39th and 40th round of the MLB draft. From his summer camp, he was streaming the draft and on a conference call with all 30 teams and the commissioner’s office.
When the Cubs selected Pierson Gibis with the 1,178th pick, another local kid from Wauconda, Itamar knew the next round would be his last chance.
“With the 1,208th pick, the Chicago Cubs select Itamar Steiner.”
“It was amazing,” Itamar said. “It was something I dreamed about since I was a little guy.”
It sounds like the Cubs share this feeling.
“Knowing how much the Cubs meant to their family, knowing what his dad did for the community and how he really tried to help people, and then just the story of what happened — his dad was tragically killed,” McLeod said. “We felt it was something that we could do to ultimately bring some joy to this family.”
During Itamar’s Senior season he compiled six hits, including a double and a triple with three RBI’s in 17 games played. A left-handed hitter, he modeled his swing after Anthony Rizzo’s. His numbers wouldn’t typically get you noticed by a scout, and certainly not enough to get you drafted out of high school. Knowing this, Itamar plans on attending the University of Illinois and transferring to a business school.
Itamar plans on finishing his father’s documentary, once he has the financial backing.
“I’m not comfortable going back to Uganda,” Itamar said. “I think there’s too much emotion, too much fear to go back to there. I do want to find a way to finish the movie. It was one of his big dreams.
“The goal of it was to bring awareness and potentially money for the Come True project.”
*Sourced using information and quotes from Chicago Sun-Times, The Athletic (subscription service), and FanRag Sports
