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Ron Blomberg, a manager? Not only a manager, but the manager of a championship team.

Who'da thought that Ron Blomberg, the same Ron Blomberg who once said, "I should have done what my parents wanted me to do and become a doctor AND a lawyer;" the same Ron Blomberg who, upon learning he was going to be the Yankees first designated hitter and was asked how he planned to prepare for his historic role, replied "I don't know. I've never done it before," had that kind of baseball savvy?

Today, that Ron Blomberg, now 59, is a champion, the manager of the Bet Shemesh Blue Sox, winners of the first Israel Baseball League championship.

"Can you believe it?" Blomberg said from his home in Atlanta, just days after returning from his great triumph. "I was manager of the year, I won the championship and I won in the Holy Land. What more can anyone want? I guess I had this ingrained talent throughout the years and it finally came out."

Under Blomberg's guidance, the Blue Sox finished first in the six-team fledgling league with a record of 29-12, won their first playoff game to qualify for the championship game and defeated the Modi'in Miracle — managed by Art Shamsky — to win the championship.

This is grassroots baseball in a land with no previous experience with the game. Games are played on rudimentary high school fields that seat between 800 and 1,000 fans and home games usually filled the stands with tickets priced at $5 each.

"The people really supported us and took to the game," Blomberg said. "There are a lot of Jews from New York and Connecticut living over there and they came out to our games, but the natives also came."

To honor his Yankees roots, the Blue Sox wore pinstriped uniforms and on the back of Blomberg's uniform was his name in Hebrew, a replica of which was a hot item at concession stands, which also sold hot dogs and hamburgers, kosher, of course.

"People would show up to the games wearing their Blomberg jerseys," he said.

By rule, all teams in the league must have three native Israelis on their 22-man roster. The remainder of Blomberg's team was made up of players from New York, California, the Dominican Republic and Australia. The roster included a few that had played in the minor leagues.

"The Israelis were the weakest players on my team," Blomberg said. "But they're just starting to play the game in Israel. Give them five or six years and they're going to get better and have good baseball there."

The Blue Sox players and their manager lived in a kibbutz, which gave Blomberg an opportunity to get in touch with his ethnic roots as well as his baseball roots.

The toughest part of his job, he said, was organizing the team and teaching the game to those who knew so little about it. The strategy came easy to him, he said.

"The games were seven innings, so I realized you had to try to get a lead early. I don't like bunting early in a game, but because the games there are two innings shorter, I found myself bunting in the early innings to try to get a lead. The nicest compliment I got was when[former Yankees Director of Public Relations] Marty Appel visited and told me, 'You really can manage.' I know baseball. I know how to maneuver. I know how to win."

Blomberg had three or four players on his team who he said, "Could be prospects. They could play in Class A or Double-A. I contacted the Yankees and told them about these kids. One or two of these kids are going to have the opportunity to go someplace to play and that makes me feel good.

"I helped these guys hitting, I helped them play baseball and I would love to work in baseball as a Minor League manager or a hitting instructor. I would be very interested if somebody came up with the right opportunity to do something like that. The only team I would want to work for is the Yankees. All my allegiance is to the Yankees. But I'm not going to beg for a job. To me, that's very degrading."

His Israeli experience may be the start of something for the guy known as "Boomer." For the record, there have been only three Jewish managers in the Major Leagues: Lefty Phillips (Angels, 1969-71), Norm Sherry (Angels, 1976-77), and Lou Boudreau (Indians, 1942-50; Red Sox, 1952-54; A's, 1955-57; Cubs, 1960). Boudreau, who led the Tribe to a World Series title in 1948, didn't have a Jewish father, but did have a Jewish mother. In the Jewish faith, that makes Boudreau Jewish.

Maybe Ron Blomberg is on his way to becoming the fourth Jewish manager.