World Baseball Classic’s plucky Israeli team has a UM connection

So, it turns out that Team Israel, the early darling of the 2017 World Baseball Classic, has a University of Miami connection.

The manager of the Israeli team, ranked No. 41 in the world and cobbled together of Jewish-American journeymen, is former UM assistant coach Jerry Weinstein.

Nobody expected much of Israel, the lowest-ranked of the 16 teams in the tournament, but that has changed after the Israelis upset No. 3 host South Korea and No. 4 Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) by a combined score of 17-8. They play Netherlands Wednesday at 10 p.m. Eastern, and are a lock to advance to the second round.

Weinstein, 73, was an assistant under Hurricanes legend Ron Fraser on the 1984 UM team, which…