Weinstein’s new challenge: managing Israel

Jerry Weinstein is an admitted baseball lifer, always looking for a new challenge, even as he nears his 64th birthday.

He has coached at the college and junior college levels, worked in the Minor Leagues and spent time on the Rockies’ big league staff. He was on the U.S. Olympic baseball coaching staff in the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona and 1996 in Atlanta.

Now he is taking on the challenge of managing the Israel team in the WBC Qualifying Tournament next weekend in Brooklyn, N.Y., hoping to advance to the WBC tournament in South Korea next March.

He will have Major League help on his coaching staff, which includes former big league catcher/manager/coach Jerry Narron and former big league pitcher Andrew Lorraine.

Weinstein was the subject of this week’s Q&A:

MLB.com: How did the opportunity to manage the Israel team come about?

Weinstein: I was supposed to do it in 2012, but I was in the big leagues with the Rockies that year so I couldn’t do it. Brad Ausmus took my place. I had been to Israel in 2005. I coached Team USA in the Maccabiah Games, which are the Jewish Olympics. Through that, I developed a relationship with some of the people in the Israel baseball association there.

MLB.com: You have a roster of guys with professional experience. Is that an edge?

Weinstein: Sure, but so do the teams from Great Britain and Brazil, and we’ve got a lot of question marks because we’ve got a lot of old guys on there who really haven’t done a whole lot baseball-wise lately, guys like Josh Satin, Ike Davis and Jason Marquis, but we’ve got some names, and it’s a short series. Anything could happen in a short series. I’m optimistic.

MLB.com: Does an event like that create an interest in Israel?

Weinstein: I think it can if we can win, and we are expecting to win. They have a real fledgling baseball program that is tremendously underfunded and understaffed. If we qualify for the WBC next spring, it will provide some resources for them in terms of financing to build facilities and hire new staff and heighten people’s awareness, and maybe they will participate and contribute and be part of the process. Building baseball in Israel is similar to the way soccer has been built in the United States, from the ground up.

MLB.com: Do you feel you have a chance for a home-field advantage playing in the qualifier in Brooklyn?

Weinstein: I think so, given the Jewish population in that area.

MLB.com: What kind of an approach do you have to use with a team in the WBC? You have a week with everybody …

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