For these pro-baseball players, visiting Israel is like coming home

Baker and Bleich, pitchers in the minor leagues and members of the club representing Israel in the World Baseball Classic, are the only ones who have previously visited Israel as adults, both on Birthright trips. The 10-player delegation arrived here last week from Las Vegas and Chicago aboard a corporate sponsor’s private plane for a six-day visit that concluded Monday and was meant to connect the nearly all-American Jewish team with the country they are representing in the tournament, a quadrennial event modeled after soccer’s World Cup.