In a baseball story that parallels Jamaica's 1988 Olympic bobsled team, Israel will compete in an Olympic team sport this summer for the first time since 1976.
And though Israel's baseball team might not inspire a Hollywood movie as the Jamaicans did with "Cool Runnings," Israel's team also had humble beginnings, success and a late plot twist.
One could start in 1999, when a group of 9- and 10-year-olds competed for Israel's first national baseball team. Or in the winter of 2017-2018, when Peter Kurz, the manager of that kids' team, recruited Israel's current manager, Eric Holtz, by mapping out a potential route to the Tokyo Olympics on a napkin.