Originally, Israel’s games were slated for November, after the end of the American baseball season. That timing would have allowed the team to try to recruit the 10 or so major leaguers of Jewish heritage, including outfielder Ryan Braun, the reigning National League most valuable player; third baseman Kevin Youkilis of the Chicago White Sox; second baseman Ian Kinsler and pitcher Scott Feldman of the Texas Rangers; first baseman Ike Davis of the Mets; and pitcher Craig Breslow of the Boston Red Sox.

But with the games rescheduled for late September, only lesser-known minor leaguers were going to be free to participate. How could Team Israel find the ballplaying Jews among the more than 240 teams spread across more than a dozen leagues? Not every player of Jewish extraction was conveniently identifiable with a name like Kaplan or Perlman. Some were camouflaged, like Cody Decker, Joc Pederson and Charlie Cutler.

Fortunately, there are people who keep track of such information. Scott Barancik runs the Web site jewishbaseballnews.com. He not only maintains a list of Jewish ballplayers, he publishes a feature called “Not a Jew,” meant to eliminate confusion caused by the Jewish-sounding names of non-Jews, like David Eckstein or Madison Bumgarner.

This work often requires considerable research, and Barancik, a journalist, sometimes receives heated e-mails accusing him of being “an unfair arbiter of who is Jewish and who is not.” He said he largely relied on the definition of the Jewish Sports Review, a magazine that lists players with at least one Jewish parent so long as the athlete does not practice a different faith and is agreeable to being on the list.

Sheldon Wallman, an editor of the magazine, said his publication was the first to identify Ausmus as a Jew after receiving a tip from a reliable source. “His mother called me up,” Wallman said.

Ausmus, who was not raised Jewish, said the call more likely came from his grandmother. He became grateful for the published lists once it became his job to help assemble an Israeli team. There are about 65 minor leaguers with some Jewish roots. Ausmus works as a special assistant for the San Diego Padres and has access to scouting reports.