Description
Blake Gailen is a left-handed professional baseball outfielder for the Lancaster Barnstormers of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball. He is currently playing for the Israel National Baseball Team in the Olympics. Gailen has also been a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays.
In high school, Gailen was first-team All-West Valley League in California in his junior and senior seasons. He and major league infielder Josh Satin—also a member of the Israeli national baseball team—have been friends since they were children, and Gailen attended Satin’s bar mitzvah. He played baseball for Glendale Community College, where he was All-Western State Conference as a freshman and All-Southern California Team as a sophomore. He played summer ball for the Fayetteville SwampDogs, and was a Coastal Plain League All Star during the 2005 and 2006 seasons.
In 2011 Gailen won the American Association batting title with a .406 batting average, a new league record, while playing for the Lincoln Saltdogs. In 2012, he was named the Atlantic League Most Valuable Player as well as Baseball America’s Independent League Player of the Year, and starting All Star in left field, after batting .338 (winning his second consecutive league batting title) with 22 home runs, 89 RBIs, and 25 stolen bases for the Lancaster Barnstormers. In 2014, he was named to the Atlantic League’s All-Star team.
He has played in AA for the Toronto Blue Jays organization in 2011 and 2015, and in AAA for the Los Angeles Angels organization in 2013. Through 2018, Gailen had played 1,226 games over 12 seasons, and batted .306 with 167 home runs in aggregate. Gailen played for Team Israel at the 2017 World Baseball Classic in March 2017, and in the Confederation of European Baseball 2019 European Baseball Championship – B-Pool in early July 2019, where he was named the MVP. He signed a minor league contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2017. After finishing the season with the Tulsa Drillers, Gailen was brought back for spring training. He did not make the team out of spring training and played the season out with the Lancaster Barnstormers. In October 2018, he became a dual Israeli citizen.
Gailen again signed a minor league contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers in January 2019. Out of spring training, he was assigned to the Triple-A Oklahoma City Dodgers. He played for Team Israel at the 2019 European Baseball Championship. He also played for the team at the Africa/Europe 2020 Olympic Qualification tournament in Italy in September 2019, which Israel won to qualify to play baseball at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. On October 3rd, 2020, Gailen signed a contract with the Melbourne Aces of the Australian Baseball League.
In May, 2021 Gailen joined Team Israel for training camp for the Olympics. Team Israel will have its first training camp in May in Arizona and will then meet again in early July in New York, where it will play a series of exhibition games before flying to Tokyo for the Olympics.12 players including Gailen will return from Israel’s entry at the 2017 World Baseball Classic, which reached the quarterfinals. The next generation of Israeli baseball players is also represented with six players who helped Israel finish in first place at the European Championship U18 Qualifier in 2019 in Sweden.
The featured blue and white Team Israel Jersey was game worn by Blake Gailen during the 2020 Olympic Qualifiers as a member of Team Israel. Israel’s national baseball team was victorious winning the Confederation of European Baseball’s (CEB) European Championships Pool B tournament by going a perfect 6-0 in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria, in the first step toward qualifying for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. The results included conquests of Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria, Ireland and twice Russia (which had six Cuban players on its roster). Winning the tournament in Bulgaria advanced Team Israel to a three-game playoff series against the winner of the second Pool B group, Lithuania, at the end of July. Israel moved past Lithuania in the playoffs series in Utena, Lithuania with two strong wins 12-2 and 15-0 on July 26 and 27, 2019.
With the win Israel became the 12th and last qualified team for the 2019 European Baseball Championship which was played from September 7th to the 15th in Bonn and Solingen, Germany. In Round 1 of the 2019 European Baseball Championship, Israel went 4-1 (defeating the Czech Republic, Sweden, Germany, and Great Britain while losing to the Netherlands). The team thereby advanced to the Championship’s eight-team playoffs, with Mitch Glasser leading all Championship batters in runs with 7, and Blake Gailen tied with Germany’s Marco Cardoso for the lead in hits, with 8. In the Championship playoffs, Israel defeated Team France in the quarterfinals securing a coveted place in the Olympic Games qualifiers. Team Israel lost to Italy in the semi-finals, and came in fourth in the tournament. In Parma, Italy Israel’s national baseball team qualified for the Olympics with a 11-1 victory over South Africa on September 22nd, 2019. The blue and white won four of their five games, losing only to the Czechs to punch their ticket for the Tokyo Olympics!!!
Gailen has signed the back of the Jersey and added “Game Worn In Olympic Qualifier in Germany, and Italy Go Israel” in silver. The Jersey features “Israel 2” across the front with the Team Israel Flag prominently displayed. The back features “WBSC” with Gailen’s “2” below. The Jersey was washed and does not show any visible use. Awesome and Unique Jersey from one of Team Israel’s Best Players!!!
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