Robb Paller
Idaho Falls Chukars
Outfielder
Born: (1993-05-21) May 21, 1993 (age 30)
Brooklyn, New York
Bats: Left
Throws: Right
Medals
Men's baseball
Representing  Israel
European Baseball Championship
Silver medal – second place 2021 Israel Team

Robert Paller (Hebrew: רוב פולר; born May 21, 1993) is an American-Israeli professional baseball outfielder who plays for the Idaho Falls Chukars of the Pioneer League. On the international level, he represents the Israel national baseball team. He played college baseball for the Columbia Lions baseball team, and was First Team All-Ivy League in his senior year. He has since also played in the Frontier League, the Canadian-American Association, and the United Shore Professional Baseball League. He played left field and center field for Team Israel at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo in the summer of 2021.

Early life

Paller is from Brooklyn, New York.[1] He attended the Berkeley Carroll School ('11), where he was coached by his father Walter Paller.[2][3][1] Playing center field and hitting leadoff, he batted .426 as a junior with 18 stolen bases in 19 attempts, and .531 as a senior with 52 runs, 20 RBIs, and 32 stolen bases, and was named league MVP.[4][1][5] He was named All-Brooklyn by the New York Post in his junior and senior seasons, and All-City by the New York Post and the New York Daily News as a senior.[1][2]

College baseball

Paller then attended Columbia University ('16), where he played college baseball for the Columbia Lions baseball team, primarily playing left field.[6][7] In his sophomore year in 2014 he batted .296/.351/.419 with 12 doubles (3rd in the league), 16 walks (9th), and 35 RBIs (leading the league) in 186 at bats, and was named All-Ivy League second team, and Academic All-Ivy League.[7][1][8] In the summer of 2014, he played for the Thunder Bay Border Cats in the Northwoods League, a collegiate summer baseball league. He batted .274/.391/.478 in 226 at bats with 17 doubles (4th in the league), 9 home runs (6th), 47 RBIs (9th), and 43 walks (5th).[7]

In his junior year in 2015, Paller batted .264/.392/.472 with 7 home runs (4th in the league), 35 RBIs (4th), and 32 walks (leading the league) in 159 at bats.[7] In the summer of 2015, Paller played for the Green Bay Bullfrogs in the Northwoods League. He batted .345(7th in the league)/.433(8th)/.480 in 177 at bats.[7][9] That same summer, he also played for the Bourne Braves of the Cape Cod Baseball League.[10]

In 2016 he batted .302/.400.503(6th in the league) with 26 runs (7th), 13 doubles (3rd), 5 home runs (4th), 32 RBIs (2nd) and 24 walks (5th) in 149 at bats, and was named First Team All-Ivy League.[7][1] Paller finished his Columbia career 4th in career doubles (43), 5th in walks (79), and 6th in RBIs (111).[11][12]

Professional baseball

In 2016 he played for the Lake Erie Crushers of the Frontier League and the Sussex County Miners of the Canadian-American Association. Paller batted a combined .215/.365/.341 in 135 at bats.[7]

In 2017, Paller played for the Birmingham-Bloomfield Beavers of the United Shore Professional Baseball League. He batted .367/.557/.633(leading the league in each category), with 6 home runs (7th) and 37 walks (leading the league) in 90 at bats, and had 21 at bats for Lake Erie.[7] In 2018 he played for Birmingham-Bloomfield, and batted .228/.354/.444 in 177 at bats.[7]

In 2021 he played for the Colorado Springs Snow Sox of the Pecos League.[7] He batted .421/.574/.614 in 88 at bats, playing primarily left field.[7]

In 2022, he again played for the Snow Sox, batting .271/.400/.271 in 59 at bats, playing primarily right field.[13]

On February 25, 2023, Paller signed with the Idaho Falls Chukars of the Pioneer League.[14] On June 7, the team reinstated him to their active roster.[15] In 2023, with Idaho Falls he batted .293/.436/.495 in 99 at bats.[13] On August 2, Paller was released by the Chukars.[16]

Team Israel

In 2019, Paller became an Israeli citizen so that he could compete for the Israel national baseball team in the 2020 Summer Olympics.[17]

Paller played for the Israel national baseball team in the outfield as the team played in the 2019 European Baseball Championship - B-Pool in early July 2019 in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria, winning all of its games and advancing to the playoffs against Team Lithuania in the 2019 Playoff Series at the end of July 2019 for the last qualifying spot for the 2019 European Baseball Championship. He batted .273/.500(7th in the tournament)/.500 with two doubles (4th), one home run, and 10 walks (1st) in 22 at bats.[18] He also played for Team Israel at the 2019 European Baseball Championship, batting .222/.417/.593 with one double, three home runs, and nine walks in 27 at bats.[19][20][21]

He played left field and center field for Team Israel at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo in the summer of 2021.[22]

Paller played left field and batted .143/.417/.357 with 8 walks (tied for third in the championship) in 14 at bats for Team Israel in the 2023 European Baseball Championship in September 2023 in the Czech Republic.[23]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f "Robb Paller - Baseball". Columbia University Athletics.
  2. ^ a b Braziller, Zach (June 22, 2011). "The Post's All-Brooklyn baseball honors". The New York Post.
  3. ^ Braziller, Zach (September 30, 2010). "Berkeley Carroll's Paller picks Columbia". Brooklyn Paper. Retrieved July 5, 2021.
  4. ^ Braziller, Zach (April 4, 2011). "Berkeley Carroll four plan to roar". The New York Post.
  5. ^ Timko, Andrew (Fall 2010). "SPO" (PDF). The Magazine. Berkeley Carroll School. p. 12.
  6. ^ "Spring Preview: Baseball Goes for Four-Peat". Columbia College Today. April 11, 2016.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "2014 Ivy League Batting Leaders". Baseball-Reference.com.
  8. ^ "Columbia Academic All-Ivy Selections". ivyleague.com. July 28, 2017.
  9. ^ Chase Levitt (April 20, 2016). "Pizza slices: Robb Paller's new approach to hitting". Columbia Spectator.
  10. ^ "Robb Paller". pointstreak.com. Retrieved August 9, 2021.
  11. ^ Spezia, Mark (May 9, 2018). "United Shore Professional Baseball League is a hit entering third year". Detroit Free Press.
  12. ^ "Baseball Record Book" (PDF). Columbia Lions. March 2022. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 15, 2022.
  13. ^ a b "Robb Paller College, Amateur & Independent Leagues Statistics". Baseball-Reference.com.
  14. ^ "PBL Player Transactions". Pioneer Baseball League. Retrieved February 27, 2024.
  15. ^ "Independent Baseball Transaction Round-up June 5th - June 9th - FloBaseball". flobaseball.tv.
  16. ^ "PBL Player Transactions". pioneerleague.com. Retrieved March 3, 2024.
  17. ^ "Four U.S. baseball players immigrating to Israel to join Olympics bid". Haaretz. April 7, 2019. Retrieved July 5, 2021.
  18. ^ "European Championship Seniors B 2019 - Pool 2 - Individual Statistics," Baseballstats.eu.
  19. ^ ""2019 European Baseball Championship"" (PDF).
  20. ^ "EUROPEAN Championship A-Pool - ISRAEL". Baseballstats.eu. Retrieved November 26, 2019.
  21. ^ "ISRAEL vs SPAIN (Sep 15, 2019)". Baseballstats.eu. September 15, 2019. Retrieved November 26, 2019.
  22. ^ "Israel". World Baseball Softball Confederation.
  23. ^ "2023 European Baseball Championship". WBSC Europe.

External links

Israel roster – 2020 Summer Olympics
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