Andres Galarraga Called Best in National League

To many of the assorted players, managers and coaches who come here, there’s more to Montreal than good Italian food and Molson Golden. There’s the best player in the National League.

And its best-kept secret.

Meet Andres Galarraga of the Montreal Expos.

“What’s criminal,” Expos Manager Buck Rodgers said, “is that most fans in the United States have never even heard of him.”

Teammate Tim Raines adds: “I said last year he was the best first baseman in the National League. That’s a high compliment because Will Clark and Keith Hernandez aren’t bad.”

And this casual compliment from St. Louis Cardinals Manager Whitey Herzog: “If he doesn’t get hurt, he could wind up in the Hall of Fame. He’s the best first baseman playing the game today.”

He’s a big playful kid with a constant smile, a kid so unassuming that he only recently stopped taking public transportation to home games and who felt compelled to give a Montreal Gazette reporter $20 because he was late with a subscription payment. He’s polite to a fault and seems as excited about the $48-per-day envelopes of meal money now as he did the day he showed up in late 1985.

All of this belies a career that has been anything but easy. A native Venezuelan, Galarraga came to the United States at age 18, a pudgy, scared kid who spoke not a word of English. He admits to having almost quit a couple of times and probably would have if his high-school sweetheart hadn’t married him and moved north.

It all has worked out. He recently celebrated his 27th birthday by finding himself ranked among the National League leaders in almost every offensive statistic, including batting average (.313), home runs (17) and RBI (44).

He’s also terrific defensively, so much so that Herzog says his play around the bag is second to no one he’s ever seen, except possibly Gil Hodges.

Galarraga might not go to the Hall of Fame, but he’s certainly going to the 1988 All-Star Game. He’s running behind Hernandez and Clark in fan voting, but Herzog already has told Galarraga “to take some extra underwear” when the Expos leave for a six-game road trip just before the break.

“I have to start the guy the fans vote in,” Herzog said, “but people ought to see this kid.”

Galarraga told Herzog he appreciated the honor. He said the all-star game had been a dream of his and that, yes, his family would be proud. As one of only a few Venezuelans in the majors, Galarraga is revered in his native country, even doing an Aqua Velva ad there. That’s one more endorsement than he has gotten in North America.

Venezuelan newspapers run daily updates, and although he suffered from a sore thumb that limited him to 13 home runs last season he still played winter ball.

“If I don’t (play in the winter), the fans would be very upset,” he said in English that has improved bit by bit since he arrived in West Palm Beach, Fla., for rookie ball in 1979. “I have to play. It’s my home.”

Oddly, he believes that thumb injury may have helped him in the long run.

“I couldn’t pull the ball,” he said, “but it taught me to hit the ball to right-center, or wherever it was pitched. Now that my thumb is better, I can hit it out to any part of the field.”

So who is Andres Jose Galarraga? Expos scout Felipe Alou got a tip from Francisco Rivero, a legendary talent bird-dog who also discovered Tony Armas, Manny Trillo and Bo Diaz. Alou remembers seeing him on a field in the Caracas suburb of Chapellin, and while he loved the kid’s smooth quick swing, he hated just about everything else, especially the roll around his middle.

“I didn’t think he had a chance,” Alou said. “I thought he’d have trouble walking, never mind playing. He was incredibly fat.”

But the more he watched, the more he became intrigued. “His swing,” said Alou, “was just so beautiful.”

He eventually convinced the Expos to take a thousand-dollar flier on him, and Galarraga was thrown into a strange culture and country at an age when high-school graduation is intimidating enough.

“I had to learn everything,” he said. “It was tough, and there were times I didn’t think I would make it. My wife helped me. She supported me and told me to keep trying. Different people helped me with my English, and it has gotten better.”

Armas was his boyhood idol, but he said he followed a lot of the well-known players--Roberto Clemente, Willie Stargell and Tony Perez. Once he got to the United States, he attached himself to a veteran minor leaguer, Gonzalo Marquez, who helped him adjust to life on and off the field. But in 1984, Marquez was killed in an auto accident, and Galarraga said he was tested again.

“He was my best friend,” Galarraga said. “He helped me more than anyone, and when he died I was left alone.”

That was also the year his career took a sharp upward turn. He hit 27 home runs and drove in 87 runs and was named MVP of the Class AA Southern League. The next year, he was promoted to AAA Indianapolis, had 25 homers and 87 runs batted in and was named American Assn. rookie of the year. He became such a feared hitter that summer that a Buffalo pitcher walked him intentionally even though no one was on base.

“It has been fun to watch him come along and to see how his confidence has grown,” Raines said. “He deserved to belong in the big leagues two years ago, but now he believes he belongs. As he continues to learn the pitchers, you’re really going to see something.”

Ken Singleton, the former Baltimore Oriole and current Montreal broadcaster, goes further.

“He’s the best player in the National League,” he said. “Now that his thumb has healed, he can hit it out to any part of the park, and he’s as good a defensive first baseman as you’ll ever see.”

He also appears comfortable with life in North America. He has learned bit by bit.

His wife, Eneyda, gave birth to a daughter, Andria, in December 1985, and they live comfortably in a Montreal apartment. He spends many of his hours away from the field doing landscape watercolors, and several of them hang in the Expos offices at Olympic Stadium.

“He’s one of those rare people who come along very rarely,” Rodgers said. “He does everything well on the field and is a very good kid. I’ll tell you, I haven’t found a chink in his armor.”