Big Cat Lands on Feet : Braves’ Galarraga Is Winning His Fight With Cancer

The Big Cat accompanied the Atlanta Braves to the Big Apple on Thursday. At this point, that’s another step on a longer road. At this point, Andres Galarraga is happy to be in uniform and back with the team--part fan, coach, cheerleader. He is staying positive, doing well in his battle with bone cancer in his lower back, hopeful of returning to first base for the Braves next season.

“When they told me I had the cancer in February, I felt like I’d be dying the next day,” Galarraga was saying as he stood by the batting cage in Atlanta before the opener of the National League’s championship series with the New York Mets. “But then they told me they had the medicine to deal with it and that I’d be fine next year, that I had a real good chance of playing again, and I’ve been positive about it ever since.

“Not only for myself,” he continued, “but also for my family, my wife, my kids, my mother. I wanted them to see me saying, ‘Yes, I have cancer, but it’s no big deal, no big thing. I feel fine. Don’t worry about me.’ I think it’s worked for them and it’s worked for me. I am positive about it and I am feeling fine.”

The robust Galarraga smiles and it is impossible not to feel fine with him and for him. He has worked through the vicious cycles of chemotherapy and radiation and continues to pass a series of CT scans, the latest Tuesday showing that the small area of affected bone continues to heal--with every indication that the lymphoma has been erased, he said.

“It’s been a long six or seven months,” he added. “They say that you have cancer and it’s like a cold shower. I’ve always been the big, strong guy who worked hard to stay in shape. I could never imagine it happening to me, but it can happen to anyone. The chemo was especially tough, but I can’t complain. The treatment is what got me well. I have to be patient, but now I can take my workout program to the next level.”

Galarraga has been walking on a treadmill and using a stair climber. With Tuesday’s results, he can begin to jog and lift light weights. At 6 feet 3, he is about 20 pounds over his normal weight of 235 pounds because of water retention. He is hopeful that with the increased activity, he will begin to shed the weight, working toward the goal of swinging a bat again for the first time in December and being ready for spring training.

“It’s better to have the extra weight than to be weak,” he said. “It allows me to feel stronger mentally, and everybody I see says, ‘Hey, Cat, you look good, you look healthy.’ It’s good for them and it’s good for me. I just have to be patient. I don’t want to start swinging a bat or trying to do too much until my muscles are ready and my weight is where it should be.”

He is called Cat because of his agility at first base, but it was his productivity with the bat that took him to Atlanta with a three-year, $24.75-million contract as a free agent last year. Galarraga responded with 44 homers and 121 runs batted in, maintaining the pattern he had established in five previous years with the Colorado Rockies. Then-Colorado manager Don Baylor--”The guy who turned my life around,” Galarraga said of the current Atlanta batting coach--rebuilt his swing and confidence after a series of injuries and poor seasons left many thinking he was finished.

Galarraga won a National League batting title with the Rockies at .370 in 1993 and achieved career highs in 1996 with 47 homers and 150 RBIs. He had just appeared in the All-Star game last year when he began experiencing persistent discomfort in his lower back, ultimately a contributing factor in his two-for-21 performance as the Braves were defeated by the San Diego Padres in the championship series. Galarraga went through a battery of tests in November that failed to detect the problem, but the ongoing pain brought him back to Atlanta for further examination in February, at which time the cancer was found.

“One of the positives here is that it involves a relatively small area of bone in his lower back,” orthopedist Lee Kelley said. “Obviously, a larger area of bone involvement would have led to the need for surgery or led to some structural changes that could have compromised his ability to play. We didn’t see that in this particular case.

“The rule in these types of problems is that with treatment of both chemotherapy and radiation, the bone part typically heals. The structural part [of the back] does not pose a long-term problem.”

Golfer Paul Azinger had a similar cancer and returned to tournament play. Azinger, however, does not have to hit a 90-plus-mph fastball. Galarraga will try to do it at 38 after a year of lost muscle tone and timing. He is confident that he can do it, hopeful of playing into his 40s, and heartened by the comebacks of Eric Davis and Darryl Strawberry from colon cancer.

“There’s some long-term uncertainty because nobody knows the impact the disease will have on his ability to perform physically nor how he’ll be affected by missing a year, but we’re hopeful, he’s positive and so are the doctors,” General Manager John Schuerholz said.

Schuerholz added that the door definitely remains open for Galarraga, whose return, along with that of catcher Javier Lopez--who went down with knee surgery--would make the 2000 Braves even more imposing than the team that led baseball with 103 wins this year.

“When you look at the club next year in anticipation of Galarraga and Lopez coming back, you have to like how that looks,” Schuerholz said.

In the meantime, Galarraga has been back in uniform for about five weeks, a spiritual lift for the team and himself.

Said Tom Glavine: “Everybody is excited to have him around and to see how well he’s doing. I mean, it’s kind of strange. We’re the ones who should be pumping him up, but Cat has such an infectious personality that when you walk through the door and see him smiling, he’s the guy who makes you feel better, no matter what kind of mood you’re in or how you feel that day.”

Galarraga said there has been an unbelievable outpouring of support from around the world, estimating that he has received more than a million cards and letters. It is special, he said, to be back in uniform, leaning on the batting cage, helping Andruw Jones or another player with a nuance in his swing, getting a field-level perspective again of the opposing pitcher and, just generally, “pulling for the guys.”

“They’ve worked hard and done a great job,” he said. “They’ve had injuries to so many key players, but they keep finding ways to win. It’s frustrating for me not to be able to be at first base for them or to be able to swing the bat, but I’m happy inside to be in uniform and rooting for them to go all the way.

“I dream always of wanting to play in a World Series, but more important than that is life, and I feel like I’ve been touched by God, that he has put his hand on me and helped me get well, as have all the prayers from my family and so many people I don’t even know.

“The doctors tell me I have to take it step by step, but my goal is to be ready for next year, and I’m confident I will be.”