Dubbed the "Big Cat" (El Gran Gato) by Felipe Alou while in the Minor Leagues, Andres Jose Galarraga is without a doubt, among the best fielding first basemen in the Major Leagues today.

Felipe Alou (on Galarraga):

"I remember when we first saw Andres Galarraga. Here was a big kid with a bad (strange) name. He showed up & everybody laughed. He weighed 246 pounds at age 16. We had no uniform big enough. They had to split his pants."

"Then he stepped in the batting cage & put six balls over the fence. The boy really didn't have to run."

"He's quite a man now."

Andres Galarraga (on Felipe Alou):

In his own words, to get to play for Expos Manager Felipe Alou, he "would crawl across broken glass."

On another occasion he said, "Felipe is like my daddy when it comes to baseball."

I've been a big fan of Andres Galarraga.. ever since I bought those 2 packs of baseball stickers years ago. He was the only player from the Montreal Expos in those packs.. and he was in them TWICE. Being from Montreal, those stickers were the only ones to catch my eye. Since then, he has come from being my favorite player on the Expos to being my favorite player in Major League Baseball. I'm sure there might be better players in the game today but he's my favorite.

Over the years, I've gone to many Expos games. Each time, if possible, I made sure that I bought seats right along the first base line at the Olympic Stadium. I remember many a time cheering away whenever he came up to bat to the sound of a panther roaring out of the loud speakers after they announced his name.. "an-DRES GALLLLLLLLLLaragaaaaaa"

From my seat along the first baseline, I could watch him in action.. making those amazing catches that most first basemen would've missed. I remember many a time, when he would manage to dig a throw out of the dirt or catch an offline throw while, at the same time, somehow managing to keep his toe on the bag. He is, without a doubt, one of the best defensive first basemen in the game.

One of my more favourite memories from some years back was when he hit a home run with Larry Walker, the next batter, there to greet him at home plate with a fancy congratulatory handshake-high5 that they came up with. That was cool. I don't know if they ever did that when in Colorado but it was fun to see when they did that here with the Expos.

Many of my friends kidded me over the years about being a fan of someone who had led the National League in strikeouts consecutive years in a row. I didn't care. He was my favourite player. He could do no wrong. I had faith that he'd make a comeback. Twas a sad day in Montreal when he was traded away from Montreal by Dave Dombrowski that day in '91 for Ken Hill.

The Expos didn't have a clue what they were trading away when they traded him to the St. Louis Cardinals. The only statistic that they could see were the strikeouts & the $$$ they were to pay him. They didn't take into account his defensive abilities. A two-time Gold Glove winner (89-90) but it meant nothing with a $2-million plus contract tagged on. To this day, the Expos still don't have a regular first baseman with his prowess around the first base. Even when he came knocking on the Expos' door in '92, they basically said "Thanks.. but no thanks." even though they could have picked him up for a bargain.

Can't really blame the Expos too much tho'. They're a small market team that doesn't really have the financial resources to keep players as they start to play better thus leading to an increase in salary. In recent years, they've lost many players due to the lack of financial resources & free agency. Among them are, Marquis Grissom, Larry Walker, Andres Galarraga, Jeff Fassaro, Ken Hill, John Wetteland, Moises Alou, Pedro Martinez, Mike Lansing just to name a few.

That same year.. after joining Colorado Rockies as a Free Agent.. he turned into a National League pitcher's nightmare, hitting around .400 for much of the season before being injured after being hit by a pitch. If he stays free of injuries, he'll do well.

A funny note from that year, the Florida Marlins also joined the Major Leagues.

"(Joining) Maimi would have been perfect, but Dombrowski is there and he has no use for me. He thought my career was over. I want to make him feel bad." - The Gazette - 1993

I hope he succeeds in his desire to play many more years of baseball before retiring. Right now, he can't imagine life without baseball. "I don't even want to think about retiring," he said. "My wife asked me, what I'm going to do after I'm done playing baseball? I tell her I don't even want to think about it."

Special thanks to Gary, Pierre, Ron, SuperSteve (you overcharged me on a lot of them but it's okay.) & a big thanks to those guys who own that sports cards store just outside the Metrotown mall in Vancouver (every time I walked in, they had new ones set aside for me.) for helping me find so many Andres Galarraga cards for my collection. There's no way I'd ever have accumulated so many different cards without their help. September 1998, Gary found the #138th different card for my collection.

Honorable mention goes out to Jason Leonard of Massachusetts & Michael Karg of Illinois for putting those hard to find cards out for sale. For years, I couldn't find that '86 Donruss The Rookies card & the 1987 Sportflics card. Thanks guys! Thanks to Frank Barning for writing the Barnstorming article about me in the January 9th issue of Sports Collector Digest. Much thanks to Danny Bray of DJ Enterprises in Colorado for the signed Lithograph Print. Special thanks to Nancy Smith-Jones of Tucson, Arizona & Shirley Todd of Aurora, Colorado for the great photos. Gracias to Luis Jahn for some updates to the Statistics Page. Thanks to Jason Hipp for the review in The Andruw Advisor.