Denver -- It would not have made sense. The Colorado Rockies were headed into their inaugural season, and the likely end would not justify the means necessary to sign a front-line first baseman in the free-agent market.
So they settled for Andres Galarraga.
"If I had had unlimited dollars and we could have gone after anybody, we might have gone in a different direction," said Rockies general manager Bob Gebhard, who still is marveling at the club's good fortune.
No one could have imagined what would happen next. The Big Cat's career was on the rocks. Galarraga was -- by some accounts -- just one more frustrating season from going home to Venezuela with his tail between his legs when the Rockies signed him to a no-frills, one-year contract in November 1992, but he landed on his feet.
He put on an offensive display that the freshman fans of Colorado will not soon forget, carrying a .404 batting average into July on the way to the first batting title won by an expansion player. And the hits just keep on coming.
He is batting .333 with 17 home runs and 45 RBIs through the first 48 games of the 1994 season, and his run production numbers are well ahead of last year's pace. Last week, he was in the midst of a 10-for-15 tear when the first-place Cincinnati Reds arrived for a four-game series. They did not leave happy.
"Andres, to me, is the National League equivalent of Kirby Puckett," said teammate Dante Bichette, who joined Galarraga and outfielder Ellis Burks in a three-pronged assault on National League pitching through the early weeks of the season. "He hits every pitch hard. He doesn't do anything but hit the ball hard, and hits it where it's pitched."
The three-man wrecking crew became two when Burks suffered a wrist injury two weeks ago, but Bichette and Galarraga continue to drive the Rockies' offense. Both rank among the league's top five in home runs, RBIs and total bases. Both are immensely popular in this suddenly baseball-crazed community,
but Galarraga has been the big guy from the beginning.
And why not? Last year's flirtation with .400 enabled the Rockies to transcend the usual expansionitis and give their record fan following something significant to cheer about. He didn't get there, but his .370 average equaled the highest by a National League hitter since 1948.
He turned out to be the right man for the job, but only because he was the right man for the price. He had averaged 21 home runs and 89 RBIs in his first four seasons as a full-time player with the Montreal Expos, but two years of injuries and inconsistency had made him an unknown quantity.
Galarraga explains his offensive renaissance in relatively simple terms. He was a productive hitter in Montreal, but his mechanics unraveled in an attempt to reduce his exorbitant strikeout ratio.
"I was doing well, but I struck out a lot," he said. "They wanted to change my mechanics, and I just got confused. They drove me crazy. Then came the injuries."
The Expos traded him to the St. Louis Cardinals after the 1991 season, which set in motion the chain of events that would bring him to Colorado. It was in St. Louis that he first met Don Baylor, whose work as a hitting coach with the Cardinals would turn out to be of great benefit when he became manager of the Rockies.
"In St. Louis, Don Baylor told me to open my left foot so I could see the ball with both eyes," Galarraga said. "He also told me to go the opposite way more. Things came together right away. We kept working at that, and after the All-Star break I started hitting."
Baylor remembers a veteran player whose confidence had been shaken badly during his final years in Montreal. Galarraga was confused at the plate and unable to make consistent contact.
"The confidence wasn't there," Baylor said. "When a guy has a couple of poor years in a row, that's a great time to work with him. We opened his stance up, but I never envisioned that it might work like this. We just had to find a way for him to stop swinging at pitches a foot inside. He needed a better look at the ball, and he needed to use the middle of the field."
Galarraga showed some promise in the second half of the '92 season, but the Cardinals weren't impressed enough to make an effort to keep him. The Rockies didn't know what to expect, but they were willing to take a chance on a one-year contract.
"It became obvious to us that he was the best of the names we could afford," Gebhard said. "We didn't consider it that much of a gamble. He's an outstanding defensive player and a plus guy in the clubhouse. I guess offensively it was a bit of a gamble, but overall we didn't feel that way. But, yes, he has exceeded our expectations. We didn't expect to get the National League batting champion with one phone call."
Galarraga didn't come in with a lot of expectations either, but the troubles he endured the previous two seasons made him appreciate his renewed success all the more.
"St. Louis didn't want to renew my contract," he said. "It's a
business, and they didn't want me. But that helped me, because it gave me a chance to go with Don another year. He's always watching, and [hitting coach] Dwight Evans is, too. If you start doing something wrong, they are right there."
Galarraga hasn't done much wrong since he arrived in Denver. He gave the expansion Rockies a batting champion in their first year of existence, and he gave the team instant watch-ability with his four-month bid to become baseball's first .400 hitter since 1941. Ted Williams survived the .400 challenge; Galarraga didn't, but overcame a couple of disabling injuries and a rough August (.231) to become the first Venezuelan to win a major-league batting title.
Someday, that interesting fact may turn up on a Trivial Pursuit question card, but there was nothing trivial about it to Galarraga and millions of youngsters in his native land. He went home to a hero's welcome and spent the winter using the added prestige to enhance his stature as a role model.
Charles Barkley may not welcome that responsibility, but Galarraga takes it seriously.
"I don't think there was a day when I wasn't doing an interview or getting a plaque," he said. "There wasn't a lot of privacy, but it was beautiful. I'm trying to be an example to the young people in Venezuela. I want them to know that nothing is impossible if you are willing to work hard . . . that your dreams can come true."
If this is some public relations snow job, Galarraga has fooled teammates and fans in three countries. He is known throughout baseball for his infectious good nature and known in Venezuela and in Denver for his work with youth charities.
"He's a beautiful man," said Evans, "and I'm not just talking about him as a player."
In Colorado, he is getting his just reward. He recently signed a rich, multiyear contract that will keep him in a Rockies uniform through the 1997 season.
"He really enjoys what he has here," Baylor said. "For him to sign a four-year contract after almost being out of baseball, that's a success story in itself."
1993: YEAR OF THE CAT
First baseman Andres Galarraga had his career rejuvenated last season with the Colorado Rockies.
... .... G ... ... AB ... ... R ... ... H ... ... HR ... ... RBI ... ... Avg.
1993 .. 120 .. .. 470 .. ... 71 .. ... 174 .. .. 22 ... ... 98 .. .. .. .370
Career.. 1062 .. 3877 .. .. 503 .. .. 1083 .. .. 138 .. .. 570 ... ... .279
HIGHLIGHTS
* NL batting champion with a .370 average.
* Tied with San Diego's Tony Gwynn for the highest average in the NL since 1948, when Stan Musial batted .376 for St. Louis.
* Highest average for a right-handed hitter in the majors since Joe DiMaggio batted .381 in 1939.
* Highest batting average by a right-handed hitter in the NL since Joe Medwick hit .374 in 1937.
* First member of an expansion team to win league batting title.* First Venezuelan-born player to win a league batting crown.
* Highest average ever for a Latin American in the majors.
* Only two-time winner of the NL Player of the Month award -- hit .420 with six home runs and 21 RBIs in June and .382 with five home runs and 23 RBIs in September.
Latin American-born players have won 19 hitting crowns. Here's the complete list:
Year, Name, Team, Native country, Avg.
1954, Bobby Avila, Cleveland, Mexico, .341
1961, Roberto Clemente, Pittsburgh, Puerto Rico, .351
1964, Roberto Clemente, Pittsburgh, Puerto Rico, .339
1964, Tony Oliva, Minnesota, Cuba, .323
1965, Roberto Clemente, Pittsburgh, Puerto Rico, .329
1965, Tony Oliva, Minnesota, Cuba, .321
1966, Matty Alou, Pittsburgh, Dominican Rep., .342
1967, Roberto Clemente, Pittsburgh, Puerto Rico, .357
1969, Rod Carew, Minnesota, Panama, .332
1970, Rico Carty, Atlanta, Dominican Rep., .366
1971, Tony Oliva, Minnesota, Cuba, .337
1972, Rod Carew, Minnesota, Panama, .318
1973, Rod Carew, Minnesota, Panama, .350
1974, Rod Carew, Minnesota, Panama, .364
1975, Rod Carew, Minnesota, Panama, .359
1977, Rod Carew, Minnesota, Panama, .388
1978, Rod Carew, Minnesota, Panama, .333
1991, Julio Franco, Texas, Dominican Rep., .341
1993, Andres Galarraga, Colorado, Venezuela, .370
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