Happy Birthday Andres Galarraga!!!
Andre Galarraga turns 52 years old today.
Andres Galarraga was an offensive stud during his 19-year career in the major leagues. His ability to hit for power and average put him in a rare class of players during his era.
Andres finished his career with a .288 batting average, and hit over .300 10 times. Galarraga also hit 399 home runs in his career, while hitting 20+ homers in 10 seasons.
Never considered the best at any one element of the game, Galarraga was recognized for his overall skills by making the All-Star team 5 times and finishing in the Top 10 for Most Valuable Player 6 times.
Later is his career, Andres battled cancer twice. In 1999 he missed the entire season but made a full recovery and came back to play with the Braves for one more year. When he did come back, he put up impressive stats and made another All-Star team. Then, in 2004 his cancer came back and sidelined him for a month. At this point, Galarraga was unable to regain his outstanding skills and became a bench player. Galarraga retired the next spring with the New York Mets. He finished his career just 1 home run shy of his goal of 400.
Happy Birthday Mr. Galarraga!!!