Galaraga brought up by Angels

[bugtrotter]

http://sports.myway.com/news/09012004/v2075.html

[Gantry]

Fantastic news!  We got another RBI'er back in the majors.  RBI'ers never say die, and in his case, literally!

I smell a front page update...

[Gantry]

You can modify your first post to change the title...

But I'll let you in on a little secret - I always call him the Big Cat because I can never remember how to spell his name...

[Gantry]

Wow, I would have never guessed that.   You could have gave me 1000 guesses in fact and I would have gotten it wrong.  Actually, after guessing Bobby Bonds about 100 times along with some obvious ones I'd start doing every player in RBI...

[JoeDirt]

As long as we're throwing out Galarraga trivia...

Galarraga is the only player in major league history to ever led the league in both hits and strike outs in the same season.

[Gantry]

Man I had no idea this guy was such a strikeout savant...

[fknmclane]

Those are two crazy stats.  I had no idea.  The hit/strikeout thing is pretty incredible.
I would have guessed Pete Incaviglia or Mickey Tettleton or Bobby Bonds or Rob Deer.

[BeefMaster]

None of those guys (except maybe Bobby Bonds) ever put up the kind of batting average to lead the league in hits, although they did K a lot.

Fun Rob Deer fact - he holds the major league record for lowest batting average in a season of 20 or more homeruns: .179, in 1991.  McGwire has the record for most homers for a guy hitting under .200 - 29, in his last season.  Not sure whether that's Hall-of-Shame-worthy.

[ultimate7]

You can modify your first post to change the title...

But I'll let you in on a little secret - I always call him the Big Cat because I can never remember how to spell his name...

Gllrga

[BigVanilla]

I was listening to Mike and Mike in the Morning on ESPN radio this morning, and they had this AWESOME clip of Harry Carey attempting to say "Galarraga"  It ended up sounding something like this.  

"And now up.  Andres Galaga... Gara ... Gallara...  Number 13, the first baseman... A good looking Spaniard from East Molina"

I have to find that clip

[Gantry]

McGwire has the record for most homers for a guy hitting under .200 - 29, in his last season.  Not sure whether that's Hall-of-Shame-worthy.

It sure if Beefmaster, McGwire has been added to the Hall of Shame

Going to get half the RBI'ers on that list soon, most solid...

[fknmclane]

None of those guys (except maybe Bobby Bonds) ever put up the kind of batting average to lead the league in hits, although they did K a lot.

Fun Rob Deer fact - he holds the major league record for lowest batting average in a season of 20 or more homeruns: .179, in 1991.  McGwire has the record for most homers for a guy hitting under .200 - 29, in his last season.  Not sure whether that's Hall-of-Shame-worthy.

Oops, I meant the guys listed would qualify for strikeouts, not the hit/strikeout thing.  Obviously, they were all shitty hitters.  But Incaviglia had a hell of a gut.

[chubbrock]

....and a last name.

[TβG]

from angelsbaseball.com:

Big Cat starts: The Angels decided to give slumping first baseman Darin Erstad a day to collect his thoughts, which paved the way for 18-year veteran Andres Galarraga's first start as an Angel and first start since he came back from baseball after a second bout with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Galarraga, 43, last started a game Sept. 27, 2003, while with the San Francisco Giants. He came back to baseball this year to try to reach the career 400-homer mark and is sitting at 398.

Galarraga beamed while talking about his first start since being called up by the Angels on Sept. 1. He was asked immediately if he would try to hit both historic homers in the first game.

"That'd be great," he said with a laugh. "But seriously, I just want to make hard contact somewhere. I hope I can hit at least one -- for me and the team."

**galarraga went 2-3, with of course.... an RBI