Greetings to all the followers of read.cash sports, today I am making this publication, I will share an ideal topic for fans of baseball, as is my case, I like good baseball, in Venezuela we have the privilege of having great players , we are the cradle of having great ShortStop, I will tell you about an emblematic character of our national sport.
I was a child, between 8 and 10 years old, when they took me to the great UNIVERSITY STADIUM to see a game between LOS TIBURONES DE LA GUAIRA and LEONES DEL CARACAS
That day I saw a player named ANDRES GALARRAGA, he was nicknamed EL GATO DE VENEZUELA. For me, GOLDEN EPOCA of CARACAS, I am talking about the decade 1980-1990, at that time I filled out THE FORM as CARAQUISTA, our team had as blunderbuss players like ALVIS DAVIS, KEVIN BASS, ANDRÉS GALARRAGA, JESÚS ALFARO, GONZALO MARQUEZ, DONEX NIXON , ANTONIO ARMAS, then others were incorporated such as ALEX GONZÁLEZ, OMAR VIZQUEL, BOB ABREU, ROGER CEDEÑO, CARLOS HERNÁNDEZ, among others, so many players of high QUALITY passed, between imported and Creole. But nobody surpasses ANDRÉS GALARRAGA.
Andrés Galarraga in Different Moments of the History of his Sports Career
As I explained before, I come from a family that by conviction, passion and tradition are fans (in the good sense of the word) of the GLORIOUS LIONS OF CARACAS, except my son, as always wanting to oppose his father, who belongs to The Navigators of the Magellan.
Well, what can we do, not everything is perfect in the family. but I still love my son.
Every fan of the Creole ball has a player for whom they have immense admiration, and in my case, and not because he was a CARAQUISTA, he is the legend, the Great ANDRÉS GALARRAGA. His full name is Andrés José Padovani Galarraga, he was born in the city of Caracas on June 18, 1961, specifically in the San Juan parish, Chapellín sector, a popular area of that city. He is known by the nickname EL GATO, due to his outstanding agility in his movements on the baseball field. Every Venezuelan, whether he knows baseball or not, knows very well who EL GATO is, for us THE GREAT CAT.
My admiration for Andrés Galarraga has two branches, the first is related to his personal roots or human being and the second to sports. In the first place, when I tell you about your area as a human being, it is worthy of admiration to see how a person who was born, grew up and developed in a family with limited economic resources, made the decision to choose the path of good, did not get involved with criminals or other young people who lead you astray. But at all times his interests were focused on baseball, when a boy is in his teens, not always, but generally, he will be influenced by his friends.
In this case, we can infer that despite coming from an economically restricted family, his family bases, especially the maternal one, were his great foundation and we see that he knew how to choose well which path to follow, we see that entering pre-adolescence, the years old it was already clear that he wanted to be a player.
Now we go to the sports plane, which is for which he became famous. Not only was Venezuela famous in his land, but in the Big Top. In criolla ball, our Venezuelan league, he made his debut at 17 years old, my great team LOS LEONES DEL CARACAS signing him in the 1978-1979 season, playing as receiver and third base, then he became first base.
In the year 1985, he rides on the field of the Big Top at 24 years of age, with the Montreal Expos team, at no time did he let his achievement of getting to play in one of the teams of the National League of Los Angeles. The United States was destroyed by the continuous derogatory criticism, due to its 100 kilograms of weight and it measured 1.91 meters in height.
Andrés Galarraga in Montreal
when he played for the extinct Montreal Expos, as his first manager Bob Bailey began calling him "Big Cat" due to his corpulence and defensive agility, in addition to the fact that he could not pronounce his last name well.
Other teams in which he participated in the Major Leagues were; The St. Louis Cardinals, Colorado Rockies, Atlanta Braves, Texas Rangers, San Francisco Giants and New York Mets. Another aspect of his life which deserves my complete admiration, the way he copes with the cancer disease. In 1998 he was diagnosed with Non-Hodking Lymphoma (NHL) in his third lumbar vertebra. Thanks to God and scientific advances THE CAT I can win the battle against cancer.
This our Great Cat, warrior and fighter, returns to the field of the major leagues in the year 2000, in the ranks of the BRAVOS DE ATLANTA team, I place the link of the video so that you can enjoy this return to baseball as much as I do. coming back, hitting a home run over the left field fences, many label it one of many important moments in major league history. Not so much because of the home run but because of who was giving it and the conditions that accompanied it, a player who in his first game, returning from a long rest due to having cancer, that is too much.
The Return of the Cat
He really is a man to admire, he has never been known as a character with a dark side, he has never given cause to speak for being involved in shady situations, neither in the personal area, much less as a professional sportsman. We are talking about a man on and off the field is HORSE.
Come? For all this, it is that today he deserves my admiration, he is one of my favorite athletes.
My friends from this beautiful community of read.cash sports, I hope you liked it, for me it is a privilege to speak or comment on this character. Good night. Thank you.
