Remembering Andres Galarraga's Miami moonshot grand slam
On May 16, 2015, Miguel Cabrera reached a personal milestone by belting the 400th homer of his illustrious career. While it was a terrific feat, it meant even more to Cabrera because No. 400 also made him baseball's all-time home run leader among Venezuelan players. The man he passed was his childhood hero, Andres Galarraga, who turned 57 on Monday.
Throughout 19 years in the Majors, Galarraga paved the way for future Venezuelan sluggers by crushing 399 long balls for seven different teams. It didn't matter where he played because the ballpark could rarely contain Galarraga's pure power.
That rule even extended to Cabrera's expansive first home, Miami's Pro Player Stadium. Galarraga brought the house down on May 31, 1997, when his Rockies visited the eventual World Series champions. The Marlins' ace, Kevin Brown, was in peak form that season, but when he made a mistake in the middle of the plate to Galarraga with the bases loaded, the ball went a long, long way:
The quality of that bat flip says it all.
It was a titanic grand slam, one that seemingly melted the brains of everyone who tried to measure it. The first estimate was a staggering 579 feet, though it was soon lowered to 529. Ultimately, it was revised to a more reasonable 468 -- still an eye-popping number. The Marlins eventually made the seat Galarraga hit a different color to mark the historic spot, Ted Williams-style.
Such monster shots were not unusual from Galarraga, who later challenged the outer limits of AT&T Park by nearly hitting the giant soda bottle beyond the left-field bleachers. Regardless, even he was impressed with what he did to that poor baseball in 1997: "I feel like I'm dreaming, I'm so happy," Galarraga said. "Never in my imagination did I think I could hit it that far."
Cabrera never hit one in Miami quite as majestic as Galarraga did. "I tried to hit it over there," Cabrera said about the blast to MLB.com's Jason Beck, "but I never did. In [batting practice]? Never. Not even close."
He sure gave it his best effort, though:
Like idol, like protege.
