Life will never be the same for pitcher

CHICAGO

One of his friends had to be the wiseguy. The text message was waiting for Armando Galarraga after the game.

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“He said, ‘This is the Armando I know,’” the pitcher/celebrity said, wearing a grin that told you he could take the joke. “Not like the last time. ‘Five innings. Home run.’ I don’t know if he was joking around. He was serious.”

Galarraga made the first start of the rest of his life on Tuesday. And it wasn’t perfect. He nibbled. He was predictable. His pitch count climbed quickly. He lasted just five innings and surrendered two earned runs.

But he “kept his team in it” and “didn’t let the game get away from him” and accomplished other objectives specified in the Fifth Starter’s Handbook. The Tigers staged a late rally and beat the White Sox, 7-2. The nice guy from Venezuela got a no-decision and hearty pat on the back.

Galarraga became an international hero last week — when an umpire’s blown call thwarted his perfect game — in a way that a more renowned pitcher could not have. And we can identify with Galarraga, a minor leaguer at this time last month, more easily than Roy Halladay, who might be the best pitcher in baseball.

When Jim Joyce ruined Galarraga’s big night on Out 27, it stung a little, regardless of rooting interest. Need evidence of that? When Galarraga took the mound for his warm-up tosses at 7:13 p.m. local time, many fans at U.S. Cellular Field responded with a standing ovation.

Galarraga’s quick forgiveness of the umpire — a genuine, compassionate gesture — has resonated.

“While he was warming up, fans were yelling some great stuff to him,” catcher Alex Avila said. “Just like, ‘Good job.’ Some guys were joking, ‘All right, 28 up, 28 down!’ It was nice to see that.”

Tigers manager Jim Leyland thought Galarraga looked nervous but performed well. True and true. Implicit in Leyland’s postgame remarks was the assurance that Galarraga is still part of the Tigers’ rotation — something that wasn’t known for certain before those 8 2/3 perfect innings against Cleveland last Wednesday.

Until that quixotic night, it was possible that Galarraga would not have pitched at all against the White Sox this week. Leyland had contemplated skipping him because of Monday’s off day. And why not? Managers schedule around No. 5 starters all the time.

But that was before Galarraga, an early cut during spring training, became perhaps the most famous 21-18 pitcher in baseball.

“Kind of like that rock band that nobody ever heard of and all of a sudden they got a big hit,” Leyland said. “Or that actor nobody ever heard of (but) comes up with an Oscar-winning performance. That’s kind of like this is for him. He’s handled the whole scenario as good as anybody could. We’re really proud of that.”

Last week, Galarraga (unofficially) needed 83 pitches to throw a perfect game. He was markedly less efficient against Chicago — 104 pitches, five innings.

But overall, Galarraga is looking a lot like he did two seasons ago, when he went 13-7 with a 3.73 ERA and was Detroit’s most consistent pitcher. He is again proving that he should be in the major leagues. That’s more important than shipping a pair of spikes to Cooperstown. (But he is doing  that, too.)

“Always good to be here,” Galarraga said, “but (even) more when you feel like you belong.”

“He had struggles (in 2009) because he analyzed stuff too much,” third baseman Brandon Inge said. “He was trying to revamp his whole game. But he’s good. He doesn’t need to worry about that.”

During Galarraga’s first spring training with the Tigers, in 2008, he stood out for two reasons: He wore a royal blue glove, a relic of his time with the Texas Rangers, and his magic tricks were sophisticated enough that teammates fell for them. (“David Blaine stuff,” Inge said then.)

Now, because of what happened at Comerica Park on June 2, 2010, casual fans will remember Galarraga for years. Heads of state, too. President Obama praised his conduct during a recent NBC interview, and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called Galarraga over the weekend.

The game and the call remain major topics of conversation in Galarraga’s homeland. “The next day, it was like somebody died,” Tigers star Miguel Cabrera said. “Everybody was talking about that . . . They still can’t believe it. Everybody’s in shock.”

Because he began the season with a month at Triple-A Toledo, Galarraga is likely to earn less than $420,000 in base salary this year. Cabrera makes more than $800,000 per week.

The popularity of the Tigers’ other Venezuelan players — Cabrera, Magglio Ordonez, Carlos Guillen — has long dwarfed Galarraga’s. No longer.

“He’s No. 1 — we’re old news,” Cabrera said, smiling. “He’ll be big. He always laughs at me, because I can’t go out in Venezuela to a restaurant. Now, he’s going to see what happens . . . Let me tell you this: If he goes to a restaurant, he’s going to sign a lot of autographs.”

Galarraga should be able to eat in peace when he’s in the U.S., although anonymity, as he knew it, is probably gone. Some fans recognized him on the streets of Chicago this week and told him, “You did it.”

But on Tuesday night, he didn’t seem eager to soak in his newfound fame. He answered questions from a larger-than-usual group of reporters and casually asked a teammate if he wanted to share a ride back to the hotel. Then he walked out of the clubhouse alone, looking like a normal major leaguer.

Which is all he wants to be.

“Now the attention, I think, is done,” Galarraga said.

Done? For him, there will be no such thing.