"Sacrificed a lot for me and family" - Mariners star Cal Raleigh emotionally opens up about his father

Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh is putting up video game numbers at the plate this season. The Mariners slugger leads the MLB home run charts with 26 singers, one more than New York Yankees captain Aaron Judge.

Cal hails from a baseball family with both his father and uncle playing baseball at some level in their careers. However, hai father, Todd, is popularly known for coaching the Tennessee Volunteers baseball team.

In a conversation with Seattle Sports, the Mariners catcher revealed that his MLB career wouldn't have materialized if it wasn't for his father's sacrifices as Todd left his coaching job to mentor his children.

"He always put us first," Raleigh said (11:00 onwards). "I think the biggest thing was when I was around 14 or 15, he had the opportunity to stay in the game, coaching and to keep doing with that, but he wanted to focus on his kids, and he wanted to focus on me and coming out through high school.

He wanted me to have the chance to go on to play college baseball and maybe pro-ball. So he gave up a lot and sacrificed a lot for me and the rest of my family to do that. Like, I said, I don't think I'll be where I'm at if he doesn't do that. The kind of sacrifices he made for me and my family, that's something that I always remember.

Cal Raleigh is on a record-breaking run this season, and he reportedly broke another record after his latest outing on Thursday. He has 26 home runs and seven steals after Thursday's game, that's the most by any catcher before the All-Star break.

Cal Raleigh's father surprised by Mariners catcher's phenomenal record

Earlier this season in April, Cal Raleigh passed former Mariners catcher Mike Zunino's record of 95 home runs to become the catcher with most home runs in franchise history. His father, Todd, was surprised by the heights the catcher is reaching this season.

"It's hard to even think about sometimes in context. Like when he broke Piazza's record (for most homers as a catcher through first four seasons in the big leagues) or some of these things, it just doesn't seem possible. They've been playing a long time. A lot of catchers come up and some of that stuff doesn't seem real.

"Sometimes I can't believe this is happening. I thought he'd be a good player, I knew he'd do good things, I knew he'd play hard, etc, but some of this stuff, especially in that ballpark, to do what he's done, if he was Cincy he would have broken it a year and a half ago...I don't know if it's sunk into any of us, him included..."

Cal Raleigh has had a remarkable season so far and the Platinum Glove winner could end up with the best offensive season by a MLB catcher if he continues his hot streak at the plate.

About the author

Chaitanya Prakash is an editor who covers US Sports at Sportskeeda. His first brush with sportswriting was in 2012 when the greatest football manager of all time, Sir Alex Ferguson, bid farewell to the beautiful game.

Although having started out professionally as a cricket writer in 2022, Chaitanya's curiosity and indiscriminate interest in all sports in general eventually introduced him to America's favorite pastime.

While Chaitanya's favorite player from the current crop is the dynamic Venezuelan Ronald Acuna Jr., his all-time favorite, however, is Pedro Martinez, for his self-belief and consistency. He also rates Jose Bautista's iconic bat flip in 2015 as his favorite moment in baseball history.

Chaitanya specializes in reporting on technical aspects of the game or analyzing patterns behind specific plays. He also likes pondering over players' self-assessments following the conclusion of a game as it helps him get an idea of how they think about the sport in general.

When not cheering for his favorites across sports, Chaitanya likes being transported to the past through a good war documentary or a historical documentary in general.

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Edited by Chaitanya Prakash