Mariners Catcher Cal Raleigh Continues MLB HR Onslaught, Setting Records
Those of us holding Cal Raleigh cards, especially from his rookie year, couldn’t be anymore excited about the year being produced. Going into the All-Star break, the Mariners’ catcher had set the mid-season mark for his position blasting 38, just one shy of tying Barry Bonds’ mark of 39 in 2001 for all players. Now he’s adding meaningful records to his resume and helping card values increase.
The run of 38 dingers at the mid-season break was not only the most for a catcher, but the most in the American League regardless of position all-time. The impressive feats continue.
Against the Athletics on Sunday, Raleigh swatted homers No. 48 and No. 49 to set the single-season MLB mark for catchers. The dinger in the first inning tied Raleigh with Kansas City Royals’ Salvador Perez, a record set in 2021. The second tater set the new regular-season record.
The massive season Raleigh has produced to date has pushed him past Roy Campanella (41), Todd Hundley (41), Javy Lopez (43), Johnny Bench (45), and Perez (48) on the single-season homers by a catcher list.
The next meaningful record within grasp for Raleigh is the most home runs in a season for a Seattle player.
All-time great Ken Griffey Jr. twice hit 56 home runs in a season, 1997 and ’98. The Mariners have 31 games remaining and are two games behind the Houston Astros in the AL West fighting for a postseason berth; if healthy, Raleigh will get chances at the plate.
An individual honor Raleigh is on pace to capture is 2025 MLB home run leader. Yankees’ right fielder Aaron Judge has 40. In the National League, Kyle Schwarber (Phillies) and Shohei Ohtani (Dodgers) are knotted at 45. Hitting .247, Raleigh is way out of contention for the Triple Crown, but he also leads the AL in RBI with 106; Schwarber has the overall RBI lead at 109.
In the Hobby
Anything with the year 2022 followed by Cal Raleigh is seemingly destined to sell. Topps’ base cards, inserts, and parallels are in demand. A rookie Raleigh base card raw is getting around $2 with a Chrome Refractor selling for $17-$19.
As Raleigh sent the ball flying out of the park, a 2022 Topps Chrome #149 Cal Raleigh Purple Refractor RC /250 flew off the eBay shelves at $57.99 raw.
Topps’ throwback to the 1987 set, a 2022 Topps Chrome Series 1 Cal Raleigh RC Silver Pack MOJO found a home on Sunday for $24.99 raw.
Card demand could increase even more as the season draws to an end, especially if Raleigh passes Griffey and reaches the 60-homer milestone that he’s at pace to achieve.
*Wanting to find out the value of your Cal Raleigh cards? Use Beckett’s Online Price Guide.
