They are riding in the passenger’s seat on the highway to history. They are staring at the sights whizzing by them, and it feels as breathtaking as rolling past Mount Rushmore.

Except these aren’t your normal travelers. These are the Seattle Mariners, riding the Cal Raleigh Express in 2025. And these are no monuments and mountain peaks they are rolling past. These are legends — the legends of baseball. And Raleigh’s teammates are watching their catcher roar past them all.

Johnny Bench … Ken Griffey Jr. … and even an icon named Mickey Mantle.

The 28-year-old Mariners catcher has chased down all of them. Passing Bench, whose record for most home runs in a season by a catcher (45, in 1970) stood for over 50 years, until Salvador Perez broke it in 2021. … Pulling into a tie with Griffey for the most home runs in a season as a Mariner (with No. 56 Tuesday night). … And even, on the same night, crushing home runs No. 55 and 56, to blow by Mantle, for the most home runs hit in a season by a switch hitter.

“We’re not just talking about Hall of Famers,” said Mariners general manager Justin Hollander. “This is, like, the top floor of the Hall of Fame. This isn’t the basement. This isn’t something where these guys did something cool for a week. We’re talking about the best players, literally ever. And that’s the comparison we’re making on the type of year he’s having.”

It can be hard to have a proper appreciation for history when it’s unfolding in front of you, night after night, in real time. But there is something about the magic of the names Raleigh has been stalking that has helped make this particular brush with history come alive for those around him.

“For a catcher to do this, it’s unbelievable, man,” center fielder Julio Rodríguez said. “You know the names that he’s broken the record of. And we look at those names and go, like, wow, those are the best players in the game — of all time.”

There are many ways to tell the story of a special season like this. But one of them is to let the eyewitnesses describe it. So over the last few weeks, I’ve been asking people who have played with and against Raleigh to talk about their most powerful memories, moments and deep thoughts from this season for the ages.

Let’s start with …

The icons who never did this

Here’s just a partial list of the many, many, many feared sluggers who never hit 50 home runs in a season: Hank Aaron, Mike Schmidt, Albert Pujols, Miguel Cabrera, Reggie Jackson, Ted Williams and Lou Gehrig.

I read some of those names to Rodríguez, just for fun, to see the look on his face. His eyes grew wider than a baseball. His ever-present smile seemed to stretch from one end of the dugout to another. There was a lesson in those names, he said, because his favorite catcher has done what none of them ever did.

RODRÍGUEZ: “That’s what I’m saying. These are guys, who, for us, they just mark a whole generation, and generations of players throughout the game. So just to see what he’s doing right now, in front of our eyes, is something that we shouldn’t take for granted. And we shouldn’t try to compare it to this guy or that guy. I feel like we should embrace it as it is, and understand that this is something special that we’re watching in the game, and just keep showing love and appreciation for what he’s doing.”

So what do Raleigh’s teammates most appreciate and remember? Let’s hear from them.

Cal Raleigh celebrates with Julio Rodríguez after his 50th homer. (Steph Chambers / Getty Images)The Griffin Jax homer

As they flipped their calendars to August, the Mariners found themselves 4 1/2 games back of the Astros in the AL West. Less than two weeks later, they’d won 10 of 11 and pulled into a tie for first place. Streaks like that are never about just one swing of the bat. But if we were to pick one moment from that stretch, there’s no doubt about the signature swing.

Watch this swing, by Raleigh in the eighth inning of an Aug. 8 game against the Rays. Watch this game-changing, ballpark-shaking home run, off the often overpowering Griffin Jax. Then listen to the sound that erupted in T-Mobile Park when this baseball landed. And you’ll understand what so many of these Raleigh long balls have meant to his team.

PRESIDENT OF BASEBALL OPERATIONS JERRY DIPOTO: “We were in the middle of what was (at the time) our best run of the season. We were gaining ground on first place. And that homer led to a 3-2 win on a night where we had very little traffic on the bases and few opportunities to score. Felt like a momentum boost for everyone, and we went on to sweep the series and landed in a first-place tie.”

So what about that moment epitomized what Raleigh has done for this team — and what made it a microcosm of the special and historic season he’s had?

DIPOTO: “He’s always had the clutch gene and has a history of delivering in big moments. He’s been that guy for us so often this season. That’s the one I remember most, because of the momentum it created.”

The night he won the Home Run Derby

Cal Raleigh admires a blast on his way to the Home Run Derby title. (Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)

We’re talking about a man who has smoked 56 home runs in games that actually counted. So is it crazy to be talking about the 54 he hit one night that didn’t count?

It could be. It should be. But when we write the story of Raleigh’s enchanted season, how could we possibly leave out the night in July when he won the Home Run Derby by launching 54 home runs?

FELLOW ALL-STAR BRYAN WOO: “He did one practice round before it (started). And he was, like … ‘Hopefully, I don’t get bounced in the first round.’ So of course, just in typical Cal fashion, he won the whole thing.”

RELIEVER GABE SPEIER: “With his dad pitching … and his little brother catching.”

FORMER LONGTIME TEAMMATE DYLAN MOORE: “I wasn’t there, but watching him win the Home Run Derby was pretty cool. It was a really cool experience — with his family there, his dad pitching, his brother catching, the whole deal. You go into that thing not really knowing how to weather it, in my opinion. But then, he gets past that first round, and he keeps going. Just to sit back and watch that was so special.”

Again: It didn’t count. But there was something almost cinematic about his whole evening:

Coming in as the favorite. … Needing a Statcast decimal-point tiebreaker just to make it to the second round. … Then powering up to win a thrilling final versus Junior Caminero. … And basking in the family glow afterward, his arms around his brother and his dad — just like all those moments they once shared in the backyard … except on baseball’s gleaming All-Star stage. Was this actually happening?

Cal Raleigh makes history, becoming the first catcher and switch-hitter to win the MLB Home Run Derby-with his father and brother beside him! An unforgettable night for the Raleigh family. https://t.co/usIXK4mahI pic.twitter.com/9Zg5erxmQI

— Bradley Lam (@vhsloop) July 17, 2025

MOORE: “The cinematic nature of it just comes with how good he is.”

Mr. Raleigh goes to Williamsport

Then there was that Sunday in August when the Mariners’ travels took them to Williamsport, Pa., home of the Little League World Series and — for one night only — baseball’s Little League Classic, against the Mets.

Want to guess which Mariner was the biggest rock star that day? Yup. The Big Dumper.

He signed cards and shirts and even a toilet seat. He endeared himself to every kid in town, kids who had lined up for an hour just to meet him. And he finished the day exactly how you’d have expected — with a dinger, on a pitch so low and away that he was one of the few humans on Earth who could have turned it into a home run trot.

MANAGER DAN WILSON: “The kids loved him. And being able to hit that homer was kind of a storybook finish for the day. I’m just glad the kids got a chance to see it.”

OK, one more question: How many times has the Mariners manager uttered the phrase “storybook finish” during Raleigh’s magic carpet season?

WILSON: “Yeah, it’s crazy. A lot. But I mean, he just continues to write a script.”

Fun fact alert: How many home run champs in the expansion era (since 1961) have ever hit a home run that season in an American ballpark where big-league baseball isn’t normally played? Right you are. That would be none. The Big Dumper is just 11 days away from becoming the first.

‘We all look at each other’

The beauty of sports is the stuff that happens that feels like it can’t possibly be real. So when your catcher hits more home runs than Mickey Mantle, is that one of those things? Let’s go with yes.

SPEIER: “Every time he hits a homer, we all look at each other and say: Best catcher ever. Or at least best season by a catcher ever. There have just been so many moments where we say: ‘This guy’s unbelievable. He’s incredible.’”

So when those moments happen, do his teammates ask each other: “Are we watching a movie? Or is this real life?”

FELLOW CATCHER MITCH GARVER: “I think everybody has had that sensation. It’s been just an unbelievable year. And we do (ask that). It’s very special. Every time he does something, we just laugh, like, of course it was gonna happen.”

He hit that pitch?

Nobody hits 56 home runs in one season just by walloping 56 meatballs down the middle. To hit 56 home runs, a guy has to hit every kind of pitch — some of them in spots where home run balls rarely come from.

UTILITYMAN LUKE RALEY: “I think the most impressive thing is some of these pitches that he gets to — like, where they’re located and the swings he takes to hit them out. I can’t pull out one particular moment, but there’s been some, like, changeups, well below the zone, that he’s just one-handed, gets the barrel to it and just gets it out somehow. It’s a testament to his strength.”

But just because Raley couldn’t pull out one moment doesn’t mean we can’t. To prove his point, I reached out to amazing Statcast analyst David Adler for some examples. He confirmed we were definitely onto something.

First, check out this graphic of every Mariners homer in 2025, entering Tuesday. Guess who has hit the most bombs on pitches that roamed way beyond the normal hitting zone?

Or how about this improbable homer, from May 21 against the White Sox’s Brandon Eisert. This was on a changeup so far outside the strike zone that the sport has “slugged” .183 this season on changeups in that location. Not that that stopped Raleigh from pulling it over the left-field fence.

There are lots more where that one came from. But you get the idea. To do things that have never been done, a guy has to hit pitches that other humans can’t hit.

WAR doesn’t measure it

In less than two weeks, the MVP voters of North America will be staring at their ballots. If they just stare at the wins above replacement leaderboard, they’ll be missing something — but this is about what they’ll see:

Aaron Judge — 8.8
Cal Raleigh — 8.4

(FanGraphs, through Sept. 16)

The Baseball-Reference WAR disparity is significantly more pronounced.

Aaron Judge — 8.4
Cal Raleigh — 6.5

(Baseball Reference, through Sept. 16)

But the magic word is “valuable.” So are there ways to define “valuable” that the WAR formulas miss, particularly when they’re trying to measure catchers? Raleigh’s friends in Seattle have some thoughts on that.

HOLLANDER: “Whoever wins (the American League MVP) is going to deserve it, because they had an awesome season. But what I don’t think people understand about what a catcher does, to go out there every day, is the physical toll it takes on your body and the emotional toll it takes to move on — not from the day where you went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts and left the bases loaded in the seventh inning. That’s the toll that every position player takes. …

“The toll the catcher takes is that, plus: Oh, man. I had to call 145 pitches last night, and we gave up a big hit in this spot, and I put the wrong finger down, and now I’ve got to go prepare for the start the next day where we may have a rookie coming up to debut in the big leagues, or we may have a starter who’s having a crisis of confidence. And I’ve got to go prep with them and get their mind in the right place and believing in a plan that we can go execute together.

“And then I have to go take BP from both sides of the plate. And then I have to go get ready in the training room. And that is such a unique thing in sports, to have to prepare offensively and defensively in that way. There’s not another position in sports that’s like that.”

Cal Raleigh and Aaron Judge will be 1-2, in some order, for AL MVP. (Steph Chambers / Getty Images)

I’m not saying that means Raleigh is the AL MVP. But does WAR truly measure all of that? And does WAR truly take into account all that Raleigh means to this team, which took over sole possession of first place in September this week for the first time in 24 years?

Here’s a stat that gives us some insight, I think. And you won’t find it on any WAR leaderboard:

TEAM’S RECORD WHEN THEY HIT A HOMER

PLAYER TEAM  W-L

Mickey Mantle

1961 Yankees   

37-9

Cal Raleigh 

2025 Mariners 

35-11

TEAM’S RECORD WHEN THEY DIDN’T HOMER

What does that tell us about value? Just asking.

‘I had that record’

Let’s take a little detour away from the Mariners’ clubhouse. Let’s visit the clubhouse of a team the Mariners are playing this week, the Royals, because that’s where Salvador Perez hangs out.

Until a few weeks ago, it was Salvy who held the single-season record for most home runs by a team’s principle catcher, with 48. Hey, it was fun hanging onto it while it lasted. But now, the old record-holder has turned into the new record-holder’s biggest cheerleader. Which also reveals something about how the sport looks at the Mariners’ catcher.

PEREZ: “I hope he can get to 60 and be No. 1 for a long time. I had that record, but when I hit 48, I hit 48 right-handed. But doing it from both sides of the plate is pretty impressive. So I hope he can get to 60 because it’s going to be hard to break that.”

True, but if Raleigh were to get to 60, I asked Perez, wouldn’t he be making it hard for all the other catchers, by raising the bar so high?

PEREZ: “Yeah, but that’s good.”

Wait, I said. You’re good with that?

PEREZ: “I’m great with that.”

The contract that changed a franchise

Cal Raleigh waves to the fans after a comeback win on Aug. 8. (Steph Chambers / Getty Images)

It isn’t every year that the biggest story of any team’s season happens before Opening Day. But that just might have happened in Seattle on March 25 — two days before the Mariners’ opener.

That was the day their catcher signed a six-year, $105 million extension that bought out four years of free agency. To the outside world, it might have looked like just another item in the transactions column. But beneath the shadow of Mount Rainier, this was so much more. In Raleigh’s town, this contract didn’t just change the catcher’s tax bracket. It changed the narrative.

MARINERS BROADCASTER RYAN ROWLAND-SMITH ON WHAT IT MEANT TO THE FAN BASE: “When he signed his extension, just the way he talked about what it meant for him and how cool that was, that was really important. You’ve got to remember that was coming out of a place where these fans had gotten frustrated because there wasn’t a whole lot (of additions) in the offseason. So all of a sudden, when they got that news … I felt like they were falling in love with the players on this team, as opposed to worrying about who is not on the team.”

SPEIER ON WHAT IT MEANT TO RALEIGH: “I think it freed him up a little bit. He’s got the big contract now, and I think it freed him up to just kind of go out and be himself and play the game. And there’s a lot to be said for that.”

HOLLANDER ON WHAT IT MEANT TO THE ORGANIZATION: “We get the deal done, so I go downstairs to give him a hug and say congratulations. He’s excited. We’re excited. I walk back through the clubhouse, and Logan Gilbert, Bryce Miller and Luis Castillo all stop me, give me some form of handshake or hug and say, ‘Thank you.’ Our advance scout sends me a text that says, ‘This is awesome. I’m so happy. Thank you.’ Our two clubhouse managers say, ‘Thank you. Couldn’t be more excited that this is a guy that’s going to be part of our clubhouse group going forward.’

“I got a text or a phone call from people in our marketing department, people in our community department, our traveling secretary. There are so few superstars who check all those people’s boxes, who treat all those people well enough that they would feel like this is somebody that I would, no matter what, want to play with, work with, be like, have associated with my organization. But with Cal, it was an unbelievable cross section of people in the organization that immediately reached out, not to him, but to me — to say thank you for doing this.”

I’ve been covering baseball for a long time. I don’t remember ever getting goosebumps while listening to a GM talk about a contract extension. But I felt goosebumps listening to that. Because it told me something — not about the contract but about the man who signed it.

Raleigh has taken his whole city for a ride this year. But to the men who have been there next to him for every mile, it has been a journey they will never forget.

They’ve seen baseballs flying over distant fences. They’ve seen history unfold before their eyeballs. They’ve seen their catcher handle it all with remarkable humility and grace. And best of all, they’ve seen things happen that remind them of the beauty of sports — when real life begins to feel like the silver screen.

RODRÍGUEZ: “Honestly, earlier in the year, it just felt like he was hitting a home run every single at-bat, every time he got to the plate. It was like, we were always just looking around, looking at each other’s faces, going: ‘What are we watching?’”

(Illustration: Demetrius Robinson / The Athletic; Top photos: Mark J. Rebilas / Imagn Images; TPLP / Getty Images; David Durochik / Associated Press)