‘Bigger than baseball’: Why Cal wants to deliver for Mariners fans
Feb 28, 2025, 3:08 PM | Updated: 3:27 pm
Cal Raleigh produced one of the biggest moments in Seattle Mariners history back in 2022, when his walkoff home run ended a 21-year playoff drought and sent the M’s faithful into a frenzied celebration more than two decades in the making.
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That moment, along with the electric atmosphere two weeks later at T-Mobile Park for the franchise’s first home playoff game since 2001, showed just how much Mariners baseball means to the city of Seattle.
And in turn, it only amplified the heartbreak Raleigh and the M’s felt after falling one win short of the postseason in both 2023 and 2024.
“It’s tough, because we made it (to the playoffs) and we saw how much joy it brought to people and how much it meant to them,” Raleigh said on Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk earlier this week at spring training. “And to come up short, you don’t want to come up short again because of … how many people it touches. And that kind of makes it bigger than baseball.”
With the Mariners being the only franchise to never reach the World Series, co-host Brock Huard asked Raleigh if he can sense just how badly the M’s fanbase is starving for that ever-elusive trip to the Fall Classic.
Raleigh didn’t hesitate.
“Oh yeah, 100 percent,” Raleigh said. “And it makes it difficult when you come up short, because it’s not just (that) you’re failing yourself, your teammates and your coaches, but you’re failing fans and people that invest time and money.
“Because at the end of the day, the game is about the people who care about us and the people who come out to the games and the city.”
Hear the full conversation with Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh at this link or in the audio player near the middle of this story. Tune in to Brock and Salk weekdays from 6 to 10 a.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app.
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