Consider the Grand Dumper. Scruffy, Ruddy, built like a truck. Large hands for the hands and a legendary behind – a seat that helps for hours of squatting, professional occupation and hitting Bodacious circuits. Rarely has attracted as much attention as Cal Raleigh, Seattle Mariners, and great eponymous ass, A; It deserves even more. Arriving at the back of the season, Raleigh gives one of the most amazing versatile performance of all time, even if its production ends up slowing down, as it must surely. Before the stars break last week, Raleigh had thirty-eight circuits. He only needed eleven others to break the record for a single season for a receiver, and seventeen others to break the record for a season of Mickey Mantle for a boost. He was up to Breaking Ken Griffey, Jr., record of one season managed for a sailor. He has already exceeded his own season. He had more dingers than the great judge Aaron.
All of this is more than enough to arouse admired looks. But Raleigh also plays the most badass position on the ground – and it is among the best to do so too. A good recipient must anchor a rotation, deceive the referee, thwart the striker, keep the runners in check, make a myriad of decisions and quick adjustments and be the last unshakable wall of the defense of a team. Raleigh won a gold glove last season and led all the sensors in matches and sleeves behind the marble. He caught more basic runners trying to fly than any other receiver of the League. It was one of the leaders of the framing land – bullets, in particular those, appear as strikes – and in a more complicated statistic known as the saved defensive tracks. He did all this by raising a rotation screened by injuries.
The recipient is held just behind the center of the action: behind the dough, behind a mask and a padding, in the frame but above all out of sight. According to all accounts, Raleigh is satisfied with relative anonymity. The judge is the folk hero of baseball, his Paul Bunyan. Raleigh seems to be more comfortable in a beer league, with real beer in hand than a photo shoot. But its glorious rear has bothered.
The nickname was invented by his teammate Jarred Kelenic, who first found him when Raleigh entered his capture position in minor leagues. When Raleigh was called to majors, Kelenic became public with it. “Big Dumper To The Show,” he tweeted. Raleigh, it seems, was not delighted with the ribs, although he had fun. While playing for single-a modesto nuts, with a similar player named Keegan McGovern, he started and McGovern the Beef Boys. He even wrote a hymn, up to “Drift Away”: “Give the beef boys and release my soul / I want to get lost in your pan and derive.”
His parents, who had a screen printing company in North Carolina, made t-shirts sporting the phrases “100% pure beef: no steroids or additional loads”, with the outline of a cow. At the time, Raleigh was simply installed in his rhythm. He had been the ninth choice of the 2018 draft, the seventh receiver taken. Scouts and managers assumed that it should finally capture, or forget the switch and choose one side. In Modesto, he fought for a while, but he was stubborn, a hard worker and a rapid learner. A advice from a striking coach to advance his hands earlier on his swing and be more decisive in the plate led to a wave of power. He again fought when he reached the majors: in 2021, his stick at the stick flowed below. 200 and, at the start of the 2022 season, he struck. 083, with basic percentages and lamentable striking. He was sent back to minors. He was recalled a little more than a week later, when the usual starter injured in the shoulder, and he started finding his swing. At the end of the 2022 season, he struck a complete circuit, tingering, to send the navy in post-season for the first time in two decades. Big Dumper was now a hero at Seattle.
It was the fabric of the dream of a small child. The nickname, on the other hand, was the dream of a marketing specialist, at least in the minds of public relations who worked for the mariners, who knew a golden ass when they saw one. The team sold jerseys with Raleigh’s number under the name of “Big Dumper”. For infants, there were large pulled cribs. According to Jeff Passan d’Espn, there was a reading list without an appointment made entirely of loot songs, including “Baby Got Back”, by the Sir Mix-A-Lot de Seattle. They encouraged fans who were trying to throw someone to send an email to bigdumper@mariners.com, promising that Raleigh would help. (Last week, the team’s X account seemed to offer the services of the Big Dumper to the wife of the CEO who was seen canoeing another woman during a Coldplay concert.) Before the game of stars this year, the team launched a slogan encouraging the voters to choose Raleigh: “Be a Peach, voting cal! 🍑 🍑 🍑 🍑 🍑 🍑 🍑 🍑 🍑 🍑 🍑 🍑 🍑 🍑 🍑 🍑 🍑 🍑 🍑 🍑 🍑 🍑 That he had learned a partnership agreement with the partnership bucket with Honey Backet, announced that he had reported a partnership case with a partnership with Honey Backet, announced that he learned that he had reported a partnership case with Honey Backet, announced that he had learned.
Meanwhile, he has won the home derby. (His father launched – and accidentally plunged him once – and his little brother was a receiver.) He also started the game of the stars, struck a simple, and almost obtained another, when he aligned a Clayton Kershaw field in the left field, only for Kyle Tucker to make a smooth capture. “SUCK IT, Big Dumper,” joked Kershaw in response.
No one knows better than a recipient how good the margins are. Raleigh had almost been eliminated from the first round of the derby, before winning it. Sometimes you suck it, sometimes you go up. (The derby was not his only big victory this month: according to the AthleticThe attendants of the MariNers’ Clubhouse recently awarded him the Golden Locker Award, to have the cleanest and most organized locker.) It is unlikely that Raleigh maintains his hot rhythm all season. The sensors need breaks and regression is the favorite word of each baseball nerd. In July, leading to the stars break, Raleigh struck only 0.135 for the month. (All of his tubes were circuits.) But forget about the forecasts and rejoice in sight. Raleigh not only gives the impression that anything is possible, but that the impossible already happens. Mickey Mantle rupture records? Sixty Homers? The navies, to face? Take a beer and give the beef, the boys. ♦
