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Cal Raleigh breaks Johnny Bench's record for homers by a catcher before All-Star break
CHICAGO — Cal Raleigh broke Hall of Famer Johnny Bench's 1970 record for home runs by a catcher before the All-Star break, hitting his major league-leading 28th and 29th in the Seattle Mariners' 9-4 victory over the Chicago Cubs on Friday. Raleigh put Seattle ahead and moved past Bench in the seventh inning with No. 29, a drive to the back of the left-field bleachers off Caleb Thielbar. Advertisement 'Any time you're mentioned in even the same sentence with one of the best, if not the best ever do it is a special thing,' Raleigh said. 'I'm just very grateful. He's one heck of a player or was one heck of a player. And like I said, just very, very happy about it.' Raleigh needed only 73 games to break the record that Bench set in 87 games. The Seattle star shattered the mark with 22 games to spare before the All-Star game. Barry Bonds holds the overall record with 39 for San Francisco in 2001. Raleigh sent his first homer just over the basket in the first off Matthew Boyd. The 28-year-old slugger had three hits in his sixth multi-homer game of the season. He drove in three runs to push his season total to 63. Advertisement Bench was a 14-time All-Star in his 17-season career with the Cincinnati Reds. In 1970, at age 22, he became the youngest player to win the National League MVP award. He led the NL with 45 homers and drove in 148 runs. Seattle's Mitch Garver, a catcher by position, hit two homers and drove in five runs as a designated hitter. The duo stole the thunder from the NL-Central leading Chicago on a day when Sammy Sosa returned to Wrigley Field for the first time in over 20 years. Raleigh and Garver are the first pair of primary catchers for a team to each homer twice since Joe Ferguson and Steve Yeager did it for the Los Angeles Dodgers in a 1979 home victory over Houston.
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10 hours ago
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Why greatest catcher in MLB history Johnny Bench 'didn't reach the level I could have'
PALM BEACH GARDENS, Florida – When ex-con ballplayer Harry Decker invented the first catcher's mitt around the time pitchers started throwing overhand in the 1880s, it didn't look like much more than a leather pancake with a dent in the middle. For eight decades or so, the biggest change in how that piece of equipment looked and how it was used involved thicker padding. Advertisement Then Johnny Bench broke his thumb again. "And I thought, 'This is stupid,' " Bench said. After two broken thumbs from foul tips in three seasons, the Cincinnati Reds' legendary catcher switched to a newly designed hinged catcher's mitt, pulled most of the padding out, started tucking his throwing hand out of harm's way, and then started picking balls out of the dirt and doing things athletically at the position that had never been seen. Cal Raleigh: MLB's best catcher smashes records. His biggest fan? Reds great Johnny Bench Big Red Machine: Why this legend started sliding head first before he ever met Pete Rose Advertisement To be fair, Chicago Cubs catcher Randy Hundley, one of the league's best defensive catchers, already had used the new mitt first, the year before, but nobody did what Bench did with it. "He was probably the best all-time as far as what he did and how he transformed catching," said San Francisco Giants manager Bob Melvin, who tried to follow Bench's lead during a 10-year big-league catching career that started two years after Bench retired. "It was groundbreaking." When the legacy of the Big Red Machine is measured for its impact on the game and lasting power 50 years after the 1975 World Series championship, no other player among its all-time lineup of superstars can claim greater individual impact on how the game has been played since – even a half-century later. Advertisement Pete Rose's hitting, versatility and 'Charlie Hustle' aggression on the field – and transgressions off the field – left indelible marks on MLB history. Joe Morgan and Tony Perez are in the Hall of Fame. George Foster was an MVP. But so outsized was Bench's influence on the most important non-pitching position on the field that Baseball Hall of Fame broadcaster Marty Brennaman describes him as 'the greatest player at a given position in the history of the game.' Nobody in the game argues with that. Even catchers. Especially catchers. "It defined the position for everybody," said Seattle Mariners manager Dan Wilson, the Reds' 1990 first-round draft pick who later became an All-Star catcher with Seattle. Reds legend Johnny Bench points to the faded autograph of Tony Perez on the display of Big Red Machine autographed baseballs he keeps in his home. Johnny Bench early career path rivaled Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle The catching revolution started almost as soon as Bench's career did. He was entrusted with calling every pitch of every game he caught from the day he was drafted in 1965, was handed the reins of a veteran pitching staff as a rookie two years later, and when he had to figure out a better way to do things because 'my big thumbs are going to stick out here and break,' the Binger High School valedictorian tailored the toughest position on the diamond to fit his body and skills. Advertisement And from eye test to metrics, history suggests nobody has done it better. "I mean, he's called up at 19 years old," said Rangers manager Bruce Bochy, another former big-league catcher and Bench disciple. "At 19, he was running things. That's what's amazing." But here's the thing: That's not even close to the most amazing part of Bench's story and legacy. In the five full seasons plus 26 games that he played in the majors before he turned 25, Bench earned five All-Star selections, five Gold Glove awards, a Rookie of the Year award, two MVPs, two league home run titles, drove in 512 runs, hit 154 regular-season home runs, four more in the postseason and played in 12 World Series games. Advertisement Forget the comparisons to all-time catchers. The 6-foot-1 power athlete from small-town Oklahoma was on a career offensive path that rivaled Willie Mays and Bench's idol, Mickey Mantle, with as many MVPs as the two others had combined before age 25 and eerily similar power numbers. Combine that with the things Bench did behind the plate, along with the workload, and that career arc starts to look like the stuff of unicorns and Ohtanis. Until the day they saw the spot. Until the day a few months later they took some of Johnny Bench away. 'I didn't reach the level I could have,' Bench said. 'It sounds insane.' 'It was never Johnny Bench anymore' Big Red Legacy: 50th Anniversary of the Big Red Machine On his way to a second MVP award in 1972, a lesion on Bench's right lung was discovered on an X-ray during a followup to a routine examination in August, and 53 years ago the only way to determine whether it was malignant was exploratory surgery. Advertisement Bench kept it to himself and played the rest of the season and postseason, including a tying ninth-inning home run in a winner-take-all Game 5 of the National League Championship Series, knowing potential life-altering surgery was scheduled for December. There was no such thing as arthroscopic surgery in 1972. The best the doctors could do for the famous ballplayer and his chances to play again in a best-case outcome was to limit the massive length of incision – to a foot or more around his chest to his back (instead of all the way to his neck), through bone, muscle and nerves. The lesion was benign. And Bench lives a healthy life on a golf course to this day with his family. But Bench can never know what might have been. Advertisement 'I always describe greatness as here,' he said, holding his hands up, a few inches apart. 'That's the difference in greatness. That's the ball being hit here or out here. Because I could get to that.' After recovering from the invasive, damaging surgery, 'I was much shorter" to get to the ball, Bench said. 'I was good,' he added. 'But it was never Johnny Bench anymore.' Tony Perez on Johnny Bench: 'He was the best' 1976 baseball card (depicting 1975 season) Good? Bench made nine more All-Star appearances, including the following season (amid occasional boos as he struggled to compete again). He won five more Gold Gloves, had two more top-4 MVP finishes, another top-10, four more 100-RBI seasons and was the World Series MVP in 1976. Advertisement Bench finished his career with single-season and career records for home runs for a catcher. But the days of 40 homers were gone well before he had a chance to leverage his athletic prime. Bench hit 30 twice after the surgery. Insane? That Bench accomplished what he did after the surgery might be as impressive as any of the unicorn stuff he did at 19 or in his early 20s. Nobody knows more than Bench what he lost on that operating table. And nobody knows more than Reds teammates how much they needed what he gave them after that as that team went from Big Red Machine in name only to the two-time champion that secured its place in history. 'Johnny was the captain, not only with the pitchers,' Perez said. 'Johnny was the guy Sparky (Anderson) gave the signs to, so Johnny was the captain of the infield. He was great." Advertisement Perez added: "People ask me, 'Who's the best catcher you've seen?' Johnny Bench. I know a lot of good ones. A lot of guys are great. I played with him, and he was the best." Even if Bench knows he never was able to reach the career ceiling the pre-surgery years promised. 'It's not egotistical. You could talk about this or that or whatever, but I'll always talk about the team first,' Bench said. 'Individually, I had a thing called inner conceit. I was better than the situation.' That much was clear when Bench was 19 and challenged veteran pitchers as a rookie when they didn't have their best stuff or tried to shake him off. Or told the manager, Dave Bristol, that same season he needed to move up to cleanup for a team that wasn't driving in enough runs. Advertisement When Bench hit that playoff home run off the Pirates' Dave Guisti to help send the Reds to the 1972 World Series even as he wondered if he had lung cancer. And when Bench hit three home runs and drove in 10 across 11 World Series games to help win back-to-back championships years after the surgery stole so much of his power. Because when the moment was big, Bench still believed he was bigger. 'That was where I wanted it,' he said. 'Pete would always say, 'You could hit .300.' I'd say, 'You hit .300, I'll drive you in 100 times.' That's what I lived for. I was cocky. That's what it is. It's all confidence." High school tragedy molds Bench From left: Johnny Bench, Hank Aaron, Sandy Koufax and Willie Mays walk off the field after being honored as the greatest living baseball players prior to the 2015 MLB All-Star Game, Tuesday, July 14, 2015, at Great American Ball Park. The funeral for teammates lost in the bus crash was held at the school auditorium in Binger, Oklahoma, in April 1964. Advertisement 'I wouldn't go close to a casket,' Bench said. Bench hurt his shoulder in the rollover of the bus carrying the Binger High baseball team. He also helped save a teammate by following advice he remembered from his dad, who had driven a truck, to get to the floor of the bus, pulling the other boy with him. Bench was 16, a junior in high school, his life full of possibility, his mind filled with questions impossible to answer. 'I became very phlegmatic in a lot of ways, I guess,' he said. 'I realize that these things are going to happen in our lives. And what we have to do and how we have to handle it after that is the way we turn our lives into what we need to be." Advertisement And then came the night barely two years later when the headlights of a drunk driver in one of those big Oldsmobile 98's sped toward Bench's Ford Galaxie 500 on the wrong side of a four-lane highway. Bench swerved, and the next thing he remembers was waking up as he was rolled into the ambulance. 'The doctor said, 'Son, you've got the biggest bones I've ever seen in my life. You're the only person I know who could ever walk out of here. But you're going to pay the price,' " Bench said. Bench's car was totaled, his body intact. His character galvanized by a stolid, stoic outlook that belied his youth. Advertisement 'I became a fatalist in some ways,' he said. 'That's just what it is. 'Life happens. And life doesn't happen.' Sparky Anderson found ally in catcher Johnny Bench at GABP in 2017. By the time Sparky Anderson got the Reds job as a no-name, first-time big-league manager ahead of the 1970 season he found what might have been the ideal ally on his roster in the toughened, tested, 'cocky,' All-Star, 'ground-breaking' catcher. A uniquely equipped, emotionally mature, young leader at the forefront of what became a four-man Alpha-dog crew that also included Perez, Rose and Morgan. 'We set a standard,' Bench said. 'Not only professionalism but being on the field and the way we managed ourselves.' Advertisement Anderson identified Bench immediately, bringing him into the fold for team decisions from in-game pitching moves to personnel decisions. In turn, Bench's first message to Anderson when he got the job: 'I said, 'You keep your feet out of the aisles on the plane and don't trip anybody, and we'll make you a star,' 'Bench said. Anderson used to tell that story more colorfully. Whatever the language in the moment, it speaks to a relationship that grew beyond any Anderson had with his players, the running joke around the team that they were more father and son than manager and player. Never mind that Bench's prophecy came true. Advertisement 'Sparky was my mentor, my friend,' Bench said. It turned out to be a key building block to the ascension of a team that went from broken October promises in the late 1960s and early '70s into a team for the ages in the mid-70s. Bench set a tone as much as anyone on that team for cool in the heat of the brightest stages, reinventing himself as a player in his mid-20s even after reinventing the position to suit his strengths, and, mostly, by playing whether creeping arthritis, bone chips or a the powerful shoulder barked. 'The definition of a leader is somebody that is on the field, is on time, doesn't ask for any other quarter,' he said. 'And when it was time to be on the field, Pete, Joe, Tony and myself were there. If we were on the field, they had to be on the field.' Bench set standard for MLB catchers Reds legend Johnny Bench shows a set of pins of the Big Red Machine starters that he got from a fan/collector and keeps in the office in his home. Until Bench started one-handing the position – while still finding a way to get rid of the ball quickly enough to throw out baserunners more often than his peers – young catchers were taught to keep the throwing hand close to the mitt and to block pitches in the dirt with their bodies and chest protectors. That meant shifting their bodies to get in front of outside pitches in the dirt, not backhand them. Advertisement And the brighter his star got, the more Bench aggravated a generation of coaches trying to teach young catchers. Not to mention the occasional NBC broadcaster with big-league catching pedigree. '(Joe) Garagiola said I was going to ruin catching,' Bench said. 'Because, well, yeah, I backhanded balls out of the dirt. I didn't block them. But I was so good at it. It was just a natural instinct.' And ambitious young catchers across the country watched with wide eyes, eager to follow. And ignore their coaches. Bochy, the four-time World Series-champion manager who grew up in Florida and caught for parts of nine seasons in the majors in the late 1970s and 1980s, said he skipped classes in high school during spring training to go watch Bench play. Advertisement 'Johnny was the guy," Bochy said. "I was a big Reds fan, a huge Johnny Bench fan. He probably inspired me as much as anybody to catch and wanting to do this.' Melvin, the Giants manager, said: 'Johnny Bench was everything to me. Every glove I had growing up was a Rawlings Johnny Bench glove.' As a Tigers rookie for Sparky Anderson in 1985, Melvin got his first start in Seattle, and while game-planning with Anderson and starting pitcher Walt Terrell that afternoon, Bench showed up to talk to Anderson ahead of a national radio broadcast. 'It's my first big-league game, and all I can do is just look at Johnny Bench,' Melvin said. 'I don't even think I heard the scouting report. That's how much of a Johnny Bench fan I was.' Advertisement Missing the scouting report wasn't as costly as it could have been, Melvin said, because the veteran Terrell called his own game, and the Tigers won. 'Great game for me. I got a couple of hits,' he said. 'Hopefully, I impressed Johnny Bench that day.' That's the impact Bench had on catchers then, and to this day. Reds catcher Tyler Stephenson has a framed, signed Bench jersey in his home. 'It's an honor just to have been able to meet him and play in the same organization as him,' Stephenson said. The position continues to evolve long after Bench's 1983 retirement, with methods for pitch framing and recently popularized down-on-one-knee defensive stance. Advertisement In fact, he might have been one of the first to do that, too. 'I did that about my third game (in the minors). I got on my knee in Tampa, Florida, because the other catcher had gotten down on one knee,' Bench said. 'Because the umpire's always yelling at you, 'Get lower! Get lower!' Hell, I got big thighs. So I put my knee on the ground for a pitch. 'And I come back to the dugout and (manager) Jack Cassini said, 'Don't ever do that again! That makes you look lazy! I never want to see that again!' 'That was good because I couldn't get up and down like that anyway.' Talk about a legacy that continues as an unbroken thread more than a half-century later. Advertisement 'There was so much mystique around him,' said Wilson, who had the chance to meet Bench as a young catcher coming through the Reds system. 'To be able to have a conversation – even just to meet him – was huge.' The 'bridge' that Bench built Pete Rose, Johnny Bench and Joe Morgan during the Big Red Machine run in the 1970s. Sit down for any length of time for a conversation with Bench and, as one writer put it, he might start to interview you. On one recent morning, as the talk explored career, life, mortality and legacy, Bench recited favorite lines from a poem about the impermanence of fame and talked about the power of support systems and mentorship, even beyond baseball – within family and an eclectic circle of friends. Then he quoted from the century-old poem, 'The Bridge Builder': 'In the dusk he crossed the swirling stream and when he got to the other side he built a bridge to come across.' The rest of the parable insinuates the value of a bridge the builder will never use, having already crossed the stream. 'You look at guys and how they catch, and certainly the way they move the ball now,' Wilson said. 'None of that would be possible without Johnny. There are rare athletes that change the game, and Johnny was certainly one of those that changed the game for catchers.' It's been almost 60 years since that last broken thumb. Fifty years since the Big Red Machine's success secured a place in national sports folklore for Bench and the rest of that team. And they still talk about what a kid from Binger did. 'I built a good bridge,' Bench said. This story is part of an ongoing Enquirer series this summer examining the legacy of the Big Red Machine 50 years after the first of back-to-back World Series titles. Assembling the Big Red Machine This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: How Big Red Machine legend Johnny Bench changed catcher position
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12 hours ago
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Raleigh homers twice, breaks Bench's record in the Mariners' victory over the Cubs
Seattle Mariners' Cal Raleigh (29), right, receives the home run trident from Dylan Moore (25) after hitting a home run during the first inning of a baseball game against the Chicago Cubs, Friday, June 20, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley) CHICAGO (AP) — Cal Raleigh broke Johnny Bench's record for home runs by a catcher before the All-Star break, hitting his major league-leading 28th and 29th in the Seattle Mariners' 9-4 victory over the Chicago Cubs on Friday. Raleigh broke a tie in the seventh with No. 29 to move ahead of Hall of Famer Bench's 1970 mark. Raleigh needed only 73 games to break the record that Bench set in 87 games. The Seattle star shattered the mark with 22 games to spare before the All-Star game. Advertisement Raleigh had three hits in his sixth multi-homer game of the season. The 28-year-old slugger drove in three runs to push his season total to 63. Mitch Garver also homered twice and drove in five runs, putting it away with a three-run shot in the ninth. Randy Arozarena and Donovan Solano each had three hits to help Seattle win for the fifth time in seven games. RANGERS 6, PIRATES 2 PITTSBURGH (AP) — Jacob deGrom struck out seven in six strong innings, Corey Seager hit his first home run since May 10 and Texas beat Pittsburgh. DeGrom (7-2) retired the first 11 batters and allowed two runs and five hits in six innings with one walk. One day after his 37th birthday, the two-time Cy Young Award winner extended his franchise record to 12 consecutive starts of allowing two runs or fewer and five hits or fewer. Advertisement After being injured for most of the past four seasons, deGrom is 3-0 with a 1.80 ERA in four June starts. Seager homered with one out in the fifth inning off rookie Mike Burrows (1-2), a drive to right field to increase the Rangers' lead to 4-2. The five-time All-Star shortstop had gone 81 plate appearances without a home run while also being on the injured list from May 11-27 with a strained right hamstring. Burrows lasted 4 2/3 innings and gave up four runs on seven hits. ORIOLES 5, YANKEES 3 NEW YORK (AP) — Ramón Urías hit a go-ahead solo home run in the eighth inning against Luke Weaver, spoiling the New York reliever's return, as Baltimore topped the Yankees. Advertisement Urías snapped a 3-3 tie when he drove a full-count pitch into the right field seats for a 337-foot drive. The ball went over Aaron Judge's leaping try, off a fan's shirt and into the first row of the seats. Weaver (1-2) returned from missing 17 games with a strained left hamstring and gave up his third homer this season. He gave up two runs and two hits in two-thirds of an inning. After Weaver exited, Gunnar Henderson's pinch-hit RBI single off Tim Hill put Baltimore up 5-3. WHITE SOX 7, BLUE JAYS 1 TORONTO (AP) — Luis Robert Jr. hit a two-run homer in Chicago's four-run third inning and the White Sox beat Toronto to end an eight-game losing streak. Advertisement Josh Rohas had a two-run double in the third for Chicago. Andrew Benintendi had a solo home run in the first and added an RBI single in the second. It was a double-bullpen game, with both teams trotting out a handful of relief pitchers with no starters available. Grant Taylor pitched a scoreless inning for the White Sox before giving way to long reliever Tyler Alexander (4-7), who worked four without giving up a run. Dan Altavilla, Wikelman Gonzalez and Tyler Gilbert also came out of the bullpen, with Gonzalez allowing a run. Spencer Turnbull (1-1) gave up four runs on five hits and two walks over two innings of work. Mason Fluharty gave up three runs on two hits and two walks, before Braydon Fisher, Nick Sandlin, Chad Green, Brendon Little and Jeff Hoffman combined for six scoreless innings. Advertisement MARLINS 6, BRAVES 2 MIAMI (AP) — Agustín Ramírez hit a three-run home run, Janson Junk pitched five effective innings and Miami beat Atlanta. Ramírez made it 4-1 in the third with a drive off Braves starter Didier Fuentes (0-1) that went 436 feet to left, giving the rookie catcher a team-leading 11 home runs on the season. Junk (2-0) allowed five hits, one run and struck out five in his first Marlins start. Junk, who has made five relief appearances, did not issue a walk. Eric Wagaman boosted Miami's lead with a pinch-hit, ground-rule double in the sixth, and Ramírez drove in another run in the seventh. Advertisement CARDINALS 6, REDS 1 ST. LOUIS (AP) — Andre Pallante allowed two hits in six shutout innings and St. Louis used a five-run eighth inning to beat Cincinnati. Pallante (5-3) allowed a walk and a second-inning single to Matt McLain before leaving with a 1-0 lead after a broken-bat single by Elly De La Cruz to begin the seventh. Phil Maton got three outs to end it. St. Louis scored five runs off relievers Scott Barlow, Taylor Rogers and Tony Santillan — who retired one batter each. Masyn Winn drove in the first run with a single off Rogers and Lars Nootbaar's single off Santillan capped the rally after a two-out throwing error by Gavin Lux led to two runs. Advertisement Brendan Donovan reached on a fielder's choice, took third on a Winn double and scored on a sacrifice fly by Alec Burleson to give St. Louis a 1-0 lead in the third against Reds starter Brady Singer (7-5). Singer allowed one run on four hits and a walk in six innings, striking out seven and retiring his final nine batters. PHILLIES 10, METS 2 PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Bryson Stott hit a bases-clearing triple in a six-run seventh inning and Philadelphia surged past slumping New York into first place in the NL East with a victory. Nick Castellanos homered for the Phillies, who opened the three-game set between division rivals with their eighth win in their last nine games. Advertisement Pete Alonso and Jeff McNeil homered for New York, which has lost seven straight. Reliever Reed Garrett (2-3) started the seventh for the Mets but failed to retire any of the five batters he faced after opening the frame by giving up doubles to Brandon Marsh and Trea Turner. _____
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15 hours ago
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Mariners Make Historic Cal Raleigh Announcement During Cubs Game
Mariners Make Historic Cal Raleigh Announcement During Cubs Game originally appeared on Athlon Sports. The Seattle Mariners have experienced an up-and-down season thus far, as they currently hold a 37-36 record while sitting five games behind the Houston Astros in the highly competitive AL West. Advertisement Since June 8, the pitching staff has been a force to be reckoned with, posting an ERA of 3.43 across a ten-game stretch and a strikeout rate of 9.47 K/9—a performance that ranks them fifth in MLB. Despite a breakout campaign from switch-hitting catcher Cal Raleigh, the team has struggled to find consistent production, managing to average only 3.8 runs per game during the same ten-game span, a full half run lower than the team's average of 4.3 runs per game—13th in MLB. Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh (29)© Stephen Brashear-Imagn Images In the midst of these offensive struggles, Raleigh has remained a singular bright spot, quickly establishing himself as one of the premier hitters in the league. During Friday's game against the Chicago Cubs, he launched another home run, leading to a historic announcement from the team. Advertisement "Cal Raleigh has tied Hall of Famer Johnny Bench (1970) for most home runs (28) by a catcher before the All-Star Break in MLB history," the Mariners wrote. Johnny Bench, revered as one of the greatest catchers in baseball history, concluded his illustrious career by compiling 389 home runs, 1,376 RBIs, and maintaining a lifetime batting average of .267, while earning an incredible fourteen All-Star selections, two National League MVP awards, and ten Gold Glove honors. In contrast, Raleigh has quickly become an indispensable asset for the Mariners this season, having appeared in 73 games contributing 3.7 WAR, registering an OPS of 1.011 and producing 60 RBIs—tied for first all of baseball with Aaron Judge. Advertisement Related: Mariners Fans Upset After Announcement on Friday Related: Mookie Betts Sends Clear Message After Dodgers' Loss to Padres This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jun 20, 2025, where it first appeared.
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15 hours ago
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Mariners C Cal Raleigh breaks 55-year HR mark set by Johnny Bench
June 21 - Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh surpassed legendary Johnny Bench for most homers before the All-Star break by a primary catcher when he hit two against the Chicago Cubs in Friday's 9-4 victory. Raleigh has 29 homers to break a record that stood for 55 years. Hall of Famer Bench hit 28 in 87 games as the Cincinnati Reds' primary catcher before the 1970 All-Star break. Raleigh has passed that mark in just 73 games. Raleigh was honored to have his name associated with Bench, considered one of the top catchers in the history of the sport. "Any time you're mentioned even in the same sentence as one of the best -- if not the best -- to ever do it is obviously a special, special thing," Raleigh said. "So I'm just very grateful." Raleigh said he met Bench last November at a Gold Glove Award ceremony in New York. He said a big part of their discussion revolved around durability. Raleigh, 28, has missed just one of Seattle's 74 games this season. In addition to his major-league-leading homer total, Raleigh has 63 RBIs and a .273 average. He established career bests of 34 homers and 100 RBIs last season. Raleigh is in position to make a run at Salvador Perez's single-season homer record for a primary catcher. Perez slammed 48 in 2021. Raleigh hit a solo homer in the first and a two-run shot in the seventh on Friday. --Field Level Media
