Cal Raleigh obtained his sixtieth dwelling run ball.
Two followers — a 45-year-old man who initially caught the historic ball and a 12-year-old boy who was gifted the ball by the sort stranger sitting behind him — obtained bats signed by the Seattle Mariners star catcher.
And baseball followers obtained to take pleasure in a feel-good story because the 2025 MLB season winds down.
Raleigh’s historic sixtieth dwelling run, his second lengthy ball Wednesday night time, got here in opposition to Colorado Rockies reliever Angel Chivilli within the backside of the eighth inning. The ball soared 389 toes into the right-field stands and ended up within the arms of longtime Seattle resident Glenn Mutti-Driscoll, a licensed hydrogeologist who was attending the sport with some co-workers.
It didn’t keep Mutti-Driscoll’s possession for lengthy.
“I was standing with it for 15 or 20 seconds and there was a kid in front of me,” Mutti-Driscoll mentioned Thursday in an interview, through the Seattle Instances.
In that second, Mutti-Driscoll was moved to make an extremely beneficiant gesture. He handed the historic and doubtlessly fairly priceless ball to a 12-year-old boy he had by no means met.
“The whole thing was surreal. It just was happening so fast,” Mutti-Driscoll mentioned. “And standing there with it and I guess looking down at the kid, and he deserves it more than me.”
Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh celebrates within the dugout after his sixtieth dwelling run of the season.
(Steph Chambers / Getty Photos)
The recipient was Marcus Rueblos, a sixth-grader from Maple Valley, Wash., who was attending the sport together with his household.
“A genuine act of kindness, a true gentleman,” Marcus’ father Galan Rueblos later wrote on Fb. “Marcus was in tears. We were all in shock. The fans were going crazy!”
Mariners safety rapidly whisked Marcus and Galan Rueblos away to get the ball authenticated. In keeping with an MLB Community report, Mutti-Driscoll instructed Marcus on the time to ensure Raleigh obtained the ball. Rueblos mentioned throughout a radio look Thursday that his son would have finished that anyway.
“My son whispered to me and said, ‘Dad, because it’s Cal, I want him to have [the ball],’” Rueblos instructed KIRO-FM (97.3) in Seattle. “He was never thinking, are we going to keep it for money? That wasn’t even a thought.”
Ken Goldin, founder and CEO of Goldin Auctions, instructed The Instances on Thursday that Raleigh’s sixtieth dwelling run ball doubtless would have been “a six-figure ball” had it gone on the public sale block.
Marcus obtained a Raleigh-signed bat and an invite to batting apply in trade for the ball, in line with the Mariners. Rueblos mentioned his son had hoped to satisfy Raleigh the night time of the historic dwelling run however was unable to for the reason that sport was nonetheless in progress on the time.
Marcus understood and was thrilled with the expertise, Rueblos added — and was nonetheless “hugging the bat” the subsequent morning.
“We were never thinking about how much the ball was worth, or the most we could get,” Rueblos mentioned. “We have the future MVP, hopefully, and [Marcus] touched history, that’s kind of more precious; he’ll live with that forever.”
The texture-good didn’t cease there both.
On Thursday, the Mariners launched a seek for the mysterious stranger who had gifted the ball to somebody he had by no means met. Finally, they tracked down Mutti-Driscoll and had been capable of get him, his spouse Catherine and their sons Ethan, 14, and Aiden, 10, to T-Cellular Park for a pregame meet-and-greet with Raleigh earlier than that night time’s sport in opposition to the Rockies.
Raleigh gave Ethan and Aiden signed balls and introduced their father with a bat, on which Massive Dumper had written, “Glenn, thanks for being a a good guy & nice catch.”
Raleigh’s two dwelling runs Wednesday helped the Mariners defeat the Rockies 9-2 and clinch the American League West Division title for the primary time since 2001. In doing so, the participant lovingly often called Massive Dumper grew to become the seventh participant in MLB historical past to hit a minimum of 60 dwelling runs in a season (becoming a member of Babe Ruth, Roger Maris, Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds and Aaron Choose).
The Related Press contributed to this report.
