Ken Griffey Jr. and Cal Raleigh’s Secret to Success: Behold the Behind

Longtime Mariners fans may recall that Bob Stinson had the best nickname for a catcher in club history. “Scrap Iron” was the starter in the expansion franchise’s inaugural game in 1977 and stayed in town for the final four of his 12 years in MLB. He hit 26 of his 33 career home runs for the Mariners.

Stinson’s latest Seattle successor, Cal Raleigh, has (through July 9) hit an MLB-leading 36 home runs in half a season, most in history by a catcher before the All-Star Game. Tuesday he broke the franchise halftime record he shared with Ken Griffey Jr. Raleigh is also known as Big Dumper, relegating Scrap Iron to the scrap heap of local nickname history.

(Before we move on from Stinson, I would be remiss in overlooking his offering of the best quote by a Mariners catcher. Asked by the Seattle Times in spring training 1977 when he thought the club would be eliminated from the pennant race, Stinson said, “Opening Day.” He was close — they finished 60-102.)

Raleigh’s half-season of production has elevated his name, nick and otherwise, among the game’s greatest catchers. For a sportswriter of long-term service, even typing the names Johnny Bench, Carlton Fisk, Yogi Berra, Roy Campanella and Mike Piazza is a kick.

Independent of catchers, Raleigh has a small shot at running down Barry Bonds, the all-time home run hitter who in 2001 set the pre-All-Star dinger mark at 39, from where he finished the season at a record 73. The break begins after Sunday for the All-Star Game Tuesday in Atlanta, where Raleigh, a North Carolina native who played college ball at Florida State, will be the American League’s starting catcher. The baseball world pulls for him, because Bonds’ use of banned performance-enhancing drugs has villainized his legacy. As far as anyone knows, Raleigh’s use of dubious substances ends at Tabasco.

Baseball scouts will say a primary reason Raleigh, 28 and in his fifth season, has taken a big leap in power — last year he set a career-high of 34 — is improved mechanics. He has closed his stance, moved closer to the plate and eliminated a toe tap that preceded his swing stride. Other observers less keen-eyed and less polite might lean toward another explanation, this one indirectly from Griffey, who knows of such things.

Years ago at the height of his prowess, Griffey was entertaining a few of us scribes in the Kingdome clubhouse pre-game regarding the art of the big fly. The common wisdom was that Junior’s swing was as smooth as it was quick, giving him a micro-second advantage. He shook his head, and nodded across the room to a teammate, another smooth swinger who seemed bigger and stronger than Griffey, but with poorer numbers — warning-track power, in the vernacular.

“Ain’t got no booty,” Griffey said, smiling, and walked away.

Griffey had a booty. As does Raleigh. Across time and space, the generations connect at the center of baseball — big dumpers. Not a required attribute to hit a homer, but bottom-half strength over 162 games can turn warning track power into video highlights.

Beyond genetic blessings, if Raleigh somehow sustains this audacity, it would be one of the greatest single-season feats in the game’s chronicles. Three reasons:

• He plays catcher, the game’s toughest position. No stats are kept on foul tips and wild pitches that elude the padding and mask to find unguarded flesh
• His home games are played in a park considered by numerous hitters to have the game’s most dreadful conditions
• He has no teammate behind him in the lineup sufficiently fearsome to discourage walking Mr. Dumper intentionally, although Randy Arozarena’s recent power surge (7 homers and 10 RBI in his past nine games) offers a glimmer of help

There’s one other big-picture development that should be working against him: Today’s pitchers offer such a bewildering variety of pitches that many hitters are having a harder time making full contact. Here’s what an anonymous baseball executive this week told Jayson Stark of The Athletic:

“So while we’re not missing as many bats, the stuff coming out of (pitchers’) hands is better than it’s ever been,” he said. “It’s not like the stuff got worse, and that’s why strikeouts are going down. The stuff is outrageous right now across the board, and it’s harder to be on the barrel than it’s ever been.

“People can do things now with a baseball that people couldn’t do 20 years ago.”

As for things being done by Raleigh that haven’t been seen in baseball for a long time, the Mariners PR team found another dandy comparative: If Raleigh steals one more base by Sunday evening, he will join Reggie Jackson of the 1969 Oakland A’s as the only players in history to have 35+ homers and 10+ stolen bases before the All-Star break.

Did I mention in the first two games in New York this week, he threw out three Yankees trying to steal second base?

I could go on. Instead, I recommend you go in — to T-ball Park. Watch the man play, just once. You might see something you can tell your grandparents. Or grandkids. Oh, hell, take ’em all. The therapeutic value in yelling at once, “Hey, Big Dumper!” is high.