2025 A Look Back: Hometown MVP award: Cal Raleigh
Cal Raleigh.
File photo
People from these mountains have gone on to do some pretty great things, but it’s hard to imagine someone in quite a while who’s been a point of pride like Cal Raleigh.
Raleigh, an all-star catcher for the Seattle Mariners, was a star in both basketball and baseball at Smoky Mountain High School. He was even a bat boy at Western Carolina University, where his father played catcher and was inducted into the athletics hall of fame in November.
The Mariners made a deep playoff run this year, playing close game after close game throughout the post season, coming a few at-bats away from advancing to play in the World Series.
What’s more, Raleigh finished a close second in the American League MVP voting behind Yankees slugger Aaron Judge with many crying foul after the results were announced. While Judge taking home the honor is attributed by many to his higher batting average, it ignores that Raleigh has had possibly the best season of any catcher ever. Ever.
Raleigh’s nickname, which he doesn’t always seem to love, is “The Big Dumper,” a name he earned due to his plentiful posterior, from which he draws the herculean power to hit a home run on any given trip to the plate.
Part of what makes both Seattle and the Smokies so endeared to Raleigh is that seems to have a genuine nature — he’s a regular guy who just happens to be big enough, strong enough and determined enough to make the show. He feels like someone who’s of the mountains and has the work ethic to match. He’s one of us.
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Here’s to Cal Raleigh, our hometown MVP.
P.S. Cal, if you read this, the award-winning reporters here at The Smoky Mountain News are down for an interview at any time.
