Seattle Mariners Catcher Cal Raleigh Talks About All-Star Week Experience

Raleigh has received more attention this year than he has in the last four seasons of his major league career. He leads the majors in home runs (38) and RBIs (82). His 38 homers are the most by a catcher, switch-hitter and American League batter going into the All-Star Break in MLB history. Raleigh's considered an AL MVP candidate due to historic season, and the other player in the running for the award, New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge, spoke with Raleigh and his family during the derby.

"You see how good of a player he is, but you don't know how good of a person he is," Raleigh said. "Well-respected human being, obviously. A great leader — kind of picked that up throughout their whole staff. ... Obviously someone who has been there done that kind of thing, has a lot of eyes on him all the time being who he is and just somebody who carries himself the right way."

Raleigh said he's ready for things to get to normal after his chaotic week, but he was grateful for the experience and said he would "definitely be there" if he has a chance to go again in his career.

Raleigh mentioned talking to the pitchers as being a highlight experience for him. Raleigh caught reigning AL Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal (Detroit Tigers), Carlos Rodon (Yankees), his teammate Bryan Woo, Joe Ryan (Minnesota Twins) and Drew Rasmussen (Tampa Bay Rays) in the All-Star Game.

"It's taking things that they do, but also understanding that it's a baseball game," Raleigh said. "A lot of it is pretty much the same across the league. It's all about executing and it's all about going out there and focusing on the little things and focusing on the things that are gonna help you throughout (the season). It's understanding, yeah you want to take things, you want to learn things from other guys but applying it in your way. Not necessarily their's. Everybody's always gonna have their own way of doing things and it's just about molding it to how you want to go about it."

Raleigh had a week he won't forget, and now he and the rest of Seattle's roster will look to make a final postseason push and try to have a season that the whole club won't forget.