Cal Raleigh‘s milestone home run will soon return to the man who hit it. On Thursday night, the Mariners catcher etched his name into the record books by becoming just the fourth player in American League history to reach 60 home runs in a season.
Yet the most unforgettable part of the night may not have been the towering blast itself, but the selfless actions of the fans who made sure the ball finds its way back to him.
After Raleigh‘s drive cleared the wall, chaos followed in the right-field seats.
The prized ball ricocheted off several hands and, according to Galan Ruelos, even deflected off his wife’s head before landing in the hands of a nearby fan.
A child’s instinct to give back
Instead of keeping what memorabilia experts told TMZ could fetch up to $200,000 at auction, the fan handed the ball to the Ruelos‘ son, Marcus. What happened next made the moment even more meaningful.
“My son whispered to me and said, ‘Dad, because it’s Cal, I want him to have [the ball],'” Galan told “The Gee and Ursula Show” on KIRO Newsradio. “He was never thinking, are we going to keep it for money? That wasn’t even a thought.”
The Ruelos family has no plans to sell the ball. Instead, they want Raleigh to have it as a piece of his own history. For Galan, the decision revealed the purity of his son’s perspective.
“I saw the video of the man who caught it; he didn’t have to do it, but I posted on Facebook that it was a complete, gracious, sincere, random act of kindness,” he said.
The ball’s journey was as dramatic as the home run itself. “The stadium already had an electric atmosphere. Each time Cal went to bat, the whole stadium knew something was going to happen,” Galan said. “It was almost in slow motion. It ricocheted off three sets of hands, but I later found out it actually bounced off my wife’s head and into the guy’s hand.”
Marcus, overcome by the moment, was brought to tears. “He started bawling, but I was in shock,” his father recalled.
A lesson bigger than baseball
Even after such an extraordinary night, life quickly returned to normal.
“He had school the next day, and an hour of homework. We didn’t get home until like midnight,” Galan said. “I told him the lesson, ‘No matter what happens, this is the kind of moment that you should pay forward later in life.’ It was beautiful, and so heartwarming.”
For the family, the value of the ball was never about money. “We were never thinking about how much the ball was worth, or the most we could get,” Galan said. “We have the future MVP, hopefully, and [Marcus] touched history, that’s kind of more precious; he’ll live with that forever.”
Who is the mysterious fan? The Mariners track him down
Security staff escorted the boy and his father to verify the authenticity of the ball. The Mariners later shared that the boy traded the ball for a bat signed by Cal Raleigh, along with an invitation to attend batting practice on the field.
Adam Gresch, the Mariners‘ senior communications manager, posted on social media Thursday asking for help identifying the “incredible fan.” His request was successful. Gresch later confirmed that the fan, named Glenn, met with Raleigh before Seattle’s final game against the Rockies.
Gresch added that Raleigh gifted Glenn and his family a signed bat and two baseballs, which Glenn then passed on to his kids.
Read the full article here
