Collecting Game-used: A piece of Big Dumper's 60-homer year

Buzz had a hunch, cross-checked the schedule and ... won again.

This month's ball in the Collecting Game-used series is another that simply came to me via a grab bag where all I knew was the date of the game -- and I specifically chose a game between the Seattle Mariners and Chicago White Sox back in May because of something that happened on this day this season. For just $35 (shipped), I added a game-used piece of Cal Raleigh's 60-homer campaign to my collection and the team may not have even realized it. In fact, I did this twice ... so there will be a sequel to this in a future post.

This wasn't just some ball used during one of the 159 games Big Dumper played this season -- it's from the game where he launched his 16th homer of his historic campaign and Raleigh handled the ball on all but one of its plays during its life in The Show.

Keep reading to see the details this time ... and the ball in action.

THE BASICS ...
Game-used ball (MLB Authenticated): Seattle Mariners at Chicago White Sox -- May 21, 2025
Watch it in action: Four pitches in a full plate appearance -- see it via the MLB Film Room here or embedded below.

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The matchup: Mariners RP Casey Legumina vs. White Sox 1B Tim Elko in the seventh inning of a 6-5 Seattle victory.
The results: A fastball for a ball, two sweepers for called strikes -- all handled by Mariners C Cal Raleigh -- before Elko hit it up the middle and reached base on an error by Mariners 2B Dylan Moore

What's Buzz-worthy: The Sox are one of several teams that pre-sells baseballs by date during the season and the listings on their MLB Auctions page stay there as long as the baseballs are in stock following the games, too. On a hunch, I cross-checked Raleigh's home run log to the team listings and this was the lone Seattle opponent that had baseballs in stock for a game where big Dumper went yard in his a record-setting season for a Mariner (better than That Griffey Guy ever did) and for any catcher in MLB history. While Raleigh came up just short of the American League record, I knew I'd want to get a piece of this season just because ... so I rolled the dice. I figured there would be a 50-50 shot -- at worst -- of landing a baseball touched by him during the game with him being a catcher and I figured the home team may not care as much about stuff not hit by, or a highlight for, their squad. When I saw Legumina vs. Elko I initially figured I missed, but Raleigh played the whole game and handled Legumina. So then I checked the MLB Authentication listing -- remember, all I knew was the game date here when buying -- and then went to the Film Room to see my new ball was used for the entire appearance from a game where Raleigh homered the inning before. The error was the fifth of the season for Moore (he only has 33 for his career), while this was just Elko's 10th career game and it was the 34th career appearance for Legumina and fifth victory of his career. The only number that matters in this game for this ball to me, though, is that it's from one of the 60-homer games for Big Dumper at a low price letting me collect other stuff, too. He isn't even noted as part of the authentication listing -- but it's all right there on video.

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>> See all past Collecting Game-used stories from Buzz here

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