Mariners' Cal Raleigh is staring down intimidating history in Home Run Derby

Cal Raleigh doesn't just owe it to Seattle Mariners fans to put on a good show in the Home Run Derby on Monday. He also owes it to his younger self to go out there and win the dang thing.

Are we being dramatic? Yes. But do we also have our facts in order? Also yes, as it's out there now that Raleigh was fantasizing about being the Home Run Derby champion as far back as two decades ago. It's all there in this video — i.e., the one that everyone has seen by now — that his father provided to MLB.com's Daniel Kramer:

This would be easy to write off as a meaningless (and, to be clear, also adorable) snapshot of child-like goofiness if Raleigh had gone on to outgrow his Home Run Derby fantasies. But they're clearly still there, as the 28-year-old was practically begging for a chance to participate in this year's competition weeks before he actually accepted an invitation to do so.

Cal Raleigh is up against rich Mariners history in the Home Run Derby

As Raleigh hit an American League record 38 home runs in the first half of the season, he will hardly be out of place among the selection of eight sluggers partaking in the derby at Truist Park on Monday night, with the event set to begin at 5 p.m. PT and broadcast by ESPN.

One way or another, "Big Dumper" is going to walk away from the Home Run Derby with memories to cherish. His father, Todd, will be throwing to him, and his younger brother, Todd Jr., will be behind the plate doing the catching. As Raleigh grew up just 150 miles away in North Carolina, he also figures to have plenty of other family members and friends cheering him on.

“It's really cool,” Raleigh said in June, per Kramer. “Obviously, for all my family, it'll be easy for them to get to. And friends have already been texting me and asking if I would do it. So now hopefully I can put their mind at ease a little bit."

And yet, there is the question of how Raleigh can ascend above merely making memories to actually make history on Monday. That will be the hard part, as even making Mariners history will require living up to some of the most extraordinary performers in the history of the Home Run Derby.

The record for home runs hit in a single round of the Derby? Set by a Mariner, of course, and just two years ago when Julio Rodríguez went off for 41 long ones in the first round of the 2023 event in front of a friendly crowd at T-Mobile Park.

Otherwise, only one Mariner has ever won the Home Run Derby, and that guy did it not once, not twice, but three times. That's Ken Griffey Jr., who famously did so in style with a backwards cap* in 1994, 1998, and 1999.

*Editor's Note: We are so rooting for Raleigh to turn his hat around for at least one swing on Monday.

It's a lot for Raleigh to live up to, but we're willing to get our hopes up. He is the MLB home run leader, after all, and he has an ace in the hole that could be more valuable than even Oneil Cruz's penchant for exit velocity or James Wood's tendency to make big league dimensions look like the stuff of little league.

It's all about efficiency for the switch-hitting Raleigh. Nobody has hit fly balls more frequently than he has this season, nor has anyone pulled the ball in the air as frequently. He has spent the year aiming for the shortest porches, and Truist Park has one of those just 325 feet away in right field. As such, look for him to prefer the left side of the plate tonight.

No matter what happens, we'll be pulling for Raleigh. We are obviously all about the Mariners, yet we're also all about good stories.

And in this case, how could it get any better than a beloved Mariners star fulfilling a childhood dream and taking his place among franchise legends all at once?