Mariners’ Cal Raleigh has the best catcher’s chest protector ever for Little League Classic

Billy Heyen

Mariners’ Cal Raleigh has the best catcher’s chest protector ever for Little League Classic image

Cal Raleigh is having a magnificent season for the Seattle Mariners.

The superstar catcher is on the verge of setting a new single-season catcher home run record. He's got a chance to catch the single-season switch-hitter home run record.

He's also a great defender with an awesome nickname (Big Dumper). It's a good time to be Raleigh.

His brilliance will shine even a little brighter on Sunday night.

The Mariners are taking on the New York Mets in Williamsport, Pennsylvania as part of the Little League Classic on Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN.

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As part of the occasion, Raleigh has broken out some special catching gear.

His chest protector shows youth baseball photos of all of his teammates.

Check it out:

And in the upper left portion of that photograph, on one of the shoulder guards, there's a picture of Raleigh growing up, with the caption Lil' Dumper.

Baseball is the best.

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Shoutout to whoever helped create this masterpiece, because it's one of those things that's just incredibly cool. You could imagine Raleigh taking the chest protector home after the game and somehow keeping it on display for the rest of his career.

Even if he never wears it again, it's an incredible keepsake item.

The Mariners will also hope it leads to a win, of course. They're in a critical stretch of the season, neck and neck in the AL West with the Houston Astros. 

Raleigh is just starting to heat up with his bat, and Seattle is dreaming big. These photos perfectly capture the moment when many of these Mariners first started to have baseball dreams, when they could never have imagined just how far this beautiful game would take them.

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Billy Heyen

Billy Heyen is a freelance writer with The Sporting News. He is a 2019 graduate of Syracuse University who has written about many sports and fantasy sports for The Sporting News. Sports reporting work has also appeared in a number of newspapers, including the Sandusky Register and Rochester Democrat & Chronicle