B1GDuty

Cal Raleigh gave Rick Rizzs a retirement present today. To understand why it matters, you have to understand what Cal Raleigh does with a chest protector. Most catchers wear whatever the equipment guy hands them. Raleigh treats his like a billboard, in the one place on a baseball field where a camera is pointed for three straight hours. In August of last year the Mariners played the Little League Classic in Williamsport. Raleigh had an idea and told his girlfriend, Hannah Shimek, who designs these things for him. "It was like, make a catcher's chest protector with baseball cards on it." Then the team's VP of major league operations went and collected actual childhood baseball photos from the families of every player and coach on the roster. Rawlings printed them onto the chest protector, laid out like a sheet of baseball cards. He caught a major league game in Williamsport wearing his teammates as twelve year olds. That is what he does. He has done a patriotic one with a hidden World Cup nod in it. The man communicates through catching gear. So today, on the season finale of his show, he gave Rick Rizzs a custom one. Rizzs has called Seattle Mariners games since 1983. He spent 25 years next to Dave Niehaus. He came back from a brutal stretch in Detroit and never left again. He is 72 years old, he has been the voice in the car and the voice in the garage and the voice on the back porch for two generations of this state, and he announced in January that this is his last season. Kirby Arnold put it right. Rizzs has been the franchise's direct line to its fans through every high and every low, and there were a lot more lows than highs. And the catcher, who is now the face of this team, said goodbye the only way he knows how. He put him on the chest protector. The full episode airs tomorrow at 4 p.m. on the Seattle Sports YouTube channel.