Cal Raleigh: Founder of the ... Beef Boys?

Cal Raleigh has many talents. He plays arguably the most demanding position in baseball -- and plays it exceptionally well, winning the Rawlings Platinum Glove Award last year -- while also being a switch-hitter with immense pop, blasting a Mariners-record 60 homers this year.

But did you know the Big Dumper is also a lyricist?

Back in 2019, while playing for the then-Class A Advanced Modesto Nuts, Raleigh channeled his inner "Weird Al" Yankovic, writing a food-centric rendition of Dobie Gray’s “Drift Away."

The culinary composition served as the anthem for an exclusive group that Raleigh, the driving force on a Mariners squad that won the this year's AL West title, founded -- the Beef Boys.

“They were just goofy southern dudes and just wanted to have a good time,” said Keaton Gillogly, the Modesto broadcaster from 2014-2022. “If you're a big dude who can hit big bombs and move heavy weight, then well, you're a Beef Boy.”

The founding fathers of the Beef Boys were Raleigh (6-foot-2, 235 pounds) and Mariners 2018 ninth-rounder Keegan McGovern (6-foot-3, 200 pounds). The duo forged a bond in the gym, pushing their staunch frames to the limit. Raleigh’s lyrics were a nod to their mentality:

“Give me the Beef Boys and free my soul,
I wanna get lost in your casserole and drift away.”

Listen:

While the Beef Boys moniker and song had circulated around the Modesto dugout prior, it didn’t reach Gillogly until July 3.

The night earlier, Jarred Kelenic and McGovern had hit back-to-back homers in a 7-0 Modesto victory. McGovern’s moonshot, which was particularly titanic, prompted an interview from Gillogly. Right before the sitdown started, Raleigh passed by and mentioned something about a song, piquing Gillogly’s interest.

“We just like to have fun, and we have a little song that we like to sing,” McGovern said in the 2019 interview. “Maybe, if you get another interview with Cal, you’ll have to ask him about the song.”

What followed was a partnership between Raleigh and Gillogly. Raleigh would reveal the lyrics a bit at a time, and with each home run the backstop hit, Gillogly would mellifluously send them over the airwaves.

“I got a song, but I can't give you the whole lyric,” Gillogly recalls Raleigh saying. “So, I'm only going to give you a lyric per home run.”

Fortunately for Modesto fans, it didn’t take long for the full chorus to be revealed. Raleigh rattled off nine homers over the next 11 games, becoming the first Modesto player to eclipse 20 homers since 2013 and ultimately earning a promotion to Double-A Arkansas.

“John Thurman Field is a very, very pitcher friendly ballpark, like extremely pitcher friendly, and he's going the opposite way to, like, over the 420-foot mark in left-center,” Gillogly said. “That two-week stretch was just, I mean, it was otherworldly. I hadn’t seen anything like it.”

After Raleigh’s promotion, the Beef Boys anthem lived on for a short time. Infielder Jake Scheiner (6-foot-1, 200 pounds) rounded the bases to the tune after a big fly on Aug. 25, solidifying himself as the third member of the group.

Now, five seasons into his big league career, Raleigh has slugged 153 Beef Boy bombs in The Show. He has helped call games for one of the best starting rotations in baseball, and is widely considered one of the top contenders for the AL MVP this year.

“Cal was working his tail off [in 2019], beyond just hitting,” Gillogly said. “You could see the makings of just a great catcher.”