THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: If Cal finds it, so will the M's

If you bet on a roulette wheel in Vegas, you could get rich by tossing out your money at 36-to-1 odds.

Let’s say you tried “Odd” at that price.

Over and over.

You stuck with it, and watched the money pile up in front of you.

For the sake of this experiment, we won’t discuss the other side of this game — where you stayed on one number and lost.

The croupier would gather up your cash and look at you as though he were seeing a nut case.

Or an Arab gazillionaire who is just amusing himself by watching a few yachts sail out the door.

In fact, you’re a normal human being, so you’d never keep trying a 36-to-1 bet.

Heck, if you stopped for lunch, you’d have won almost 4 trillion dollars.

And to tell the truth, you don’t really need the money.

RIGHT NOW, you’d rather have some base hits.

A few whistling doubles, and some long home runs where you hear the stadium announcer holler: “There’s another bomb for Cal Raleigh.”

Unfortunately, the Mariners’ all-world catcher had exactly seven homers through Monday night.

And he was sitting on ZERO hits in his past 36 at-bats.

That’s a stunning number.

Cal launched 60 home runs last year, displaying power and big-time hits (125 RBI) from both sides of the plate.

Matter of fact, Raleigh’s almost total inability to hit this spring is pretty much as stunning as his numbers last year.

Needless to say, Cal’s sudden slump is one of MLB’s bigger stories of the year.

As for the cause of the hitless streak, the popular catcher known as “The Big Dumper” seems as baffled as everyone else.

It’s not exactly a shock that Cal’s average isn’t sizzling.

He’s never hit for serious average, but made up for it with his power and terrific work behind the plate.

Raleigh went the entire 2025 season without committing a passed ball.

Sports Illustrated made it clear that we shouldn’t be shocked by the lack of hits.

“Batting average has never been Raleigh's calling card,” said a story in SI.

“He's a career .222 hitter who managed to make a great case for baseball's best while raising that to .247 last season amid 188 strikeouts.

“His current slide has that figure all the way down to .157 and his on-base percentage isn't much better at .288.

“More alarmingly, more than 35% of his at-bats end in a strikeout.”

MANAGER Dan Wilson is an eternal optimist, so predictably, he sees Raleigh just about to break out.

“The last couple of days, we’ve seen some deeper at-bats,” Wilson said. “We’ve seen some pitches where he’s just kind of missed, and I feel like it’s getting real close for him."

Alas, Raleigh had two base hits in Tuesday night's win at Houston.

“I know he continues to put in the work and keeps working at it. He is trying to find that thing that’s going to make a big difference,” Wilson said.

Raleigh insists that there’s no physical magic that will turn things around.

He claims it will be the mental side of the game that gets him going.

Meanwhile, Raleigh’s struggles haven’t helped the Mariners.

Fortunately, the M’s are just two games behind the Athletics in the AL West — this despite Cal’s lack of pop and a series of injuries to the pitching staff and everyday lineup.

Considering Seattle’s talent and not much juice in the rest of the division, things can still turn around for the Mariners.

That includes the guy who finished second in the AL Most Valuable Player last year.

If Wilson is right and Raleigh comes alive, the Mariners should be in good shape sometime soon.

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Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press three times each week, normally Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday unless, you know, stuff happens.

Steve suggests you take his opinions in the spirit of a Jimmy Buffett song: “Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On.”