Some baseball fans go a lifetime without ever catching a home-run ball, but 17-year-old Puyallup resident Marchany Roman managed to catch perhaps the most iconic homer in Seattle Mariners history at his first major-league game.
On Sept. 30, Roman caught Cal Raleigh’s pinch-hit walk off homer that clinched a 2-1 win over the Oakland Athletics and put the Mariners in the playoffs for the first time in 21 years.
For a kid that had never seen a major-league field in person before, it was an unforgettable experience.
“It was such a great moment,” Roman said. “It’s so hard to explain, but it was amazing. People who I’ve never talked to in my life, they came up to me, hugged me, and were super proud. It was great.”
Roman attended the game along with his mother, Marines Marchany Quinones, stepfather Shawn Brandvold and little brother Joey Marchany. The tickets were a reward from Brandvold, as Roman recently learned that he had made a club baseball team that he had tried out for, called GBG Northwest.
Roman has always loved baseball, has been playing since he was 3 years old, and has been a Mariners fan since moving to the Seattle area from Puerto Rico in 2015. But before that Friday, he’d never gotten to attend a big-league game.
“We’ve never really had the chance,” Roman said. “My mom was a single mom for a long time, we used to live in Auburn, and money was very tight. We were never able to afford it.”
When Brandvold told him that he had purchased tickets to celebrate his accomplishment, Roman’s excitement was “through the roof.” The tickets were bought three weeks in advance, so no one knew at the time that it would end up being one of the most important games in franchise history.
When he walked through the stadium gates for the first time, it was like a dream come true. After years of playing, watching and loving the game, Roman’s first glimpse of a major-league field was dazzling.
“I walked up the stairs and the second I saw that field, everything was just like, ‘Oh, my god, this is the greatest experience ever,” Roman said. “Little did I know it was going to get even crazier.”
The Mariners took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning, when Ty France drove in Dylan Moore with an RBI double. But the A’s tied it up in the top of the second when Shea Langeliers hit a solo homer.
The game remained tied for the next 6 1/2 innings, and Roman could feel the tension out in the right-field stands. When the bottom of the ninth came around, he pulled out his phone and started recording.
Roman sat in his seat, shaking with excitement as Raleigh came to the plate with two outs against A’s pitcher Domingo Acevedo. When the “Big Dumper” swung and sent the ball sailing over the right-field wall for a home run, Roman and nearly everyone else in the stadium let loose with a jubilant roar.
After the ball hit off the big glass windows of the Hit-It-Here Cafe and fell toward the stands, Roman leapt high in the air to grab it, admittedly “nudging” his little brother out of the way in the process.
“It was great, but at the same time kind of scary because I didn’t know what was going to happen,” Quinones said. “And then when everybody realized he had the ball — pictures, hugs, people coming from down the stairs. It was like a minute after he got the ball that the guy in the suit showed up.”
Within moments, the Mariners staff came to talk to Roman and certify that the ball in his possession was indeed the one that Raleigh had slugged into Mariners immortality. While it would’ve made for a pretty epic souvenir, Roman decided right away to give the ball back to Raleigh.
His only request was that he give the ball to Raleigh in person, which the Mariners staff quickly granted.
Roman said that Raleigh asked if he wanted to keep the ball, and looked relieved when the young fan said no. He just wanted to give the prize home run back to the man who hit it, knowing how much the ball would mean to Raleigh, his family and the Mariners.
“It was awesome,” Raleigh said. “It was super nice of him to do that, he didn’t have to do that. I was just happy that he was able to make a game, and he seemed very grateful and very excited.”
Roman didn’t walk away from the exchange empty-handed, as Raleigh gave him an autographed bat and ball. The family also has free tickets to a game of their choice next season, courtesy of the Mariners. Raleigh said that he also wanted to get them some tickets for a future game as well.
Raleigh remembers what it felt like when he first attended a major-league game, and was grateful that he could help make Roman’s experience so special.
“It’s a special moment,” Raleigh said. “It’s like walking into a cathedral, you know. It’s different. The grass is super green, the dirt super smooth, and there’s so many fans. It’s so big, and it’s crazy when you first walk into the stadium, kind of wide-eyed and shocked and kind of speechless. I was happy that he got to be at that game and catch that ball. It was something he’ll probably never forget, and something I would never forget if it happened to me.”
At 17 years old, Roman still has dreams of playing in the big leagues himself. His baseball idols include fellow Puerto Rican Javier Baez of the Detroit Tigers, Mariners rookie phenom Julio Rodriguez, and now, Raleigh.
Someday, he hopes, maybe he’ll get to hit a dramatic home run of his own in the big leagues.
“I’ve been working really hard,” Roman said. “Hopefully, who knows, maybe somebody will ask me for an autograph one day.”