ON THE MIC
Mets’ Alonso wants to be heard by TV fans while at first base to promote baseball
PORT ST. LUCIE — Pete Alonso, mic’d up and manning first base, told ESPN’s broadcast team about the origin of his dog’s name. Alonso’s fiancee, Haley, is from Boston so naturally she wanted to name their dog Brady. But Alonso wanted their dog to have a unique name, so they opted for Brodie.
A few months later, former CAA agent Brodie Van Wagenen became the Mets general manager. Flash forward to Wednesday’s 4-1 Mets win over the Cardinals and that’s when Van Wagenen discovered he shares a name with Alonso’s dog — through ESPN’s “AllAccess” broadcast.
Players, managers and
GMs were mic’d up during the game to give fans an intimate look into life at spring training. Dominic Smith, J.D. Davis and Jeff McNeil were the highlight of the segment — swapping jabs and mocking each other — like when Davis told Smith his deep fly ball would have been a home run “if you weren’t so skinny.” Or when Smith said Davis, former 2017 Astros outfielder, “has a ton of cheat sheets,” if you know what he’s saying. McNeil couldn’t stop talking about his dog, Willow.
The hilarious banter was unlimited from this group of closeknit Mets teammates and Alonso doesn’t want the curtain to close. He aspires to be a positive ambassador for baseball.
The Mets superstar first baseman thinks being mic’d up is the perfect way to grow the game and make it more appealing to a wider, younger audience. So when Major League Baseball approached Alonso’s agents about miking him during regular season games, he signed off on placing a mic near first base at Citi Field. He wouldn’t be answering interview questions, but viewers would receive the opportunity to listen to his conversations with opposing players at first base.
The idea is still being explored, and would potentially only be used for Mets home games, but the 2019 NL Rookie of the Year is completely on board.
“Trying to expand the game I think is very important, not just for us players, but for the younger kids too,” Alonso said. “I’m not going to play until I’m 60 years old. I wish I could, but unfortunately that’s not a reality. For baseball players, our careers, our days, are numbered – whether you have 20 years in the league or two days.
“If you look at Bryce Harper, Mike Trout, Aaron Judge — those are the guys who are great ambassadors for the game. And if you look at their social media following those guys clearly have the biggest following in baseball. But if you look at Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, LeBron James or James Harden — those guys, and their reach, is way more broad. I think growing the game of baseball, globally, is extremely, extremely important,” Alonso said.
The 25-year-old wants to share the conversations he has with some of baseball’s biggest stars. Last season, he had a long conversation with Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman — all while playing first base — about their mutual passion for wine.
“He’s a big wino,” Alonso said of Freeman. “And I love wine too. We had an off-day before and I asked, ‘How was your off day?’ and he said, ‘Great, we had a lovely bottle of wine.’ He said he had Screaming Eagle and I was like, ‘What is that?’ He said, ‘You’ll know when you sign your big contract or your big extension.’ I think it’s a very expensive bottle of wine.”
For the additional wine lovers out there: Alonso highly recommends Mollydooker, an affordable Cabernet Sauvignon from South Australia that costs about $30. Even though Alonso said Mollydooker is “delicious for a really good price,” his alltime favorite is Caymus, an expensive wine from Napa Valley that might break the bank. He said he prefers a bottle of red because “red wine just hits.”
Alonso had another memorable conversation with third baseman Anthony Rendon in the Mets’ opening series against the Nationals last year. Alonso was having a good series and Rendon didn’t miss the opportunity to crack a joke at first base.
“He got on base and he’s like, ‘Dude, you gotta ask Mick [Callaway] if the phone’s ringing in the dugout because I think the moon league is calling,” Alonso recalled. “He was like, ‘I hope you do well but just not against us.’”
In another instance, Cubs third baseman Kris Bryant asked Alonso what bat he’s using. Bryant asked Alonso if he wouldn’t mind sending him the same bat – because it was clearly getting positive results at the plate.
“I should’ve sent it to him the last day of the series, because he ended up hitting a two-RBI double against us,” Alonso said. “I’m like, ‘God Pete, why’d you do that?’”
These are just a few of the conversations Alonso remembers from last season that he wants to share with a national audience as they’re taking place live. If the entertainment value from Wednesday’s Mets game was any indication, fans are sure to tune in for mic’d up segments more often.
“You never know, there could be some kid in Europe that maybe doesn’t like soccer, maybe rugby is not his thing,” Alonso said. “But baseball, you just never know who the game of baseball can touch. Because baseball’s changed my life in a positive way. The more the game grows, the more that it can change people’s lives in a positive way. And I think the more that the game is out there, it’s going to be better not just for us now, but better for us in the future as well.”