FOR PETE’S SAKE
PETE ALONSO ISN’T ACTUALLY HITTING A HOME RUN IN EVERY AT BAT. IT JUST SEEMS LIKE IT.
They have been called Amazin’ and miraculous, not so much the Mashing Mets though. In this, their 58th big-league campaign, the franchise’s single-season home run record is just 41. Only the Royals’ mark is less. Rookie sensation Pete Alonso is changing that reputation in record time while setting some of his own records along the way. A week before being named a National League All-Star, the first baseman crushed his 27th longball of the year some 454 feet, opposite field no less, which broke the team rookie mark set by Darryl Strawberry in 1983. Not often, if ever, are full-season records surpassed in June.
“What he’s done in a short period of time is most impressive,” Strawberry said. “No goal seems out of reach.”
Before even the season’s midway point, the 24-year-old had already broken the N.L. record for most home runs before the All-Star break and he was on pace to break Aaron Judge’s rookie mark of 52 dingers set in 2017. As the calendar hit July, this gift from the baseball gods had 28 homers, 64 RBI and an OPS of .999.
“It’s strange,” Alonso told Bleacher Report in June. “Seeing it on replay is like, I’m almost in disbelief. It looks like me, but it just feels like I’m out-of-body. I can’t believe that’s me.”
While Alonso is enjoying one of the more stunning de
but campaigns in any sport in recent memory, “ e Polar Bear” didn’t exactly emerge from hibernation this winter as an unknown entity. A late-second-round selection out of the University of Florida in the 2016, the giddy, exuberant slugger led all the minor leagues with 36 home runs last year yet didn’t receive a September call-up. Speculation entering spring training was that Alonso would see plenty of reps before starting the year at Triple-A Syracuse before a May or June promotion.
From literally the first pitch of his first Grapefruit League at-bat, though, Alonso made it clear that wasn’t his plan. at initial swing of the 6-foot-3, 245-pound manchild launched a ball over the center field fence and he’s been more or less locked in since, batting .352 for the spring. e Mets didn’t have a choice; no more grooming was needed.
“For a rookie to kind of take on that leadership role like he’s doing, and perform like an All-Star, it’s unbelievable,” Mets manager Mickey Callaway said. “And it’s because he does everything the right way at all times.”
Teammates and coaches have been calling him “ e Polar Bear” from the get-go, the beard, body frame, laid-back personality combined with Paul Bunyan/Jim ome-like natural power. Even his mother, Michelle, is on board, telling e New York Times, “I’m not surprised. I’ve got a picture of him shirtless on the Mendenhall Glacier in
Alaska because he was like, ‘It’s not cold here.’ He was in the eighth grade. This kid.”
New York City has always taken to its athletic characters, and while Alonso is from Tampa Bay, his persona is straight out of Hollywood central casting. Humble yet homespun, honest and humorous during interviews, and then there’s the giddy exuberance, like a 10-year-old coming down the steps on Christmas morning. Upon being named to the All-Star team, where he also competed in the Home Run Derby, Alonso said, “It’s a dream come true. I wouldn’t think in a million years I’d be an All-Star as a rookie. It’s crazy. It’s a dream come true.”
Of course, NYC can be the ideal place for a budding star just because folks aren’t as obsessed with their sports stars like say in Green Bay or Boston. There are so many people walking around, so many famous ones at that, Alonso has mostly gone unnoticed, his name more identifiable than his face for the moment.
“I’ve only been recognized a couple times,” Alonso told the Tampa Bay Times. “Me and my fiancée where going to lunch and there was this guy walking by. He’s like, ‘Hey, are you Pete Alonso?’ I say yeah. He’s like, ‘I love what you’re doing, but you gotta stop swinging at balls in the dirt!’ I’m like, ‘Okay …’
“He looked like a doctor. I’m thinking, ‘Next time do a better job on those stitches; the incision wasn’t straight.’ I should have said that.”
Spoken like a true New Yorker.
Alonso hasn’t just been hitting balls that leave the park, he’s hitting balls that leave the joint with authority, seemingly in nanoseconds. His home runs through June were traveling more than 410 feet on average and one left his bat at 118.3 miles per hour, among the fastest registered by any player this season. Watching him at the plate, it’s almost like a right-handed Roy Hobbs has returned to Gotham.
“I’ve seen some batting practice pop and he’s probably top five I’ve ever seen, just balls being crushed, easy,” teammate Todd Frazier told BR. “The other day he was doing the check-swing drill on the field and hit like a 400-foot home run. I’m like, dude, I haven’t hit one of those in five years.”
Adds teammate Jacob deGrom, “The guy has some of the most power I’ve ever seen.”
And it’s not the typical pull power usually displayed nowadays, with the majority of Alonso’s longballs going to dead center and opposite field.
The kid isn’t one dimensional, either, leading the majors in scoops by a first baseman at the midway point. The lone downside is that the Mets have been struggling as a team, but if nothing else, fans have a reason to keep coming out to witness history on a nightly basis.
Call Alonso what you will, the Met Masher, the Polar Bear, the National League Rookie of the Year, just know there are no boundaries on his talent and limitless future. The records are falling, the balls are flying long and deep and a star has been born.
“ALONSO HASN’T JUST BEEN HITTING BALLS THAT LEAVE THE PARK, HE’S HITTING BALLS THAT LEAVE THE JOINT WITH AUTHORITY, SEEMINGLY IN NANOSECONDS.”