hopped into a shopping cart<\/a> for a celebration. He was wheeled into the shower and \u2026<\/p>\n\u201cThey just poured whatever the hell they could on me,\u201d he said that night.<\/p>\n
By the middle of that first April, Alonso had already justified the Mets\u2019 relatively unorthodox decision to carry him on their Opening Day roster, service time considerations be damned. In the 11 games they could have kept him in the minors to secure an additional year of service, Alonso hit five homers and posted an OPS above 1.300. His sixth homer, in Game No. 12, still sticks with people.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe one that really stood out to me was his first one in Atlanta,\u201d Nimmo said.<\/p>\n
Standing on first base, Nimmo went through his thought process for how aggressive to be on the bases. On a fly ball to the outfield, he had to make sure it got over the outfielder\u2019s head to throw it into second gear and try to score. So when Alonso hit a low laser to center \u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cI am in my head hoping this gets over his head,\u201d Nimmo said. \u201cBut I am also thinking, \u2018Dang, he hit that really well and it\u2019s probably going to be caught.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd all of a sudden, I get close to second base, and pick it up again, and it is about to go into the fountain in center field. I just saw it splash as I was getting to second base. You have all these reads that are from normal, big-league exit velos and whatnot. And that read did not register with what he was doing at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was my first experience of, \u2018OK, Pete has a different kind of power,\u2019\u201d Nimmo said. \u201cI always look back on that one because that was my first time getting that sense of awe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Or, as play-by-play broadcaster Gary Cohen put it, \u201cThat was the one that opened your eyes that this guy is legit.\u201d<\/p>\n
For one longtime Mets employee, that epiphany had come earlier, and it hadn\u2019t even come in person.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis one is probably not common as far as being on anyone\u2019s list of favorite Pete Alonso home runs. But I think about the one he hit in the Futures Game all the time,\u201d bullpen catcher Dave Racaniello said.<\/p>\n
Alonso\u2019s appearance in the 2018 Futures Game came amid a breakout season. Before 2018, he was a fringe top-five prospect in the organization, typically listed behind pitcher Justin Dunn and catcher Tom\u00e1s Nido by reputable analysts. And then Alonso went out and hit 36 homers between two levels and made himself a glaring dot on the big-league radar.<\/p>\n
In the Futures Game at Nationals Park, Alonso\u2019s towering shot off future teammate Adonis Medina showed all he was capable of.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe go to Washington a lot and spend so much time in that bullpen. So, where he hit that ball \u2014 if you\u2019ve ever spent time in or around that bullpen, you know that is a long, long way. You don\u2019t see many balls land there,\u201d Racaniello said. \u201cI didn\u2019t know much about Pete at that time. But I remember seeing where that ball landed, knowing how far it is, knowing I hadn\u2019t seen many guys outside of batting practice hit a ball that far, seeing the amount of power that he has, that made a lasting impression on me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe one for me is the one in Minnesota,\u201d said Cohen, who\u2019s been the play-by-play broadcaster for nearly all of Alonso\u2019s homers. \u201cHe hit it near the top of the upper deck. That stands out to me as the most impressive home run.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 474-foot blast off Minnesota\u2019s Matt Megill came in July of Alonso\u2019s rookie year. By that point, Cohen had already realized Alonso\u2019s power was different in team history. As with Nimmo on the bases, it had altered the way he prepared for balls off the bat.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re always prepared for anything,\u201d he said, \u201cbut there\u2019s a different standard for how you prepare for a guy who is capable of hitting the ball 450 feet.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a certain playoff home run we\u2019ll get to, but Drew Smith wants to mention a different one.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe one he hit off Flaherty in the NLCS to dead center looked like a two-iron,\u201d Smith said, echoing a comparison several Mets have made about Alonso home runs. \u201cThe slider was maybe a foot off the ground, too \u2014 a good pitch, and he made it look like a mistake pitch. Crazy power.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the rest of us mortals, we fly out (on a pitch that low),\u201d Nimmo said after the game that night. \u201cBut for him, it\u2019s just an absolute bomb. Just normal Pete.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is one Alonso appreciated as well, coming as it did in front of a raucous crowd in Queens.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s storybook-type stuff,\u201d he said that night. \u201cWhen you grow up as a kid, you dream about that type of stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI hate to sound like I\u2019m dismissing everything else,\u201d longtime radio broadcaster Howie Rose said, \u201cbut the one in Milwaukee defines a career. It just overpowers anything else I can think of.\u201d<\/p>\n
Indeed, Alonso\u2019s series-winning, season-saving home run in Game 3 of last year\u2019s Wild Card Series was the given for this list \u2014 the one nearly every person we talked to mentioned immediately.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t just that Alonso saved the Mets\u2019 season; he helped transform his legacy with the franchise. Up until that point, Alonso\u2019s 2024 had been disappointing. His numbers were below his career standards, and he\u2019d especially struggled in big moments \u2014 a stark change from every other year in his career. And so, the range of possibilities for that at-bat was tremendous.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember the preamble to the at-bat in Milwaukee<\/a>, just building everything around the narrative that this could be his last plate appearance, right?\u201d Rose said.<\/p>\n\u201cLet\u2019s face it: If he hits into a double play against Devin Williams to end the season, he\u2019s probably not here now,\u201d Gary Cohen said. \u201cThe entire perception of Pete changed with that one swing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was almost written perfectly for him,\u201d co-hitting coach Eric Chavez said.<\/p>\n
Rather than guessing what pitch Williams would throw him, Alonso focused on a lane on the outer half of the plate. Both Williams\u2019 fastball and changeup moved back toward Alonso; if a ball started near the outside corner, it would finish near the middle of the plate. Williams\u2019 3-1 changeup was right where Alonso was looking, and he smashed it to right field.<\/p>\n
\u201cI blacked out. Everything happens fast; it\u2019s such a blur. Those moments are so fleeting,\u201d Alonso said this spring. \u201cIt was just pure euphoria.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s No. 1,\u201d Peterson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still get chills watching the video,\u201d Smith said. \u201cBut I\u2019m sure No. 253 will have to be added to my list when it happens.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014 The Athletic\u2019s Will Sammon contributed to this report.<\/strong><\/p>\n(Photo of Pete Alonso\u2019s homer in Game 3 of the 2024 Wild Card Series: Aaron Gash \/ MLB Photos via Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New York Mets have never had a player quite like Pete Alonso. They\u2019ve had great home-run hitters…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":140023,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[1266,1305,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-140022","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-mlb","9":"tag-new-york-mets","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115016576787860126","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}