QUEENS, NY — Pete Alonso stood in the middle of the Mets clubhouse and did his best to downplay what he had just accomplished.
The slugging first baseman had just broken Darryl Strawberry’s 35-year-old franchise record of 252 home runs, hitting No. 253 in the third inning of Tuesday’s 13-5 victory over the Atlanta Braves at Citi Field, and was keen on making it about the collective rather than the individual.
“It’s really not going to settle in because we’re in the thick of a playoff race. I don’t want to make this about myself,” Alonso, whose two-home-run night helped the slumping Mets snap a seven-game losing streak, said. “This is about the team. This is about guys fighting every single day and doing whatever they can to win. I’m just trying to do my part.”
Words are one thing, but his actions suggested something entirely different: This is meant the world to him.
Upon the realization that his 387-foot line drive to right-center field off Braves starter Spencer Strider for No. 253 narrowly cleared the fence, Alonso pumped his fists in celebration, and wore an ear-to-ear smile that did not fade in his trip around the bases, or when his teammates poured out from the dugout and delayed the game to greet him, or when he stood atop the bench, helmet in hand, for a curtain call with both arms raised to the sky.
“It meant a lot even though he won’t say it,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza, who admitted to getting emotional watching Alonso break the record, said. “You watch that face and how much joy he had, especially when he stood on the bench in the dugout and just tipped his helmet to the crowd, he’s like a kid with a new toy. He was humble. It was hard to describe the face of Pete there. He was enjoying the whole moment. It meant a lot to him there.”
And why wouldn’t it?
For as much as Alonso is revered as one of baseball’s most elite power hitters since his debut in 2019, when he broke MLB’s single-season rookie home run record with 53, he is also a devout student of the game.
He knows what this record means and all about the man who set it.
“He’s one of those Mount Rushmore-type of players when you think of that championship team in ’86, and also, just that whole ’80s Mets team,” Alonso said. “That entire decade, you think of Darryl Strawberry. He’s one of the pillars of this organization, and it’s an honor.”
Alonso has chiseled his way onto that proverbial monument now as their undisputed greatest power hitter, which has already been a foregone conclusion for some time. Not only was his 53-home-run rookie season an MLB record, it was a single-season franchise record. So are his three 40-home-run seasons and five 30-home-run seasons
He has set this record at a remarkably quicker pace. The 30-year-old reached No. 253 (and No. 254 in the sixth inning on Tuesday night) in 965 games while Strawberry hit 252 in 1,109 between 1983 and 1990.
“As a kid, you don’t really think it’s in the realm of possibility to be a franchise home run leader,” Alonso said. “You just want to get to the big leagues and give it your best. The dream is really like this opaque, unknown thing. And you just want to get there and compete, play for a World Series, play winning baseball. But to have that opportunity, you don’t really think about it. It’s a wild dream, to be honest, and it’s really special.”
As much as there was appreciation for the moment, Alonso said on multiple occasions that it would not fully set in until after this season. The record was never a focus, especially when the Mets’ promising season had been derailed by a difficult two months. Entering Tuesday night, they had 11 losses in their last 12 games, dropping them six games back of the Philadelphia Phillies for the National League East lead.
“The game rewards you for focusing on winning and doing the best you can to win the game,” Alonso said. “For me, that’s kind of a nice tidbit because we’re in a playoff hunt where we’re trying to chase down W’s every single day. It’s a nice distraction from the record. If I’m just focused on winning, have good at-bats, do what you can on defense, run the bases well, take what the game gives you — if you play the game like that — the game rewards you. And I’m really glad it did.”
At least his manager was there to help provide some brevity for him.
“You just have to admire and appreciate it, especially how hard this game is and how much we’ve been through the past two months,” Mendoza said. “To just live that moment, we just had to take a step back there and appreciate the experience.”
