There’s a new home run king in Queens: Pete Alonso.
Alonso hit the 253rd homer of his career on Tuesday night against the Atlanta Braves, breaking a tie with Darryl Strawberry to set the Mets’ franchise record.
The Citi Field crowd erupted as Alonso drilled a two-run homer against Spencer Strider in the third inning.
The record had belonged to Strawberry since May 3, 1988, when he hit his 155th homer, passing Dave Kingman’s prior franchise best.
Alonso tied the record in Saturday night’s 7-4 loss to the Brewers with a second-inning homer against Tobias Meyers.
The Brewers were familiar with Alonso’s torment. American Family Field was where he hit the go-ahead homer in Game 3 of last year’s NL Wild Card series, clinching the first round for the Mets and sending them to the NLDS for the first time since 2015.
Strawberry and Alonso could easily be considered two of the most beloved Mets in history, though their career paths couldn’t be more different.
“He was a complicated kid who, thank God, got it straightened out, but with Pete, there was none of that,” said Mets radio play-by-play voice Howie Rose. “I think in a sense, because Darryl became such a controversial figure, and there was so much extraneous activity surrounding him, he became a lot less totally embraced by the fan base than Pete has been. I mean, these fans love Pete unconditionally.”
Strawberry, an outfielder who grew up playing on the hardscrabble streets of South Central Los Angeles, was part of the hard-partying, hard-charging 1986 Mets team that brought the second-ever World Series championship to Queens. Substance abuse issues, legal issues, controversies and confrontations. Contentious negotiations with the Mets ended in 1990 when he signed with his hometown Dodgers.
“Darryl will tell you to this day that he never should have left New York,” Rose said. “There was a deal to be worked out, even though Frank Cashen made it difficult. But Darryl had his issues then, as we all know, so a lot of his aggregate performance, over eight years, in retrospect, is framed against a lot of strife and a lot of unfortunate, not only incidents, but circumstances surrounding him off the field.”
Alonso, like Strawberry, was drafted by the Mets. A second-round pick out of the University of Florida in 2016, he endeared himself to Mets fans as a rookie three years later. It wasn’t just his MLB-record 53 home runs, it was the passion and enthusiasm he played the game with. The 30-year-old Tampa native affectionately referred to as the “Polar Bear” embraced the Queens community from the start.
A power-hitting first baseman on the field, in his postgame interviews, he came off as an everyman. Between the shirtless Gatorade baths, the “LGFM” proclamations and the charity work done by he and his wife Haley throughout the years, Mets fans considered him one of their own.
“For Pete, there is just this unconditional love on the part of the fanbase,” Rose said. “I think a lot of that is returned in kind.”
The love remained even as Alonso tested free agency for the first time last winter. Ultimately, he returned to the Mets on a one year contract with a player option for 2026. His home run in Milwaukee likely kept him in a Mets uniform this season, with the fans begging the club to sign their homegrown hero.
“I genuinely believe that he wants to stay here and finish his career,” Rose said. “I know he does.”
Strawberry was inducted into the Mets Hall of Fame in 2010, and his No. 18 was retired last season. Fans have since embraced Strawberry, and the 67-year-old has embraced Alonso.
“Records are made to be broken,” he recently told reporters in New Jersey.
Alonso hit his 253rd home run in his 965th game during his seventh MLB season. Strawberry hit his 252 home runs with the Mets in 1,109 games over eight seasons.
By many measures, Alonso was already the greatest home run hitter in Mets history.
The 53 home runs he hit in 2019 remain the Mets’ single-season record, and he is the only player in franchise history with multiple seasons of at least 40 home runs, a feat he’s achieved three times.
Alonso steadily climbed up the Mets’ home run leaderboard, passing Mike Piazza (220) for third place last August and David Wright (242) for second place in June.
“The record is obviously something that is really special, and it’s meaningful, but right now in the heat of it, I’m not too focused on that,” Alonso said after hitting No. 250 earlier this month.
“I’m just focused on wins and what I can help this team do to win in each game,” he said. “We’re in the thick of a playoff race right now. I’ll think of all the other stuff in the offseason or whenever I have time to.”
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