Stark: Pete Alonso, the greatest Home Run Derby monster of them all
DENVER — Behold Pete Alonso, the greatest Home Run Derby monster who ever lived.
You can tell me all the stories you’d like about Mark McGwire and Josh Hamilton, about Yoenis Céspedes and Ken Griffey Jr. If they’d like to volunteer to come out of retirement and take on the “Polar Bear,” I’ll be happy to watch and happy to give them their due.
But as someone who has written more words about the Derby than anyone else alive, I get the first vote. And I’m voting for a man who mile-highed more than 33,400 feet worth of gravity-defying home runs Monday night in one of the most fun Derbies ever staged.
Some people get tired as these Derbies wear on. Some people get nervous. Some people get distracted by the bells, the whistles, the oohs, the aahs and the sight of their opponents launching baseballs that never come down.
And then there’s Pete Alonso. He’s none of those things.
“There was no point where I thought I was going to lose, ever,” the Mets’ happy-go-lucky masher said after his leisurely 74-homer evening. “Even months before, when the seedings came out, teammates came up to me (and said), ‘Oh, that’s disrespect. You’re defending the title. What guy that’s defending their title is a fifth seed? Nobody. And are you pissed about that?’ I’m like, ‘No, I’m going to win anyways. It doesn’t matter.’”
And those weren’t just words. That wasn’t just a Home Run Derby champion saying the stuff he thought Home Run Derby champions are supposed to say. That confident joy is a quality Alonso exuded all day long, from the time he met the media on an outdoor plaza Monday afternoon to the dance moves he busted out between all those mighty hacks.
At one point, as he waited for his cue to step into the batter’s box for his championship round against the Orioles’ Trey Mancini, Alonso even led a sellout crowd in the “on and on and on and on” portion of “Don’t Stop Believin’.” You can stop believin’ in him, but he’ll never stop believin’ in himself.
“I’m a power hitter,” he said. “And for me, I think I’m the best power hitter on the planet. And being able to showcase that and really put on a fun display for fans, I just think that it’s truly a dream come true for me.”