The New York Mets had their eyes halfway across the world on Tuesday, but Pete Alonso made sure they swung back to Queens by nightfall. Hours after news broke that team president David Stearns was in Japan watching slugging sensation Munetaka Murakami, Alonso answered in his own booming language, sending baseballs over the wall with all the subtlety of a note reading, “Still the best first baseman in your orbit.”
If Murakami was drawing oohs in Tokyo, Alonso was matching them with aahs in Flushing. Every swing felt like a deliberate rebuttal, the Polar Bear’s way of holding his turf.