SEATTLE – Yonder Alonso may have taken the rest of baseball by surprise with a dozen home runs in the A’s first six weeks, but not Danny Valencia.
Now the first baseman with the Mariners, Valencia remains one of Alonso’s best friends in baseball. Their offseason homes are about half an hour apart and when the A’s and Mariners play, they stay in each other’s homes rather than team hotels.
Valencia, who played on the same high school traveling team with Alonso in Florida and later was his teammate at the University of Miami, talks baseball with constantly with Alonso.