Tom Brennan - POUNDIN' Pete Alonso Hits # 50

ABSOLUTELY CRUSHED! ORBITAL!

On Friday, September 20, rookie Pete Alonso in game # 153 hit HR number 50.

Was I surprised?   Nope.

After all, in mid-May, I wrote the following (in blue) when Pete hit his 21st homer of the season in game # 53:

LIGHT TOWER POWER

The good things about homers of the non-inside-the-park variety is that if a ball clears the fence by a foot, it is the same as it would be if it clears the fence by 100 feet - a HR is a HR.

Last night, Poundin' Pete Alonso showed that having light tower power can also result in home runs that for the average batter would be caught 10 feet shy of the warning track.  For Pete, though, his poke last night turned into an approaching-lunar-orbit, high-arcing homer clearing the fence by a mere foot.  Another Statcast record - fast velocity for a 48 degree angle homer.

But 1 foot or 100 feet, it was still dinger # 21 in 2019 for:

The Mets' Bambino,  the Alonzino.

Which is why I have said he has a legit chance to hit 50 this year, a ridiculous # by Mets historical standards.  

Routine fly outs for mere mortals will, with some regularity, when hit by Alonso, instead be homers because, yes indeedy, he has:

LIGHT TOWER POWER.

With his 21 homers in the first 64 games, he is on pace to hit 53.    To reach 50 for the year, he will have to hit homers at a 48 homer pace the rest of the way.  He has always improved during his career, which is still young, so I say:

WHY NOT FIFTY BIG ONES IN 2019? 

So shoot me - I may have underestimated him.  

I thought it would take ALL 162 games for him to hit 50.

Mike Lupica just interviewed Pete's HS coach, and wrote this about Pete and # 50:

"I called Coach Braun.... because Alonso....hit No. 50 on Friday night against the Reds. 

"He hit a pitch that was a little bit low and a little off the outside corner “into the night,” which is how Mets broadcaster Gary Cohen described it in his call on SNY. Alonso hit it just right -- with a compact swing and without much follow-through -- with two strikes on him, and with as much power as anyone right now in Major League Baseball.

"“People can’t hit that pitch out,” Braun said.  

"He...said, “I know I coached him. But to me, this kid is the most remarkable thing happening in baseball.”

And that he is, no argument from me.

When I earlier had Pete pegged at 45 in the spring (folks thought I was whacked) because he had 42 HRs and 146 RBIs last year, and then in May, upped him to 50, it was because of what we just saw:

In homer # 48 (a blast into the trees in Coors Field), # 49 (a bomb that almost cleared the 23 rows of left field seats), and # 50 (the absolute Ruthian bomb hit off a well-located low outside fastball).  

The man has a compact, vicious swing, tremendous determination, and absolutely prodigious power.   He hits balls that would be deep fly outs for many hitters, for him they are tape measure blasts.  No one in Mets history hit homers like this consistently - not Strawberry, not Piazza.  Maybe Kingman, but not as frequently, and with much lower averages.

If the 20-80 scale goes up to 80 power, then Pete is a 90.

I'm still pulling for Pete to hit 55 this season.  

So is his old coach, who said to Lupica in August "that he honestly thought Alonso could hit 55 homers... (The coach repeated) on Saturday morning, “Is it crazy to think he might see some weaker pitching over the next nine days? They’ve got the Marlins after they play the Reds. The Braves just clinched.” He laughed and said, “Just sayin.’”

We are witnessing in Metsville something we never thought we'd see after 60 years with a team HR record of 41:

Consistent, frequent, gargantuan power - and from a great guy:

Pete Alonso.