Pete Alonso

Alonso became the first player in MLB history since 1900 with 11 extra-base hits in his first 10 career games.

No other player ever had more than nine.

In April, Alonso batted .292 with nine home runs, eight doubles, one triple and 26 RBIs in his first games in the big leagues.

He won the National League Rookie of the Month Award for April.

On June 22, Alonso hit his 26th home run, breaking the National League record for most home runs by a rookie before the All-Star break, passing Cody Bellinger.

The next day, with his 27th home run, he broke the Mets rookie home run record, previously set by Darryl Strawberry in 1983.

Peter Morgan Alonso (born December 7, 1994), nicknamed "Polar Bear", is an American professional baseball first baseman for the New York Mets of Major League Baseball (MLB).

In 2014, he played collegiate summer baseball with the Madison Mallards of the Northwoods League, and in the summer of 2015, he played for the Bourne Braves of the Cape Cod Baseball League.

He competed for Florida in the 2015 and 2016 College World Series.

Alonso played college baseball for the Florida Gators before the Mets selected him in the 2016 MLB draft.

In 2016, his junior year, he hit .374/.469/.659 with 14 home runs and 60 RBIs in 58 games.

The New York Mets selected Alonso in the second round, with the 64th pick overall, of the 2016 Major League Baseball draft.

He signed with the Mets for a $909,200 signing bonus, and made his professional debut in 2016 with the Brooklyn Cyclones of the Class A-Short Season New York-Penn League.

He posted a .322 batting average with five home runs and 21 RBIs in thirty games and was chosen to participate in the league's all-star game.

Alonso's nine home runs led all MLB rookies and are tied for the most by a Mets player before May 1 with Neil Walker (2016), John Buck (2013), Carlos Delgado (2006) and Dave Kingman (1976).

He began the 2017 season with the St. Lucie Mets of the Class A-Advanced Florida State League, and after batting .286 with 16 home runs and 58 RBIs in 82 games, was promoted to the Binghamton Rumble Ponies of the Class AA Eastern League in August, where he batted .311 with two home runs and five RBIs in 11 games.

MLB.com ranked Alonso as New York's fourth best prospect going into the 2018 season.

He began the 2018 season in Binghamton, and received a midseason promotion to the Las Vegas 51s of the Class AAA Pacific Coast League.

He represented the Mets in the 2018 All-Star Futures Game.

In 132 games between Binghamton and Las Vegas, he slashed .285/.395/.579 with 36 home runs and 119 RBIs.

He won the Joe Bauman Home Run Award.

That season, Alonso was the final batter in Cashman Field history, as he hit a walk-off home run in the bottom of the 9th inning during the last baseball game played at the facility.

He made his MLB debut during the 2019 season.

Alonso made his MLB debut on Opening Day in 2019 and won the National League's Rookie of the Year Award that year, setting a major league record for rookies with 53 home runs.

He is a three-time MLB All-Star and he led the league in home runs in 2019 and in runs batted in in 2022.

He has also won the MLB Home Run Derby twice, in 2019 and 2021.

Alonso was born in Tampa, Florida.

His father, Peter Matthew Alonso, is the son of Spanish refugees who fled Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War and moved to Queens, a borough of New York City, but later settled in Lancaster, Ohio.

His mother, Michelle Lynn Alonso ( Morgan), played college softball at Ohio Wesleyan University.

Alonso attended Jesuit High School in Tampa for his first two years of high school, and transferred to Henry B. Plant High School in Tampa to finish high school.

He played lacrosse and football as a freshman before deciding to focus solely on baseball.

For the baseball team, he was a third baseman.

He enrolled at the University of Florida, where he played college baseball for the Florida Gators as a first baseman.

He was named All-Southeastern Conference in his freshman year.

Alonso made the Mets Opening Day roster in 2019 as the starting first baseman.

He was in the team's starting lineup on Opening Day on March 28, and recorded his first major league hit against Washington Nationals pitcher Justin Miller in the eighth inning.

First publicized on March 30, third-base coach Gary DiSarcina gave Alonso the endearing nickname "Polar Bear" for his power.

He hit his first major league home run on April 1 off of Drew Steckenrider of the Miami Marlins.

On April 9, Alonso had his first career multi-home run game against the Minnesota Twins.

Alonso was selected as a reserve to the 2019 All-Star Game.