N.Y. Mets: Pete Alonso Breaks All-Time Rookie Home Run Record

From the desk of: HEAD-BUTTING MR. MET

Pete Alonso 2017 at Binghamton

PETE ALONSO HITS #53

Breaks All-Time Rookie Home Run Record

September 22, I write:

Babe Ruth in 1920 becomes the first ever major league baseball player to hit 50 home runs in a season.  The former pitcher of the Boston Red Sox accomplishes the feat in his first season as a member of the New York Yankees.  The Babe ends the season hitting 54 home runs in 458 at-bats.  Of the nearly 20,000 people to ever play major league baseball Mets rookie first baseman Pete Alonso becomes only the 30th ever to join the 50 home run club, one century after Ruth first opened its doors.  The milestone home run comes in his 152nd game, and 560th at-bat of the season.

Eight games later the Flushing Polar Bear is finishing with a flourish.  Pete Alonso hits home run #53 in the third inning of the Mets penultimate game of the 2019 regular season breaking Aaron Judge's single-season record for most home runs by a rookie.  It's his third home run in his last four games, and a season high eleventh time he's gone long this month.

• MAR/APR: 8 home runs
• MAY: 10 home runs
• JUN: 9 home runs
• JUL: 6 home runs
• AUG: 8 home runs
• SEP: 11 home runs

Alonso presently leads the major leagues, and is the lone MLB player this season to date with 50-plus home runs.  Through 160 games and 592 at-bats Alonso is slashing .260/.359/.586/.945, with 30 doubles, 102 runs scored, and 120 runs batted in.  He seems a veritable lock for the National League Rookie of the Year award.  I read in an ESPN News Service article where no rookie since 1900 has won an outright home run title in the big leagues.

The man who wasn't sure he would make the team out of Spring Training is now a record holder.  Pete Alonso is the new measure for rookies and home runs.