BALTIMORE – The season has turned into a slog for the Baltimore Orioles, playoff elimination imminent, roster deficiencies obvious, a second consecutive losing season loading.
Pete Alonso seems impervious to it all.
When his ballclub seems to find only failure and brick walls, Alonso finds joy. Take this 21st night of September, when the Orioles and Toronto Blue Jays gathered in front of 12,057 fans who waited out a 47-minute Monday night rain delay to watch a pair of dead teams walking.
Yet this wasn’t just any day, but rather the first birthday for Alonso and wife Haley’s son. They adorned their kitchen with a massive “Happy Birthday Theodore” banner and various stuffed animals and presents befitting a young king.
And then Alonso punched into
work and passed out gifts to his teammates, creating a night his firstborn will someday remember fondly.
Alonso turned a nondescript date in a dead-end season into something special, as he often does, blasting home runs Nos. 39 and 40 into the Baltimore night, the latter a two-run shot off former teammate Tyler Rogers as he almost singlehandedly erased a three-run deficit and provided a 4-3 victory.
Functionally, the victory might only push elimination back a day or so for the 76-81 Orioles. In a grander sense, it exemplified exactly how Alonso has become That Dude in the first season of a five-year, $155 million contract.
And it was the icing on the cake of an emotional, transformative year for the Polar Bear: Becoming a father, leaving the New York Mets, tasked with carrying a franchise that had never passed out a free agent contract that large, oh, and go ahead and crank out 40 homers and 100 RBIs in almost metronomic fashion.
Consider that task crossed off the list: Alonso leads the American League with 108 RBIs, likely killed Yordan Alvarez’s hopes of a Triple Crown (he has driven in 98) and now has his fourth 40-100 campaign in seven full seasons.
Have a year, Pete.
“I think the hardest thing was navigating parenthood,” says Alonso of his transformative 366 days. “And it’s like how do we get this down – being husband, being dad, being ready to my maximum capabilities by first pitch? As the season’s gone on, I feel like I’m getting more and more in tune with being a parent and being an athlete.
“Really thankful for my teammates sticking with me. Really thankful for my wife.”
The feeling’s plenty mutual.
Entering Monday, the Orioles had not scored in 19 innings, their playoff hopes exterminated by a pair of Milwaukee Brewers shutouts, and starter Shane Baz promptly walked the leadoff batter on a pitch clock violation and gave up three runs to the Blue Jays in the top of the first.
Alonso simply shrugged his massive shoulders, came to the plate to the thunderous drums intro of Dire Straits’ Money For Nothing and blasted a Trey Yesavage pitch 363 feet to his new favorite place on earth, the short right field porch at Camden Yards. It was home run No. 39, an impressive feat yet window dressing in the larger view.
Another nondescript loss was just four outs away when Alonso strode to the plate, two outs in the eighth, a leadoff walk rotting on first. In his second at-bat, Alonso switched up his walk-up song, to Earth, Wind & Fire’s September, this being 9/21 and all.
Oh, and also Theo’s first birthday. Coincidence?
“Yeah, that was for him,” Alonso said, proudly.
“That’s his birthday song.”
And then Alonso went bye-bye, baby, this time going 400 feet to left field off the sidearming Rogers. What remained of the crowd roared. And young Theo will hear about it long after he’s grown.
“Sick. It’s 100% special,” says Alonso of this night. “He’s not going to understand it for a couple years. But hopefully, I can kind of look back and bookmark this and keep it for the archives and hopefully he appreciates it someday.”
It will be hard to outdo Birthday No. 1. Then again, it might have been harder for Alonso to top home run No. 300, which came upon his return to New York and resulted in Mets fans saluting him in his old home ballpark.
Yet the gifts just keep coming.
“He exceeded my expectations just off the field, what he brings,” says rookie manager Craig Albernaz. “I didn’t really know-him know him, but being around him every single day, that’s been the most impressive thing.
“His baseball card, his accolades, the track record is there. Hitting 40 home runs and more than 100 RBIs in this league is really impressive. And the consistency (with which) he does it isn’t by accident.”
The next day might bring another numbing loss for a club that hasn’t been so much as two games over .500 since April 13. Or perhaps the Orioles’ first baseman, their new franchise player, will find a little more sunlight in a dark season and keep them alive a little longer.
“I know where we’re at with the standings,” Alonso acknowledged. “But I couldn’t be more proud to be an Oriole and this organization, this city, to be a part of it.
“I’m really excited not just for the remaining few games of the season but what we have coming down the pipe.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: MLB slugger clubs two HRs on son's first birthday – icing the cake of special year
