Pete Alonso gathered energy during Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. and Joc Pederson’s prodigious 80-home run 2nd round war, then outlasted Ronald Acuna to come up against Big Bad Vlad in the finals. Alonso hit 23 bombs to beat Guerrero with the Dove Tail PA20 Axe Birch bat, and still had :50 more seconds if he needed it. There will be hypebeasts out there trying to discredit Alonso and say Vlad deserved it—Vlad absolutely put on a show—but he was second best on this night. (Total HR number is not how the contest works.)
Here’s @mets Pete Alonso’s final home run spray chart. Absolutely beautiful ??? pic.twitter.com/qpkAB00Rq8
— Daren Willman (@darenw) July 9, 2019
Alonso also wore a pair of Nike Alpha Huarache Elite 2 cleats inspired by Eddie Van Halen’s guitar “Frankenstrat,” customized by @kdcustomkicks. Alonso, rather than give the cliche’d acceptance speech, deferred the glory and instead gave the spotlight to first responders and the military. He immediately donated 5% of his winnings to Tunnels2Towers and 5% to Wounded Warrior Project. Then he walked out like this (via @timbhealey):
