No Plan B

No Plan B

When a lifelong friend asked Pete Alonso in high school whether he had a backup plan if baseball didn't work out, Alonso told him there wasn't one. ESPN reported that years later, after Alonso won a Home Run Derby, Alonso hugged that same friend and repeated those same words while both of them cried.

ESPN also reported that Florida coach Kevin O'Sullivan considered him arguably the program's hardest worker and one of the most driven people he had coached — a player who used doubters for motivation. Undrafted out of Henry B. Plant High School in Tampa, where he played third base after trying lacrosse and football as a freshman, Alonso enrolled at Florida. The Mets took him 64th overall in the second round of the 2016 draft and signed him for $909,200. Baseball America named him an All-Star at three levels across three seasons: short-season in 2016, High-A in 2017, Double-A in 2018.

A Man and His Number

His paternal grandfather fled Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War, settled in Queens through Ellis Island, served in World War II, and became a Brooklyn Dodgers fan, according to Newsday. Alonso debuted on March 28, 2019, and played seven seasons for the Mets. He won the Jackie Robinson National League Rookie of the Year that first year and has been an All-Star five times. Teammate Todd Frazier gave him the Polar Bear nickname for the frame and the outgoing personality. In his eighth season, Alonso moved to the Baltimore Orioles, where he has 36 home runs across 152 games in 2026.

On September 15, he hit his 300th career home run. Across those eight seasons he has played 1,160 games, driven in 813 runs, scored 670, and compiled a .255 average with a .514 slugging percentage and an .857 OPS. He plays first base for the Orioles.

Reporting: ESPN, Newsday, MLB.com. Career and biographical data: MLB StatsAPI, via the Fever engine.