And so, Peter Alonso, as he was often called back then, entered professional baseball as a relative afterthought. The MLB Network broadcast compared him to CJ Cron. This was a hulking slugger with question marks, a middling athlete with a high offensive bar to clear. Consider it cleared.

Several minutes after Pete Alonso hit his 253rd career home run, becoming the only player in Mets history to reach that number, Citi Field’s oversized scoreboard cut to a shot of him at first base. A paid crowd of 39,