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New York Times
4 days ago
- Sport
- New York Times
Kepner: The Mets must to do right by Pete Alonso, their new home run king, and keep him in Queens for good
The first manager of the New York Mets once lost a job because his bosses thought he was too old. 'I'll never make the mistake of being 70 again,' Casey Stengel said. Somewhere, deep down, Pete Alonso can relate to the 'Old Perfessor' and his long-ago departure from the Yankees. Alonso made the mistake of turning 30 last December, the same week the Mets signed the 26-year-old Juan Soto for 15 years and $765 million. Advertisement Alonso remained unsigned for months. Soto is young and draws lots of walks, and the market for those traits pushed the Mets to his record deal. With slugging first basemen apparently in low demand, Alonso stirred less interest, returning in February for $30 million — and the chance to shop his services again this winter, provided he declines his $24 million player option. 'I think he's going to have an amazing resume heading into it,' Brandon Nimmo said. 'And he's going to get what he deserves.' Nimmo and the Mets were buoyant on Tuesday night, because Alonso broke Darryl Strawberry's franchise record for homers in a 13-5 victory over the Atlanta Braves. It wasn't a laugher all the way; after Alonso smashed No. 252 off Spencer Strider in the third inning, Clay Holmes gave a four-run lead right back. It took four more homers — including Alonso's 253rd — to run away with the win, just the second for the Mets in their last 13 games. That's what the team needed most. With Alonso's power, the record was inevitable. 'I can't think about it, because if you force it, then it's not going to happen,' Alonso said. 'If you just try and win the game, capitalize on pitches, take what the game gives you and you try and win, then the game rewards you.' The game has given plenty to Alonso, but he's had to earn all of it; twice he won the home run derby to earn MLB's $1 million prize, which was more than his salary both seasons. He was the Mets' second-round pick in 2016, after they'd selected two long-gone pitchers, Justin Dunn and Anthony Kay. The Mets missed on Alonso then — to be fair, so did everyone else — and until they sign him long-term, they're missing on him now, too. Steve Cohen is the richest owner in the major leagues, the most powerful superfan of the orange and blue. No matter the metrics, no matter the market, Alonso is different. That should be obvious by now. Advertisement With hope flickering last October, it was Alonso who saved the Mets with that laser over the right field fence in Milwaukee. His .999 postseason OPS helped carry the Mets within two victories of the World Series, and he's gone full Polar Bear since: an .880 OPS this season, with 28 homers, 96 RBI — and no days off since June 2023. 'Since day one, what I've seen from him is a guy that cares so much about winning, cares so much about his teammates and the organization,' said manager Carlos Mendoza, who said the night moved him to tears. 'You appreciate (that) he posts. That's something, as a manager, you don't have to worry about who's playing first base and who's hitting the middle of your lineup. I think it goes back to understanding what it takes to play here.' That's an important intangible, connective tissue between a player and the fans who have watched him grow up in their colors. Through all of the brinkmanship last winter, the Mets and Alonso at least had the sense to not sever that bond. Alonso is the Mets' version of Aaron Judge, who turned down a long-term contract offer from the Yankees on opening day in 2022, then set the American League single-season home run record. The Yankees rewarded Judge with a forever contract, and now it's on Cohen and his baseball operations president, David Stearns, to do right by Alonso. 'I have a goal to play baseball until I'm through my age 40 season,' Alonso said, meaning through 2035. 'And for me, I'm gonna work hard and do that. And you know what? Business side, Steve and David, they've got to come through.' With their cautious commitment last winter (technically two years and $54 million, though the opt-out after one year is a formality), the Mets essentially challenged Alonso to show them more. Has he shown something in these last four and a half months? Advertisement 'Yeah, for sure,' Alonso said. 'For me, I love the city of New York, I love this fan base, it's been great. But, again, the business is the business side if they choose to go in another direction. But for me, it's been an absolute treat and pleasure here. This group is really special. This group was one of the biggest reasons why I came back. 'Not only was it the talent, but the people here. Not just on the team, the coaching staff, all the people here that work in the clubhouse, the front office, and obviously the training room. I mean, we've just got an incredible group here that has a great purpose. It's been great playing here — but, yeah, I hope it doesn't end.' It shouldn't. Alonso can't make himself any younger, but the special ones sometimes age better than you'd think. And even if Alonso has only, say, five more years as an elite run producer, the Mets must ensure that they come in Flushing. Cohen can afford it — everyone knows that — and besides, at this point, would you ever want to doubt Pete Alonso? And would you ever want to let your fans lose him? 'To be able to do that in front of this crowd, I mean, it's just really special,' Alonso said. 'I could just feel the support, you could hear it. I mean, it's electric. It was a dream. It was a wild dream.' Spot the pattern. 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Associated Press
05-06-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
This Date in Baseball - Trevor Hoffman becomes the first major leaguer with 500 career saves
June 6 1918 — Casey Stengel, after being traded by Brooklyn in the offseason, made his return to Ebbets Field a memorable one. In his first at-bat, Stengel called time, stepped out of the batter's box and doffed his cap. A bird flew out and the fans broke into laughter. 1934 — Myril Hoag hit a major league record six singles in the New York Yankees' 15-3 rout of the Boston Red Sox. 1939 — The New York Giants hit five home runs in the fourth inning in a 17-3 win over the Cincinnati Reds at the Polo Grounds. With two out, Harry Danning, Al Demaree, Burgess Whitehead, Manny Salvo and Joe Moore connected as the Giants scored eight runs in the inning. 1945 — In the first game of a doubleheader, Boston's Boo Ferriss scattered 14 hits to beat Philadelphia 5-2. Ferris, 8-0 on the year, tied the AL mark held by Chicago's John Whitehead for wins at the start of a career. 1975 — Cleveland manager Frank Robinson hit two three-run homers in a 7-5 win over the Texas Rangers. 1986 — San Diego Padres manager Steve Boros was ejected before the first pitch of the game with the Atlanta Braves when he tried to give umpire Charlie Williams a videotape of a disputed play in the previous night's 4-2 loss to Atlanta. 1992 — Eddie Murray drove in two runs at Pittsburgh to pass Mickey Mantle (1,509) as the all-time RBI leader among switch-hitters. 1995 — J.D. Drew of Florida State hit a record-setting three homers in his final three at-bats in a 16-11 loss to Southern California in the College World Series. Drew finished 3-for-5 with five RBIs and 12 total bases, also a series record. 1996 — For the second time in major league history and first in the AL, a cycle and a triple play took place in the same game. Boston's John Valentin hit for the cycle, while Chicago turned a triple play in the Red Sox's 7-4 victory. In 1931, Philadelphia's Chuck Klein hit for the cycle in the same game that the Phillies turned a triple play against the Chicago Cubs. 2000 — The Rally Monkey is born, thanks to the Anaheim Angels' video crew playing a clip from the 1994 film Ace Ventura, Pet Detective on the JumboTron. With the words Rally Monkey superimposed over a monkey jumping up and down in the Jim Carrey movie, the crowd goes wild as the Angels score two runs in the bottom of the 9th to beat the San Francisco Giants, 6-5. 2003 — Insisting the corked bat, designed to put on home run displays during batting practice, was accidentally used in a game against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Chicago Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa is suspended for eight games by Major League Baseball. Bob Watson, baseball's vice president of on-field operations, agrees that the Cubs outfielder's use of an illegal bat was an 'isolated incident,' but one that still deserves a penalty. 2007 — Trevor Hoffman became the first major leaguer with 500 career saves when he closed out the San Diego Padres' 5-2 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers. 2017 — Scooter Gennett hit four home runs, matching the major league record, and finished with 10 RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds routed the St. Louis Cardinals 13-1. Gennett became the 17th player to homer four times in one game. 2022 — Eduardo Escobar hits for the cycle in an 11-5 win over the Padres; he is the first Mets player to do so since Scott Hairston in 2012, and the first player for any team to accomplish the feat at Petco Park. _____
Sydney Morning Herald
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Sydney Morning Herald
MAGA-inspired outrage machine has a new target in this election
'Never make predictions, especially about the future,' New York Yankees manager Casey Stengel famously said. In the sport of politics we are in peak prediction mode this week – and Saturday night will reveal what surprises are in store. I've been part of many elections where the polls have got it spectacularly wrong – most shockingly in Labor's 2019 loss and most painfully in Donald Trump's 2016 win. Both were a result of the fact that while we obsess about the number of people who report a certain opinion at a given moment in time, we pay much less attention to the strength of that opinion. Large and unpredicted swings between polls and actual results are usually a reflection of the 'softness' of the opinions held by those being polled – the likeliness they will change their mind. Too often we report public opinion as if it is chiselled in stone. We experienced this collectively as a nation in 2023. The prime minister, encouraged by polls that showed up to 75 per cent support for an Indigenous Voice to parliament, ploughed ahead with a referendum to enshrine it even after Peter Dutton's denial of bipartisanship. As we found out, in the face of a barrage of unprecedented disinformation and a sophisticated MAGA-inspired outrage machine, that support turned out to be very soft. Over the course of the campaign it evaporated – on polling day the Yes vote garnered less than 40 per cent. Similarly, we have in recent years taken the same levels of support for renewable energy as if they are chiselled in stone. More than 70 per cent of Australians support the transition to renewables, and more ambitious climate targets. Most pundits take broad social licence for a transition to clean energy – a fancy way of saying the community is on board – as a fait accompli. Loading But renewable energy is right now facing a barrage of unprecedented disinformation and a sophisticated MAGA-inspired outrage machine, akin to what we saw during the Voice. Its very purpose is to undermine the social licence under which renewable energy projects operate. Having lost the argument on the existence of climate change, as the world proceeded to burn before our eyes, opponents quickly pivoted instead to undermining support for renewables. While the Voice had to withstand a torrent of misinformation-based attacks on social media, from 'say NO to save Australia Day' to 'farmers will need a permit to put up a fence', renewables face the same. Social media is ripe with anti-renewables outrage. Hysteria over offshore wind farms killing whales (they don't). Hysteria over solar fields ruining pristine farmland (they don't). Hysteria over vehicle fuel-emissions standards banning utes (they don't) or ruining the weekend (they don't).
The Age
30-04-2025
- Politics
- The Age
MAGA-inspired outrage machine has a new target in this election
'Never make predictions, especially about the future,' New York Yankees manager Casey Stengel famously said. In the sport of politics we are in peak prediction mode this week – and Saturday night will reveal what surprises are in store. I've been part of many elections where the polls have got it spectacularly wrong – most shockingly in Labor's 2019 loss and most painfully in Donald Trump's 2016 win. Both were a result of the fact that while we obsess about the number of people who report a certain opinion at a given moment in time, we pay much less attention to the strength of that opinion. Large and unpredicted swings between polls and actual results are usually a reflection of the 'softness' of the opinions held by those being polled – the likeliness they will change their mind. Too often we report public opinion as if it is chiselled in stone. We experienced this collectively as a nation in 2023. The prime minister, encouraged by polls that showed up to 75 per cent support for an Indigenous Voice to parliament, ploughed ahead with a referendum to enshrine it even after Peter Dutton's denial of bipartisanship. As we found out, in the face of a barrage of unprecedented disinformation and a sophisticated MAGA-inspired outrage machine, that support turned out to be very soft. Over the course of the campaign it evaporated – on polling day the Yes vote garnered less than 40 per cent. Similarly, we have in recent years taken the same levels of support for renewable energy as if they are chiselled in stone. More than 70 per cent of Australians support the transition to renewables, and more ambitious climate targets. Most pundits take broad social licence for a transition to clean energy – a fancy way of saying the community is on board – as a fait accompli. Loading But renewable energy is right now facing a barrage of unprecedented disinformation and a sophisticated MAGA-inspired outrage machine, akin to what we saw during the Voice. Its very purpose is to undermine the social licence under which renewable energy projects operate. Having lost the argument on the existence of climate change, as the world proceeded to burn before our eyes, opponents quickly pivoted instead to undermining support for renewables. While the Voice had to withstand a torrent of misinformation-based attacks on social media, from 'say NO to save Australia Day' to 'farmers will need a permit to put up a fence', renewables face the same. Social media is ripe with anti-renewables outrage. Hysteria over offshore wind farms killing whales (they don't). Hysteria over solar fields ruining pristine farmland (they don't). Hysteria over vehicle fuel-emissions standards banning utes (they don't) or ruining the weekend (they don't).
