Mets & Pete Alonso
New York City is a Mets’ city this season or at least it should be at this point. Mets enter the All-Star break with a 47-40 record and sit in first-place of the NL East. Not only that but they had two players named to the All-Star Game and had another in the Home Run Derby. Their two All-Stars are Jacob deGrom and Taijuan Walker while Peter Alonso represented them (well) in the Home Run Derby.
Pete Alonso bashed his way to 74 total home runs and a HR Derby title just beating out Orioles’ Trey Mancini. Alonso won the Derby back in 2019. His back-to-back wins makes him the first back-to-back champion since Yoenis Céspedes when he won in 2013-2014.
Shohei Ohtani
Shohei Ohtani is having an amazing season both on the mound and at the plate. He will become the first player to both start on the mound and leadoff at the plate in an All-Star Game. To add to that, he also took part in the MLB HR Derby. He had an early exit vs. Washington Nationals Juan Soto but it included two tiebreakers.
This is taking place on the same day ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith is making a mockery of himself and saying a foreign baseball player with little English speaking skills can be the face of the league.
Sit down and be quiet, Mr. Smith. Ohtani is playing out of the world and is the face of this league. He gives it his all both during games and before and after games- just watch what he does when he’s practicing. Not only did he take batting practice prior to the Derby but he also was warming up his arm for his upcoming All-Star Game start.
Trey Mancini
Trey Mancini missed all of the 2020 season as he was battling stage 3 colon cancer. In November of 2020, Mancini announced he was cancer-free and would be ready to go for 2021. He’s been playing amazing this season and is an early, obvious favorite for comeback player of the year. He had 16 first-half home runs to start the season.
Monday, he beat out Oakland Athletics’ Matt Olson and Colorado Rockies to make it to the finals but feel short to New York Mets’ Pete Alonso. He did put up a great showing in the finals as he launched 22 home runs in that run.
