{"id":8504,"date":"2021-05-21T02:40:29","date_gmt":"2021-05-21T02:40:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sportsnewsforyou.com\/?p=8504"},"modified":"2021-05-21T02:40:29","modified_gmt":"2021-05-21T02:40:29","slug":"tampa-native-pete-alonso-excited-for-homecoming-truly-a-blessing-from-the-baseball-gods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/?p=8504","title":{"rendered":"Tampa native Pete Alonso excited for homecoming: \u2018Truly a blessing from the baseball gods\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 Pete Alonso returned to Tampa, where he grew up and fell in love with baseball, to play a major-league game for the first time as a member of the Mets. The homecoming, which he described as \u201cspecial, exciting, and a blessing,\u201d was particularly significant for the first baseman because he celebrated his dad\u2019s birthday on Friday.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Alonso said he already got his dad a good gift and spent time with him before the Mets\u2019 interleague series opener against the Rays on Friday. Alonso appreciated the quality time a rare Mets\u2019 schedule allowed him to spend with his family and wasn\u2019t focused on breaking out at the plate, though he said \u201ca lot of familiar faces\u201d were in the stands. (History shows Alonso enjoys hitting bombs on a parent\u2019s birthday; he crushed a grand slam in spring training on his mom\u2019s birthday.)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cWin or lose, or if I go 4-for-4, it\u2019s not about performing on the field,\u201d Alonso said. \u201cIt\u2019s spending quality time with family and being there and actually physically being able to be with my family and to be able to celebrate his birthday, it\u2019s really special. It doesn\u2019t happen often in the baseball schedule and it\u2019s truly a blessing from the baseball gods.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s weird. It\u2019s kind of strange,\u201d Alonso said of being home for a Mets\u2019 series. \u201cA lot of people take this for granted, but to actually sleep in my own bed, at my own house and to be able to drive my own car to my job, it\u2019s crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Alonso once played at Tropicana Field in high school for a senior game between Pinellas County and Hillsborough County in 2013. He played third base, then. Friday was his first time playing professionally at the unique stadium, complete with a large white dome Alonso described as \u201clovely.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cFor me, this is my idea of what the big leagues is like because this is my big-league stadium when I went to see a game,\u201d Alonso said. \u201cSo, it\u2019s really cool.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Alonso attended Rays games when he was growing up, most notably for their 2008 postseason run. He attended a Red Sox-Rays game with his dad for the ALCS at Tropicana Field. The Rays went on to beat the Red Sox in seven games and advanced to their first World Series in franchise history.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The first baseman rattled off several names of Tampa Bay players he rooted for when he was younger, including some close friends like Rays outfielder Brett Phillips whom he grew up playing travel baseball with and called an \u201cenergizer bunny.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cFor me, seeing guys like Matt Joyce, Evan Longoria, Carl Crawford, B.J. Upton, it was really cool,\u201d Alonso said. \u201cThose are guys that I would see the majority of the time because, especially with the local stations, those are guys as a younger kid, it was really cool to see them do it.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThe talent and the high-quality baseball they have here in Tampa, it\u2019s crazy. It\u2019s great to be a role model. It\u2019s cool to be an example. It\u2019s like, listen, all the kids out there that have talent and want to be a big leaguer, you can do it. I used to be in the same shoes.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Alonso attended Super Bowl LV a few months ago, when the Buccaneers beat the Kansas City Chiefs 31-9 in Tampa. Alonso said he almost wore his Tom Brady jersey during batting practice on Friday but decided against it.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Around the same time as the Super Bowl, Alonso deleted his Twitter and Instagram. Ever since, he said, life without social media has been \u201cfantastic.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s none of my business what other people say about me,\u201d Alonso said. \u201cI\u2019m happy living my life and concentrated and focused on what I need to do every day. The people that I work with, including you [reporters], I want to treat with respect and be the best person I can be, be a pro. That\u2019s it, that\u2019s all I can do. Whatever people say, whatever people do, doesn\u2019t matter. I want to treat people with respect and treat people by the golden rule: Treat others how you want to be treated.\u201d<\/p>\n

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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 Pete Alonso returned to Tampa, where he grew up and fell in love with baseball, to play a major-league game for the first time as a member of the Mets. The homecoming, which he described as \u201cspecial, exciting, and a blessing,\u201d was particularly significant for the first baseman because he celebrated…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8504\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}