


He calls them “happy accidents,” as if he’s a nine-hole hitter with warning track power.
But with one swing after another, happy accident after happy accident, the home runs amassed until a folk hero was born, a slugger unlike any the Mets have employed in their 64 seasons of existence.
Now, Pete Alonso stands alone as the Mets’ all-time leader after hitting his 253rd home run (and then 254th), breaking the record held by Darryl Strawberry since 1990.
Since making his major league debut in 2019, Alonso, 30, has hit more home runs than any player in the National League. That tally excludes the most important of his career — last October’s go-ahead blast in Milwaukee, morphing his potential final at-bat with the Mets into an improbable run to the NLCS — the record 207 he’s hit in the Home Run Derby, his three-run shot in this year’s All-Star Game or his other four postseason homers.