Pete Alonso

Did You Know?

• Alonso played collegiate summer baseball with the Madison Mallards in 2014 and was inducted into their Hall of Fame in 2024.
• He represented the United States in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, going 2-for-14 with an RBI single against Cuba in the semifinals.

Early life

Alonso was born in Tampa, Florida, and attended Jesuit High School for two years before transferring to Henry B. Plant High School. He played lacrosse and football as a freshman before focusing on baseball, where he was a third baseman. His grandfather, Peter Conrad Alonso, fled Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War, settled in Queens, and became a Brooklyn Dodgers fan. They had three daughters and a son, Peter Matthew, Alonso's father, before relocating to Lancaster, Ohio in 1963.

College career

Alonso played college baseball for the Florida Gators as a first baseman and earned All-Southeastern Conference honors as a freshman. In 2014, he played summer ball with the Madison Mallards of the Northwoods League, and in 2015 with the Bourne Braves of the Cape Cod Baseball League. During his junior year in 2016, he batted .374 with 14 home runs and 60 RBIs in 58 games, and competed in the College World Series in both 2015 and 2016.

Professional career

The New York Mets selected Alonso in the second round of the 2016 draft with the 64th overall pick. He signed for a $909,200 bonus and debuted with the Brooklyn Cyclones, batting .322 with 5 home runs in 30 games. In 2017, he played for St. Lucie and Binghamton, combining for 18 home runs. Ranked the Mets' fourth-best prospect by MLB.com entering 2018, he played for Binghamton and Las Vegas, slashing .285/.395/.579 with 36 home runs and 119 RBIs, winning the Joe Bauman Home Run Award.

He hit a walk-off home run in the final game at Cashman Field. Alonso made the Mets' Opening Day roster in 2019 as the starting first baseman, recording his first hit on March 28 and his first home run on April 1. He became the first player since 1900 with 11 extra-base hits in his first 10 games, and won the National League Rookie of the Month Award for April. He set the major league rookie home run record with 53 that season and won the National League Rookie of the Year Award.

Personal life

Alonso received the nickname "Polar Bear" from teammate Todd Frazier during spring training in 2019. He met Haley Walsh in the summer of 2015 while playing in the Cape Cod league; they were engaged in November 2018 and married on November 12, 2021, in Tampa. In April 2025, they announced they were expecting their first child, and their son was born in October 2025. After joining the Orioles in December 2025, Alonso changed his uniform number from 20 to 25 because of his son's birth year. In 2020, the couple founded The Alonso Foundation, supporting youth, veteran, and animal causes. On March 13, 2022, Alonso was in a car crash in Tampa when a driver ran a red light and struck his vehicle, which flipped three times; no one was injured. An avid outdoorsman, he enjoys hunting and fishing and appeared on an episode of MeatEater hunting mule deer in Colorado.