CLEVELAND _ For Pete Alonso, who has been rewriting the Mets' record books as a rookie, making the All-Star team and competing in the Home Run Derby were just a couple of items on his long list of goals. They were far from guarantees at season's start, but not exactly surprises, either, in his eyes. He considers it the product of hard work and self-belief and, let's be honest, prodigious power.
But what struck him Monday, as he sat in a nondescript ballroom in a Cleveland convention center with many of the best baseball players in the world/his temporary teammates, was who was absent.
"The most appalling thing," Alonso said, "is I'm an All-Star and my idol _ the guy I want to emulate _ is Paul Goldschmidt, and he's not here. And I am. That's the most humbling thing about this."
