LOS ANGELES—Pete Alonso smiles and gazes off into the distance. What’s his favorite part of hitting a home run?
“Feeling the ball come off the bat,” he muses. “Seeing the trajectory. And then once it leaves.”
It is pointed out to him that he has described the entire process of hitting a home run.
“Yeah,” he says, grinning. “The whole thing.”
All-Star week celebrates people who are the best in the world at what they do, and perhaps no one in the world is quite as best as what he does as the Mets first baseman is at launching bombs over and over again. Shortly after 5 p.m. Pacific on Monday, Alonso took the field as the heavy favorite to win his third straight Home Run Derby. Accompanying him was Nationals special assistant David Jauss, who as Mets bench coach last year put the ball exactly where Alonso wanted it 74 times in Denver. (Alonso’s cousin Derek Morgan pitched to him in Cleveland in 2019, the first time he won.)
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Even Jauss, who has been throwing batting practice to major leaguers for a quarter of a century, marvels at what Alonso can do.
“Pete’s the best,” he says simply. This is a man who has thrown to Manny Ramírez and David Ortiz. Is he just pandering to his newest client?
He laughs. “The industry is better now because of who Pete is and that he won it,” he says. “It’s great for our industry.”
Indeed, Alonso is fun to watch. With his stocky build, flushed face and seemingly perpetual good mood, he looks more like a beer leaguer than a major leaguer. Then he steps into the batter’s box and unloads on a baseball.
He has faced some formidable challengers in the Derby: Guardians first baseman Carlos Santana, Atlanta outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr. and Blue Jays first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in 2019; and Royals catcher Salvador Pérez, Nationals right fielder Juan Soto and Orioles first baseman Trey Mancini last year. None have beaten him. And that success has been lucrative: Over his first two Derbies, Alonso made more money ($3 million total) than he did in his first three seasons with the Mets ($1.8 million.)
Alonso sees similar results during the regular season. Since he debuted in 2019, he has led the majors with 130 home runs, 19 clear of second place. But he seems especially equipped for the Derby, perhaps in part because he does not change his approach for it, the way some hitters do. He says he tries to hit line drives that clear the fence, same as during the regular season.
Jauss says that attitude is key. “The other players in the past—several years ago to 30 years ago—that I’ve thrown to that had just as good raw power as Pete Alonso, they weren’t as good [pure] hitters,” he says.
Alonso and Jauss became close during Jauss’s tenure with New York, which ended when the team fired manager Luis Rojas and most of his staff after the season. Dave and his wife, Billie, have dinner with Alonso and his wife, Haley, whenever they can and attended their wedding last winter. Jauss becomes emotional as he talks about what that relationship means to him.
“As I changed clubs, the friendship never changed,” he says.
Alonso participated in the last two Derbies without being an All-Star, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to make the trip just for one event this year. Still, he and Jauss talked in spring training about a reunion in Los Angeles. When Alonso officially made the All-Star team last Sunday, he reached out to Jauss—who was in London, helping with MLB’s Home Run Derby X event. They agreed on a price: two pots of coffee (Jauss averages a dozen cups a day) and a case of Bud Light. Jauss returned to the U.S. last week and got to California on Sunday.
Did the request mean more since it crossed team lines?
“It confirmed the friendship that our families have,” Jauss says.
“He’s part of my baseball family,” Alonso says.
Jauss politely says goodbye: He has a busy day ahead of him. “I’ll leave at about noon,” he says, “And I’ll be on the field until Pete wins at about nine o’clock.”
