{"id":918356,"date":"2019-07-09T00:18:59","date_gmt":"2019-07-09T05:18:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/?p=918356"},"modified":"2019-07-09T23:38:19","modified_gmt":"2019-07-10T04:38:19","slug":"pete-alonso-is-the-justin-morneau-of-our-time-and-thats-not-a-bad-thing-home-run-derby-m1d1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/pete-alonso-is-the-justin-morneau-of-our-time-and-thats-not-a-bad-thing-home-run-derby-m1d1\/","title":{"rendered":"Pete Alonso Is The Justin Morneau Of Our Time (And That’s Not A Bad Thing)"},"content":{"rendered":"
For those not old enough, Monday’s Home Run Derby was a lot like 2008 where Josh Hamilton wowed the Yankee Stadium crowd with an iconic early round Derby performance (28 in the first round), only to tire out and lose to Justin Morneau 5-3 in the final.<\/p>\n
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. broke records with his 29 home runs in the first round and 40 (!!!) in the second round with the help of three tiebreakers with Joc Pederson. He did tire out a little bit in the final, but if 22 home runs are “tired” then that’s a new standard of tired (as opposed to me, who tires out rolling over in bed).<\/p>\n
Pete Alonso’s only chance was to take advantage of Guerrero falling just below the high standard he set for himself, and that’s exactly what happened as Alonso’s 23 batting practice home runs won him the Home Run Derby title for 2019. Alonso also overcame boos in the first round as he defeated hometown love Carlos Santana in the first round. (For ten minutes, Art Modell wasn’t the most hated sports professional in Cleveland.)<\/p>\n