THE POLAR BEAR STRIKES
This past week, the 2026 New York Mets finally played meaningful September games at Citi Field. Unfortunately, the majority of the 89,221 fans in attendance over the three-game series had their attention focused on the visiting team’s first baseman.
On Tuesday night, Pete Alonso stepped to the plate in the top of the ninth inning stuck at 299 home runs with his Baltimore Orioles trailing by one. A couple of minutes later, following his game-tying shot, a standing ovation, and a curtain call, the Mets were trending on social media.
For those of you claiming to be embarrassed by your own fanbase’s reaction, I remind you that your team is playing out the string. Individual performances still matter for evaluation — but wins and losses don’t.
The resulting perfect storm enabled Mets fans to salute their former hero and send a strong message to Steve Cohen and David Stearns.
A PUBLIC RELATIONS DISASTER
You didn’t have to be the great Jay Horwitz to see this PR nightmare coming. Alonso is still the career leader in Mets’ home runs (264) and third in RBIs (712) despite being 12th in games played (1008). You don’t keep a player solely for marketing purposes, but you must factor that in when he is still productive.
COMPOUNDING ERROR
The consensus is that the Mets let Alonso walk due to concerns about his age, defense, and declining athletic ability. That would be sound reasoning if they hadn’t replaced him with Jorge Polanco, who is a year older, a poor defender, and injury prone.
| ALONSO 2026 | POLANCO 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| Games | 154 | 37 |
| PA | 670 | 145 |
| Hits | 154 | 20 |
| 2B | 24 | 5 |
| 3B | 0 | 0 |
| HR | 38 | 2 |
| RBI | 105 | 6 |
| BB | 78 | 9 |
| SO | 162 | 36 |
| BA | .267 | .148 |
| OBP | .361 | .201 |
| OPS | .876 | .431 |
| WAR | 4.4 | -1.4 |
A FITTING END
On Monday night, the Mets were officially eliminated from the playoffs. They entered the season with high hopes that were quickly dashed by poor play, and went into Tuesday’s game against the Orioles languishing 12 games under .500.
That’s why you can’t blame Mets fans for the curtain call. They not only watched their wealthy owner and GM let the Polar Bear walk for 5-years/$155m but also watched them spend all that money on Polanco (2-years/$40m) and another poor defensive player, Bo Bichette (3-years/$126m).
If the Mets rookie quintet — Carson Benge, AJ Ewing, Nolan MacLean, Christian Scott, and Jonah Tong — leads the Mets to a renaissance in 2027 and beyond, fans may look back at 2026 as the start of something big.
However, that was the furthest thing from their minds when Alonso connected off Kodai Senga on Tuesday night. My Real Take is that the only embarrassing thing that happened was seeing the Polar Bear round the bases in the wrong uniform.
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