Trey Mancini could only watch with the mounting realization that his 22 home runs weren’t enough.

He stood in foul territory at Coors Field in Denver, watching as then-New York Mets first baseman Pete Alonso stalked the batter’s box with bat in hand and his head lost in the playlist he chose for this moment. Alonso bobbed and bounced and then batted a baseball 400-plus feet with his first swing.

“I’m not feeling too good right now,” Mancini, the Orioles first baseman, said with a laugh on the ESPN broadcast of the event.

Meanwhile, Alonso kept nodding his head to the soundtrack. He was a man locked into the moment. During a break in the action, those head bobs turned into full-on rapping to “Hypnotize” by The Notorious B.I.G.

He was loose and lethal, and Mancini knew it was only a matter of time.

“Before Pete went, I felt like I had a shot,” Mancini told The Baltimore Banner. “But then Pete gets up there, and I felt like within 20 seconds, he had already won.”

Alonso carried himself with almost a lackadaisical approach, hardly looking up at Dave Jauss, his then-bench coach with the Mets and preferred batting practice pitcher, until the pitch left his hand. He finished regular time with 17 home runs. Then he paced around, head bobbing some more, before stepping in for an additional minute to pass Mancini.

Alonso only needed swings — six swings that sent towering blasts into the Colorado night sky. Mancini laughed, because what else was there to do after witnessing that sort of power barrage? Jauss pumped his fist, then hugged the slugger. Alonso, for a second time, won the Home Run Derby, knocking off Baltimore’s favored hero in the process.

Mancini represented an amazing story. He had missed the 2020 season as he battled colon cancer, and after overcoming the disease, he returned in fine form. His Home Run Derby showing was stirring.

Alonso’s Home Run Derby showing was something else entirely. It was inevitable. It was ruthless and captivating and showed the star power of this burly “Polar Bear,” as he is nicknamed.

“I feel like every single ball that was thrown to him was out of the park immediately,” Mancini said.

But what stands out from that night in Denver goes beyond Alonso’s competitiveness. He spent time chatting with Mancini during and after the Derby, and he spoke of the inspiring journey Mancini accomplished to even be on that stage. He then invited fellow All-Stars and Jauss and his family to a bar he rented out for an after-party.

For three hours, Alonso shared the spotlight with all who attended. Because when Alonso wins, everyone wins.

“He could be high on the horse and he and his family go do something,” Jauss said.

Instead, Alonso put his Home Run Derby-winner chain on the necks of all three of Jauss’ sons.

“He invited them over and he let them all take that chain and spin it around and stuff like that,” Jauss said. “It was like he was a Jauss son for those 15, 20 minutes he was with my three boys there. We were there for three hours, and for that time, he was the same as always.”

Alonso may not have been the most popular figure in Baltimore that night, when he declared, “I’m the best power hitter on the planet.” Four years later, any villain status remaining for toppling Mancini crumbled entirely when he decided to join the Orioles on a five-year, $155 million contract.

What the Orioles are receiving from that commitment is a player whose desire to win and affable nature were on full display at the 2021 Home Run Derby, and each day since. He’s a high-drive player motivated to win. And he’s a star who cares about his teammates. The coupling of both traits will make him the heartbeat of the Orioles.

“There were just so many boxes, and every single box this place checked,” Alonso said last week at his introductory press conference within the B&O Warehouse.

Alonso checks just as many boxes for the Orioles. He arrives at the right time, joining a young team that underperformed in 2025. With his presence, the atmosphere around the club is higher than it has been in some time.

“I was really impressed and pumped for them that they made that signing,” said Mancini, who played six seasons with the Orioles before he was traded to the Houston Astros midway through the 2022 season. “I think it’s going to be a really good fit.”

‘Real thunder’

Alonso’s reputation preceded him. In the weeks leading up to the second-round pick’s promotion from Double-A Binghamton to Triple-A Las Vegas, Cody Asche kept hearing about this kid who launched the ball with authority.

At this point, in 2018, Asche had already played in the majors. He had seen the best of the best up close. His winding career brought him to the Mets’ Triple-A affiliate during the penultimate year of his playing career, and it offered the future Orioles hitting coach a half-season sample of watching Alonso up close.

“The last six weeks of that season, it was one of the most impressive things you’ve ever seen,” said Asche, who recently joined the Detroit Tigers as their assistant hitting coach. “It was real. It was real thunder.”

The few months they were teammates in Las Vegas were some of the more astounding months Asche has experienced in the minors. He has seen big-time power hitters demolish 30 pitches a year when everything lines up, yet holes in their swings prevented them from hitting for average.

Alonso, by comparison, has translated his minor league blasts to big league success because he’s an all-around player.

“He was more of a hitter with power,” Asche said, “versus a guy with power that you hoped would hit.”

Jauss saw similar traits during his time as New York’s bench coach and Alonso’s BP-thrower. Sure, the ball would leap off his bat. But Alonso doesn’t rely on pull-side shots. Last season, the 31-year-old hit as many opposite-field homers as pull-side.

That approach will translate well in Baltimore. According to Statcast, Alonso would have hit 45 homers rather than 38 had he played all his home games at Camden Yards.

“When Pete hits it, it’s going to leave Yellowstone,” said Buck Showalter, the former Orioles skipper who managed Alonso for two years in New York. “But he’s more of a hitter than just a power guy.”

Even though it was only a few months, Asche recalls the batting practice sessions Alonso took as a 23-year-old for their professionalism. “He always had a reason for what he was doing,” Asche said, and he still draws upon those short months with Alonso when thinking about hitting mechanics.

In the outside cages at old Cashman Field in Las Vegas, Asche watched as Alonso hit against softly tossed balls from a coach. Alonso froze once he made contact and determined whether his balance and timing were right before he began to take full swings.

“It stuck with me,” Asche said. “And as I got into coaching, I saw other coaches do it with players, and I was like, ‘Oh shit, I remember this one guy doing this drill all the time. His name is Pete. He hits a lot of homers.’”

So now Asche teaches that drill, all because of a young Alonso.

Showalter, who managed in Baltimore for nine seasons, views the addition as a natural fit for the Orioles for more than just the veteran leadership he’ll bring or the production that will come from the middle of the lineup. If players take the time to do so, they may take away something as significant as Asche did just by observing.

“If I was there, I’d tell him … ‘You don’t need to be the spokesman of the club, you don’t need to be the guy who sets the menu in the cafeteria, just go play first base and show them how you post up and play every day,’” Showalter said. “That’s what they need more than anything.”

Posting up

When Showalter first arrived as the manager of the Mets in 2022, he called in three of New York’s most significant players. To Francisco Lindor, Brandon Nimmo and Alonso, he delivered the following message:

“The sixth tool is posting the f- up,” Showalter said. “You want to have a statue, you’ve got to post up.”

Alonso was already well aware. In six 162-game seasons, Alonso has appeared in 152 games or more. In 2024 and 2025, he played all 162 games. In a city that boasts about Cal Ripken Jr.’s Iron Man streak, Alonso’s mentality fits.

Even in the minors, Asche saw that aspect of Alonso’s personality. There are times in the minor leagues, Asche said, when players seem to go through the motions during actual games because their minds are focused on reaching the majors. But in Las Vegas, winning mattered to Alonso. It didn’t matter that it was the Pacific Coast League rather than the National League East.

“There’s a real fire once the game starts,” Asche said, and that will carry Alonso through the minor bumps and bruises that may force a different player to take a day off.

“I love playing the game, and playing and competing at the major league level is really just a blessing, and I take pride in that any time I’m able to walk through the tunnel, strap it on and go play,” Alonso said. “Any day that ends in ‘y,’ I’m ready to go out there as long as I’m able to.”

Playing first base is important to Alonso, too, although he’s likely to mix into the designated hitter equation for Baltimore. Jauss said Alonso views availability as multifaceted. It’s not just being able to hit. Performing in the field is just as important.

The advanced statistics for Alonso’s defensive work in 2025 were unflattering; he recorded -9 outs above average, according to Statcast. That can be deceiving, some argue.

“There are certain statistics that might say he’s not a good first baseman,” said Jauss, who is now an adviser for the Washington Nationals. “He catches things that are thrown to him, he tries hard, he works hard on the bases. He’s not a one-dimensional player by any means.”

Still, there’s no denying Alonso’s two biggest strengths. One is at the plate, where he consistently does damage. Last season, he hit 38 homers with an .871 on-base-plus-slugging percentage. He has never hit fewer than 34 long balls in a full season.

And the second, of course, is availability, just as Showalter implored to his key players upon becoming manager.

“Playing every day and posting up every day for the boys,” manager Craig Albernaz said, “that’s a huge thing for our guys.”

A new era for the Orioles

Last week inside the B&O Warehouse, agent Scott Boras sat next to Alonso and sang the praises of the work the Orioles put in to land his client. There was the financial muscle from owner David Rubenstein, of course, but there were also detailed presentations made and an instant connection formed between Albernaz and Alonso.

For years, Baltimore has suffered from a state of small-market malaise, a period that included a rebuild, a previous ownership group’s reticence to spend and the reluctance for big-name free agents to come here.

It appeared, with Alonso on the dais, as though Baltimore was suddenly a destination worthy of star power.

“It’s huge for the organization,” said Mancini, who played for the club before and after a tear-down that resulted in multiple 100-loss seasons. “Obviously, 2025 didn’t go how Baltimore would’ve liked. … I think this signing brings a lot of excitement for this upcoming season, and I think this past year can be forgotten about pretty quickly in the grand scheme of things if things turn around, and you would think that they would, with the team being put together.”

Mancini isn’t the only individual in the industry who sat up and took notice at the news Alonso was headed to the Orioles. Boras said three of his clients, Gunnar Henderson, Jackson Holliday and Jordan Westburg, called him to share their excitement at what they perceived to be a commitment to winning. Agents from across the industry have expressed sentiments that vary from surprise to optimism, because a splash of this variety bodes well for other players, too.

And the fan base has been alight with excitement for Alonso. They’ve seen highlights of him decimating baseballs for years, and they even rooted against him when it meant beating Mancini. But now? Alonso is the star who chose the Orioles.

“Baltimore’s going to get him, and he’s going to get Baltimore,” Showalter said. “He’s got a little edge to him, in a good way.”