Pete Alonso: Poking the Polar Bear

ESPN Daily

ESPN

Sports

4.6 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 7 August 2020

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

New York Mets first baseman Pete Alonso set the record for rookie home runs in 2019, and announced himself as New York's other young superstar alongside the Yankees' Aaron Judge. But before the "Polar Bear" took MLB by storm, as a child growing up in Tampa, he was the target of bullying. Baseball became Alonso's escape, but even as his career took him to the University of Florida, bullying followed him. ESPN baseball insider Buster Olney spent time with Alonso ahead of his E:60 profile, which airs this Sunday at 5pm ET on ESPN, and joins the show to discuss the struggles Alonso battled on his journey to MLB. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Here's Pete Alonzo.
0:01.8	Now he's even with Aaron Judge.
0:04.2	Pitch.
0:06.0	Gets it high in the air, right center field.
0:08.5	Hamilton looks back.
0:10.0	He's at the wall.
0:11.0	He leaped.
0:11.7	It's gone.
0:13.1	Home run.
0:14.3	Number 53.
0:16.6	And Pete Alonzo stands alone as Major League Baseball's rookie home run king.
0:29.5	That was the moment Mets first baseman Pete Alonzo made baseball history,
0:34.4	hitting his 53rd home run of the 2019 season, the most ever by rookie.
0:40.2	But while Pete Alonzo made his rookie season look easy, his path there was anything but.
0:46.7	Today, ESPN's Buster Olney joins us with new details about how Alonzo overcame years of bullying
0:52.4	to make it in the big leagues.
1:00.4	And how the man they call polar bear proved his doubters wrong by never doubting himself.
1:04.7	I'm Pablo Torre. It's Friday, August 7th.
1:07.5	This is ESPN Daily.
1:10.8	Hey, Buster, thanks so much for joining us, man.
1:12.9	I know there have been some truly crazy storms this week in the Northeast.
1:17.8	Thanks for having me.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from ESPN, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of ESPN and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.