New York Mets All-Star first baseman Pete Alonso escapes injury in serious car accident
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — New York Mets All-Star first baseman Pete Alonso escaped injury in a serious car accident Sunday in Tampa as he and his wife traveled from their home to the team's spring training site.
Alonso, 27, said a motorist ran a red light and T-boned his Ford F-250, which flipped three times after impact. Alonso said he ended up upside down in his vehicle and kicked the windshield out to escape.
He said none of the motorists involved were injured. Alonso’s wife, Haley, was behind Alonso in another car and he said she was a “trooper” in the collision’s aftermath, calling police and corralling the couple’s dogs as they headed East for the three weeks of spring training.
"This is a really special spring training," Alonso said Monday morning, "because yesterday was a really close experience to death."
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Alonso hit and took ground balls Monday - the club’s first full-squad workout - but refrained from all other activities as he recovered mentally. He anticipates working out at full speed on Tuesday.
Yet the quiet rhythms of spring training were disrupted before they could begin.
"I was driving through a green light and they just plowed into me, and totally disregarded the red light," Alonso said. "When I was upside down, I didn’t know if I was going to be hurt.
"It was a weird, scary moment."
First-year Mets manager Buck Showalter was perhaps more angered than Alonso, noting that "in some people's minds, red lights and stoplights are just a suggestion."
He was informed of Alonso's injury Sunday night and Alonso addressed the team's first full meeting Monday, shortly after teammate Robinson Cano offered an apology for a second PED-related suspension that wiped out Cano's 2021 season.
"He gets your attention," Showalter said of Alonso, a vocal leader even in his rookie season of 2019.
Alonso repeatedly noted that every day is "a gift," and that perspective can change in a heartbeat.
"One minute I’m coming to work," he says, "the next I’m kicking out the windshield."