New York Mets star first baseman Pete Alonso was among the biggest winners of the 2019 season. He hit 53 homers and drove in 120 runs en route to earning NL Rookie of the Year honors.
Like most youngsters, Alonso’s initial season in the bigs did not come without some struggles. He hit just .177 in the month of July, struggling terribly coming out of the All-Star Break.
Alonso, 25, is now spending his time with the baseball season currently on hiatus explaining why he broke from said slump.
It’s astronomical in nature. Literally.
“As a baseball player you get superstitious just to find reasoning with something that can’t be reasoned with, Alonso explained, via SNY. “I saw something on Twitter, I was in a rabbit hole one night after the game, and it’s like ‘oh Mercury is (in) retrograde and if you are born in a certain month then it really affects you in a negative way in your performance at your job,’ and I’m like ‘Oh Mercury’s in retrograde. It comes out of retrograde on this day. I can’t wait for that.'”
Alonso ultimately noted that he had like three hits the day Mercury came out of retrograde.
We did some digging to back up his claim. Alonso did have two hits with an RBI against the Pittsburgh Pirates that day, August 2. He also hit 19 homers in 55 games after July 31.
Related: Here’s who could challenge Alonso for the N.L. Home Run title
However, there’s a hole to this superstitious claim. Mercury is never in retrograde, meaning it goes backwards in its orbit. It’s just an optical illusion.
No one tell that to Mr. Alonso.