It was the New York Mets’ “Polar Bear” Pete Alonso who batted his way to a second-straight Major League Baseball Home Run Derby

Pete Alonso was having a ball with his bats.

With custom bats in the New York Mets’ royal blue and orange, and matching shoes and hitting gloves, he was a human bobble head as he won his second-straight Major League Baseball Home Run Derby.

At this point of the season, the 26-year-old first baseman who bats from the right side isn’t clearing the fences as he did when he carted off the huge trophy, the fancy championship belt, and became the first Met to win the prize in the pre-coronavirus pandemic year of 2019.

That season saw him clout 54 home runs to set several records. Now he has 17 and is the “second” Met to win the prize. Now he has a chance to win it a record third time and tie Ken Griffey, Jr., who presented the trophy to him after all the applause and congratulations at the Colorado Rockies’ thin air Rocky Mountain air of Coors Field in Denver.

To some players, the two-day event that concludes with tonight’s All-Star Game is a time to rest, hang out with the family and friends, and maybe watch it on the tubes. But not Alonso, he was anxious to swing away again as he did last time at Progressive Park.

“Let me tell you something,” he later said, “My parents let me stay up past my bedtime to watch this. That was just one of the few nights of the year that I got to stay up past my bedtime and watch it, to see incredible feats you don’t see in a regular ball game, and so to be able to do it back-to-back is really special to me.”

Alonso was there but he certainly wasn’t the favored one. That went to Shobei Ohtani of Japan, and who pitches and hits for the Los Angeles Angels, and who is not only the starting hurler for the American League tonight, but will be the lead-off batter.

Alonso was labeled a 4th-seed and went first versus Kansas City Royals’ catcher Salvador Perez, the 6th-seed.  He already looked like he was having a good time, and proceeded to hit a first-round record of 35 balls over the fences. No one else neared that, with Perez’ late run bringing him 27.

Next, Alonso was matched with 2nd-seeded outfielder Juan Soto, and nipped him 16-15 in the second round. Soto did thrill the crowd of 49,048 with a 520-foot homer, the longest derby drive in the Stat-cast era, topping 513 feet by the New York Yankees’ Aaron Judge in 2017 in Miami.

Ohtani, who arrived with a league-best 33 home runs, started slowly but forced two rounds of tiebreakers with Soto before losing 31-28 in round two. They were tied at 22-all after regulation and 28 apiece after the initial tiebreaker. But Soto homered on all three swings of the next tiebreak and Ohtani grounded out on his first swing.

“It was fun, but it was exhausting,” said Ohtani though an interpreter. “The last 30 seconds of both the first round and the tie-breaking round were really exhausting.”

Meanwhile, Alonso danced to the title, besting Ohtani, Trey Mancini and Soto.

Mancini was the last to hit against Alonso, and he had missed the 2020 campaign while undergoing chemotherapy for stage 3 colon cancer, a treatment he finished last September at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.

The 29-year-old Orioles’ first baseman hit .256 with 16 home runs and 55 RBI going into the All-Star break.

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“It was incredible,” he said, “especially after the last year-and-a-half.”

Mancini knocked out the Rockies’ Trevor Story, 13-12, in the second round. He was the sentimental favorite who won his first round, 24-23, over Oakland’s Matt Olson, while Alonso was the most animated of the eight sluggers, nodding on beat in the batter’s box as he stepped out and danced. He motioned with his arms to whip up fans during a timeout.

But he trailed Mancini, 22-17, after the first two minutes of the final round, then parked six homers on six swings over the first 28 seconds of the final minute.

“He’s hitting balls over 500 feet with ease,” said Mancini in regard to Alonso. “It didn’t seem like he got too tired and I got pretty gassed in the last bonus round. He’s a beast out there.”

There were other close ones, with Story edging Texas’ Joey Gallo, 20-19, when Gallo popped out on his last swing. Plus, there were plenty of tiebreakers.

But Alonso’s words were as bold as his home runs.

“I’m the best power hitter on the planet,” he said, “and being able to showcase that and put on a fun display for the fans is truly a dream come true for me.”

In all, he hit 74 total home runs to join Seattle Mariners’ Griffey, Jr., and Yoenis Cespedes in winning consecutive titles. Cespedes, who later played for the Mets, won his first while with Oakland, and the next time at the Mets’ Cifi Field. Another former Met, Todd Frazier, won the event while with the Cincinnati Reds, and  it came at Great American Ballpark.

Alonso’s longest drive of the night traveled 514 feet.

Money-wise, Alonso, again gained $1 million — more then his $676,725 salary — and has now made $2 million in Home Run Derby winning compared to about $1.47 million in career salary through the end of this season.

Yes, it was an eventful day for the one they call “Polar Bear.”