LOS ANGELES (AP) — Pete Alonso seemed stunned this season had ended and perhaps his time with the New York Mets.
“I’m just kind of shell-shocked that the season’s over, because once you get on this postseason run, you kind of don’t really think that it’s going to end ever because we overcame so much and we perform really well in big spots,” Alonso said after the Mets were eliminated Sunday night with a 10-5 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers in NL Championship Series Game 6.
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New York Mets pitcher Edwin Díaz reacts during the fourth inning in Game 6 of a baseball NL Championship Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
New York Mets pitcher Sean Manaea sits in the dugout after leaving the game against the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 6 of a baseball NL Championship Series, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
New York Mets' Mark Vientos celebrates a two-run home run during fourth inning of Game 6 in a baseball NL Championship Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
New York Mets' Pete Alonso reacts after getting hit with a foul ball against the Los Angeles Dodgers during the eighth inning in Game 6 of a baseball NL Championship Series, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
New York Mets' Pete Alonso reacts after getting hit with a foul ball against the Los Angeles Dodgers during the eighth inning in Game 6 of a baseball NL Championship Series, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Alonso hit .273 with four homers and 10 RBIs in the postseason. After earning $20.5 million this year, the first baseman is eligible for free agency for the first time and turns 30 in December.
“I love this team. I love this organization. This fanbase has treated not just myself, but my family so, so well,” Alonso said. “I love New York. I love this team. I love playing in Queens. This group is really special and the memories that we've created together are just, like, wow. This is why we play baseball, to be able to get to have that togetherness, to be able to go far, face adversity and overcome it. ... I want more and more moments like this.”
New York started the season 0-5 and was 22-33 before the late-May players' only meeting that followed the Dodgers series sweep at Citi Field. The Mets turned around their season and finished 89-73, earning the NL's final wild card spot with a win at Atlanta on the day after the regular season was scheduled to end. They rallied in the ninth inning of Game 3 to win an NL Wild Card Series, then upset NL East champion Philadelphia in the Division Series to reach the LCS for the first time since 2015.
“It’s not easy to come through so much adversity, but we kept finding ways to get the job done,” first-year manager Carlos Mendoza said. “Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case this series. Now we’re going home. But, like I said, this should be our expectations moving forward every year, we should be playing games deep into October.”
In the fourth season after Steve Cohen bought the Mets from the Wilpons, New York led the major leagues with a $332 million payroll and is line to pay a $96 million luxury tax.
Pitchers Jose Quintana and Luis Severino also can become free agents and Sean Manaea has a player option he could turn down to go free.
“It was an amazing roller-coaster,” shortstop Francisco Lindor said. “We accomplished a lot as a team, as individuals. We became family. We overcame a lot of things and we stuck together, so I truly believe there is something good happening here. It doesn’t feel good to lose. It’s going to sit here with me for awhile but I feel like this year made me a better person, a player and I’ve grown a lot.”
Lindor is signed through 2031 and outfielder Brandon Nimmo through 2030.
Nimmo hopes Alonso will reach a new deal with the Mets.
“He means a lot to the fanbase and to this team and we’d love to see him back here,” Nimmo said, “but also going through that process I understand that it is a business and he will end up doing what’s best for him and his family.”
Nimmo said the stability of heading into a second year under president of baseball operations David Stearns and Mendoza will be an advantage over last offseason.
“I really think that this is kind of the jumping-off point. We want to set this as a standard now," Nimmo said. “There’s no surprising people. I think people are going to be a little more wary of us next year to start things off and that comes with its own territory, where everybody’s going to have their A-game on to try and beat you.”
J.D. Martinez, another potential free agent, looked forward to the core returning. Asked what the future was for him, the 37-year-old gave a one-word reply: “Pickleball.”
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New York Mets pitcher Edwin Díaz reacts during the fourth inning in Game 6 of a baseball NL Championship Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
New York Mets pitcher Sean Manaea sits in the dugout after leaving the game against the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 6 of a baseball NL Championship Series, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
New York Mets' Mark Vientos celebrates a two-run home run during fourth inning of Game 6 in a baseball NL Championship Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
New York Mets' Pete Alonso reacts after getting hit with a foul ball against the Los Angeles Dodgers during the eighth inning in Game 6 of a baseball NL Championship Series, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
New York Mets' Pete Alonso reacts after getting hit with a foul ball against the Los Angeles Dodgers during the eighth inning in Game 6 of a baseball NL Championship Series, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — King Charles III was confronted with anti-monarchist sentiment and Indigenous protest during his Australian visit on Monday.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who wants Australia to become a republic with an Australian head of state, and opposition leader Peter Dutton, who wants the British king to remain Australia’s monarch, both brought up the republic debate during a reception for the king and Queen Camilla in Parliament House in the national capital Canberra.
“You have shown great respect for Australians, even during times when we have debated the future of our own constitutional arrangements and the nature of our relationship with the Crown,” Albanese said. “Nothing stands still.”
Dutton’s more tongue-in-cheek address said people were honored to attend the royals’ reception, despite disagreement over the monarchy’s future role in Australia.
“People have had haircuts, people have shined shoes, suits have been pressed and that’s just the republicans,” Dutton quipped, referring to supporters of a republic.
All six state government leaders underscored the political divide on Australia’s constitutional relationship with Britain by declining invitations to attend the reception. All six would prefer an Australian citizen was Australia’s head of state. They each said they had more pressing engagements on Monday, but monarchists agreed the royals had been snubbed.
Charles used the start of his speech to thank Canberra Indigenous elder Auntie Violet Sheridan for her traditional welcome to the king and queen.
“Let me also say how deeply I appreciated this morning’s moving Welcome to Country ceremony, which offers me the opportunity to pay my respects to the traditional owners of the lands on which we meet, the Ngunnawal people, and all First Nations peoples who have loved and cared for this continent for 65,000 years,” Charles said.
“Throughout my life, Australia’s First Nations peoples have done me the great honor of sharing so generously their stories and cultures. I can only say how much my own experience has been shaped and strengthened by such traditional wisdom,” Charles added.
Following Charles’ speech, Indigenous independent Senator Lidia Thorpe protested that British colonizers have taken Indigenous land and bones.
“This is not your land. You are not my king,” Thorpe yelled as she was ushered from the hall.
Australians decided in a referendum in 1999 to retain Queen Elizabeth II as head of state. That result is widely regarded to have been the consequence of disagreement about how a president would be chosen rather than majority support for a monarch.
Albanese has ruled out holding another referendum on the subject during his current three-year term in government. But it is a possibility if his center-left Labor Party is re-elected at elections due by May next year.
Charles was drawn into Australia’s republic debate months before his visit.
The Australian Republic Movement, which wants Australia to sever its constitutional ties with Britain, wrote to Charles in December last year requesting a meeting in Australia and for the king to advocate their cause. Buckingham Palace politely wrote back in March to say the king’s meetings would be decided upon by the Australian government. A meeting with the ARM does not appear on the official itinerary.
“Whether Australia becomes a republic is ... a matter for the Australian public to decide,” the Buckingham Palace letter said.
Earlier Monday, Charles and Camilla had laid wreaths at the Australian War Memorial then shook hands with well-wishers on the second full day of their visit.
The memorial estimated 4,000 people had turned out to see the couple.
Charles, 75, is being treated for cancer, which has led to a scaled-down itinerary. It is Charles’ 17th trip to Australia and the first since he became king in 2022. It is the first visit to Australia by a reigning British monarch since his late mother Queen Elizabeth II traveled to the distant nation in 2011.
Charles and Camilla rested the day after their arrival late Friday before making their first public appearance of the trip at a church service in Sydney on Sunday. They then flew to Canberra where they visited the Tomb of the Unknown Australian Soldier and a reception at Parliament House.
Before leaving the war memorial, they stopped to greet hundreds of people who gathered under clear skies flying Australian flags. The temperature was forecast to reach a mild high of 24 degrees Celsius (75 degrees Fahrenheit).
On Wednesday, Charles will travel to Samoa, where he will open the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.
Royal supporters with greeting plate card to at Australian War Memorial to welcome Britain's King Charles and Queen Camilla visit in Canberra, Australia, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Baker, Pool)
Britain's King Charles III, center left, and Queen Camilla, center right, arrive to lay a wreath at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, Australia, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (Brook Mitchell/Pool Photo via AP)
King Charles III and Queen Camilla arrive at the Australian War Memorial accompanied by Australian War Memorial Council Chair Kim Beazley, left, in Canberra, Australia, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (Brook Mitchell/ Pool Photo via AP)
Kim Beazley, third left, chair of Australian War Memorial Council, meets Britain's King Charles III, center, on the king's arrival with Queen Camilla, partially seen at rear center, in Canberra, Australia, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024.
Kim Beazley, third left, chair of Australian War Memorial Council, meets Britain's King Charles III, center, on the king's arrival with Queen Camilla, partially seen at rear center, in Canberra, Australia, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024.
Kim Beazley, third left, chair of Australian War Memorial Council, meets Britain's King Charles III, right, on the king's arrival with Queen Camilla in Canberra, Australia, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024.
Britain's King Charles III, center, and Queen Camilla arrive at Defense Establishment Fairbairn in Canberra, Australia, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (Saeed Khan/Pool Photo via AP)
Australia's Governor-General Sam Mostyn, right, escorts Britain's King Charles III, front center, and Queen Camilla as they arrive at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Baker, Pool)
Britain's King Charles III, right, and Queen Camilla, center, receive flowers after arriving at Defense Establishment Fairbairn in Canberra, Australia, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (Saeed Khan/Pool Photo via AP)
Britain's King Charles III, tight, chat with owner of alpaca before leave the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Baker, Pool)
King Charles III and Queen Camilla arrive at the Australian War Memorial accompanied by Australian War Memorial Council Chair Kim Beazley, left, in Canberra, Australia, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (Brook Mitchell/Pool Photo via AP)
Britain's King Charles III, and Queen Camilla chats with public before they leave the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Baker, Pool)
