Today isn’t just any day — it’s Pete Alonso’s birthday.

The New York Mets’ single-season home run king turns 26 on Monday. Birthdays are a great time to reflect on what changed and how one has grown over the past year, and it’s likely that Alonso has a lot to reflect on despite only playing 60 games in 2020.

Although most of the season didn’t go how he wished (from both a team and personal aspect), the first baseman got hot over the final week and finished with a flurry. It had to make him feel good after a frustrating couple months, along with it being a nice confidence boost heading into the winter.

Some projection systems are already out and predicting the type of production many would expect from the Polar Bear. We’re not here to talk about next year, though. This is going to be an appreciation post, and what better way to do that than to take a trip down memory lane and remember his five longest homers (so far).

September 27th, 2020 vs. Washington Nationals: 456 feet

As mentioned before, Alonso saved his biggest hot streak for the end of 2020, which was highlighted by this bomb during the season finale. It was not only his furthest dinger of the shortened season, but it was also the only one that traveled 450-plus feet. And with an exit velocity of 114.3 mph, it was Alonso’s fourth-hardest base hit of the year.

From the perspective of wRC+, his single-game wRC+ of 579 was tied for his third-best mark of the season. It was his third two-homer game in about six weeks, and he also included a double, three RBI, and two runs scored.

June 15, 2019 vs. St. Louis Cardinals: 458 feet

Alonso actually hit this homer off Michael Wacha. Do you think he mentioned it to him at all while they were teammates this past season? I mean, it had to have come up in conversation at least once.

This was one of eight different occasions where Alonso sent a baseball at least 450 feet during his stellar rookie season. What makes this particular dinger different from the rest we’ll discuss here is it’s the only one that came off a changeup. The 85.1 mph speed at which Wacha tossed the pitch was the slowest, and this was the only one Alonso hit at Citi Field.

It’s ironic that Alonso went deep to this magnitude on June 15th, a date that usually holds a dark place in the heart of many Mets fans. However, the first baseman was just trying to add to the good memories from this particular date. Even if it’ll never erase the bad stuff that happened.

May 7, 2019 vs. San Diego Padres: 462 feet

You know you’ve hit a bomb when it bounces off the warehouse at Petco Park. I also think Alonso’s bat flip went as high as the ball while it was in mid-flight. But seriously, Adam Warren needed to get that 91.9 mph fastball in just a smidge more if he wanted any hope of keeping him in the ballpark.

To hit 53 homers in a single season, a hitter must be on target for most of the year, and Alonso was. He hit at least nine homers in a month in four of his six opportunities during 2019. May is the one that stands above the rest, though, as his .354 ISO and 10 homers from that month were the most of any during his National League Rookie of the Year campaign.

September 17, 2019 vs. Colorado Rockies: 467 feet

Ah, yes…the ol’ “get me over” fastball on a 3-0 count. Alonso had the green light, and when you see an 89.6 mph fastball literally right down the heart of the plate, it’s hard to resist. Thankfully, he made swinging worth it by hitting this titanic shot out to straightaway center field. Sure, this happened at Coors Field, but still, it was an absolute bomb.

While Alonso had already broken the Mets’ single-season home run record before the calendar even flipped to September, he entered the regular season’s final month with plenty of work to do. In order to catch Aaron Judge‘s then-rookie-record 52 homers, he had to slug 11 more down the stretch, which would’ve been his highest monthly total of 2019.

Obviously, he rose to the occasion and accomplished exactly that.

July 17, 2019 vs. Minnesota Twins: 489 feet

Last, but most certainly not least, a homer that likely hasn’t landed yet. Seeing it labeled at 489 feet actually surprised me because I’ve always thought it was 474 feet. Statcast doesn’t lie, though, and either way, this homer is the longest one of Alonso’s career so far.

Racking up a 110.9 mph exit velocity here makes it a clean sweep, too — each of these five homers traveled at least 110 mph off the bat. When Alonso gets a hold of one, people in the stands should probably just get out of the way. It was also extra majestic with a 30-degree launch angle.

July was actually Alonso’s worst month of the 2019 season. He produced just a 104 wRC+ to go along with a .177/.333/.430 in 99 plate appearances. Did he have some trouble adjusting back to regular baseball after winning the Home Run Derby? Maybe, but even if that was the case, he still added six homers to his ledger and got back to normal by the time August rolled around.