The last time I spoke to Dennis Braun, who was Pete Alonso's coach at Plant High in Tampa, Fla., was six weeks ago. Alonso had just hit his 37th home run. At that point in the season, he had the same number of home runs as Cody Bellinger, was two behind Christian Yelich, and one behind Mike Trout. The last thing Braun said to me that day was this:

“Call me back when he gets to 50.”

So I called Coach Braun back on Saturday morning, because Alonso -- a rookie who continues to be the biggest home run story in another home run season in baseball -- hit No. 50 on Friday night against the Reds. He hit a pitch that was a little bit low and a little off the outside corner “into the night,” which is how Mets broadcaster Gary Cohen described it in his call on SNY. Alonso hit it just right -- with a compact swing and without much follow-through -- with two strikes on him, and with as much power as anyone right now in Major League Baseball.

“People can’t hit that pitch out,” Braun said.

He paused, then said, “I know I coached him. But to me, this kid is the most remarkable thing happening in baseball.”

Then, Braun said this: “I never felt like he wouldn’t hit in the big leagues. This kid has hit at every level. Sometimes the only reason guys like Pete stop hitting is because people start messing with them. But no one did -- and he just kept going. He started hitting home runs in A ball [for Port St. Lucie] and he hasn’t stopped yet.

“There [are] so many things that could have gone wrong this season. There was so much going on around him. He won a million bucks for the Home Run Derby. He’s in New York. But nothing changes with him. [He has the] same mindset he’s always had: He just keeps going. I know people will be satisfied making him Rookie of the Year. But I don’t see how you can leave him out of the MVP conversation -- especially with what the Mets have done since the All-Star break.”

Alonso hasn’t lifted the Mets alone, especially over the past two months. But he is the one who has been the game-changer at Citi Field. He has become the Mets’ star, while developing into a team leader along the way. It is worth mentioning again that Alonso has changed the way people look at and feel about his team -- the same way Mike Piazza did when he became a Met two decades ago and started hitting home runs into the night.

Just not like this kid.

Another thing Braun told me when we spoke early in August was that he honestly thought Alonso could hit 55 homers this season and break Aaron Judge’s all-time rookie record of 52. The Plant High School coach wasn’t backing off that prediction on Saturday morning.

“Is it crazy to think he might see some weaker pitching over the next nine days?” Braun said. “They’ve got the Marlins after they play the Reds. The Braves just clinched.” He laughed and said, “Just sayin.’”

Bellinger is the likely MVP in the National League. He came out of Friday night’s games hitting nearly 40 points higher than Alonso, and has an OPS of 1.038 to Alonso’s .959. His slugging percentage is .630 to Alonso’s .593. But Alonso has five more home runs, five more RBIs, plus less talent surrounding him in New York than Bellinger does on the other coast. We can always go back and forth about whether we are talking about the "most valuable" player or simply the "best" player when it is time to give out these awards. Voters will have to ask themselves the same questions about what the great Trout did for a bad team this season and what Alex Bregman has done for the Astros, the best team in the Majors right now.

But no player in baseball, not one, has been more valuable than Alonso has been to the New York Mets. Judge played in 27 games for the Yankees the season before he hit his 52 home runs in 2017. He even hit his first four home runs during that brief stretch. The first official pitches Alonso saw in the big leagues came from Max Scherzer on Opening Day in March.

Alonso really has become his team’s leader along the way. On the 18th anniversary of 9/11, he gave custom-made cleats to every one of his Mets teammates -- which was his way of honoring the victims of 9/11, their families, and first responders. He didn’t ask for permission to do it. He just did it. It was the best swing of a season filled with them.

“I told him after that,” said Braun, “that of all the records he’s setting and breaking, those shoes were the most impressive thing he’s done all season.”

Braun will travel to New York next weekend to catch a Mets-Braves game. He said he never misses a Plant High practice or game, but he is making an exception because these are special circumstances.

“It’s that type of year,” he said. “I’m running out of things to say about the kid -- and you guys must be running out of things to write.”

Maybe not yet.

“Call me when he gets to 55,” said Braun.