Mets first baseman Pete Alonso was in a "brutal" car accident in March while he was on his way to spring training. He did not suffer any major physical injury, but he recently admitted he is still experiencing "pretty bad PTSD" from it.
"A big accident like that, when it happens to you, I don't care who you are, it's not easy," he wrote Wednesday's for the Players' Tribune. "No matter how strong you might think you are, it can still be rough in a lot of different ways. I'm still dealing with some pretty bad PTSD from it, to be completely honest with you."
Alonso was driving his Ford pickup truck in Tampa when another driver ran a red light at an intersection. Alonso had left his nearby house just five minutes before the incident. The driver T-boned the player's vehicle at a high speed, which caused it to flip three times.
Alonso's wife, who has following him in a separate car, shared details about the accident the following day and said he fortunately came out with just a single scratch on his arm.
"It was horrifying. Just really scary," Alonso wrote in the Players' Tribune. "And you know how sometimes people say time slows down when something like that happens? Like how everything moves in slow motion? Well … that definitely was not my experience. This was something that happened fast.
"It was like everything was moving at a million miles an hour. And in those moments when my truck was flipping over and over, I thought that was going to be it. In my head, I was like, Alright, that's it. It's over for me. I'm done. The end."
Alonso added that he felt fortunate that we was able to recognized the impact the incident had on his mind, and that he has been leaning on those close to him to help him deal with the PTSD for the last several months. Realistically, he is aware that this isn't going to fade away anytime soon, but he said the focus now is just to be the best person he can be.
"I'm just extremely grateful that I'm still here. I'm truly blessed," Alonso wrote. "And from here on out, I really want to continue to do good things and have a positive impact on others. After the accident, it's not just about having survived, it really is about making the most of all the time that I have left."