Alex Bregman Didn’t Steal the All-Star Game MVP Award (or the Car He Sweetly Gave Mom): New Mexico’s Beyonce Earned Every Bit of His Magic Night — Sorry Seattle

Alex Bregman is the best kind of baseball story — no matter what anyone in Seattle tries to sell you on. Bregman did not steal that Camaro SS Coupe he sweetly gave to his mom on national TV. The Astros young star earned it by doing what he always seems to do: Come up big in the clutchest of moments against an all-star caliber pitcher.

Bregman is the wildcard that beats aces.

Yes, Seattle shortstop Jean Segura hit a three-run homer and scored twice in this All Home Run MLB All-Star Game — and Mariners fans (already irate that they cannot catch the Astros in the American League West standings) are outraged that Bregman took home the game’s MVP trophy (one that came with that car). But screaming that Segura got snubbed misses a larger point.

Alexander David Bregman somehow came through again — and conjured up another piece of big stage magic.

Bregman’s 10th inning home run gave the American League the lead for good in this eventual 8-6 game. He delivered in the single biggest moment of the night just like he did when he muscled that cutter into left field for that 10th inning walkoff in the wildest World Series Game ever, just like he did when he took Red Sox super ace Chris Sale deep over the Green Monster to tie the game that pushed the Astros into the American League Championship Series.

Alex Bregman is the type of guy who’d whistle while skydiving. Things that make ordinary men nervous just don’t seem to bother him. Situations that render even baseball’s biggest stars sweaty palmed somehow don’t seem to affect him.

The notion of a clutch player is often dismissed as fantastical thinking in today’s enlightened age of analytics. Many sabermetrics devotees will tell you the idea of clutch hitting is a “mirage.”

Well, someone better start studying a gym rat of a baseball player who does his work in Houston, soon. Because at this rate, Alex Bregman is going to turn into a hologram or something.

The Fox cameras catch Astros manager A.J. Hinch in the dugout, simply saying, “Breg got him” in the wake of the game-shifting home run. Hinch already sounds like he is used to his 24-year-old third baseman doing stuff like this.

“(Bregman) deserves it,” Astros center fielder George Springer tells Fox later. “He works hard for it. I’m happy for him.”

The All-Star MVP Debate

If anything Springer has just as much of a right to claim the All-Star Game MVP over Bregman as Segura. After all, the reigning World Series MVP hits a home run of his own right after Bregman and finishes with two hits and two runs scored himself. But Springer knows. The moment matters — and Bregman grabbed this moment in Washington D.C., in a ballpark just 3.5 miles from the White House.

Bregman’s dad grew up in the area and there is a treasured family photo of the elder Bregman sitting on Ted Williams’ lap in the days of the Washington Senators. But it is in New Mexico where the budding mini legend of Alex Bregman resonates loudest. This is where Alex Bregman grew into a top prospect — and the love for him is real and surprisingly frenzied throughout the state.

If you think Bregman is big in Houston, you should see him in the Land of Enchantment.

When my family went to Santa Fe for a spring break trip, we found ourselves stopped at almost every shop we entered the day my baseball-playing oldest son happened to wear a Bregman Astros shirt. From The Shop A Christmas Store, where the older couple who owned it spent 10 minutes talking about what “a nice young man” Bregman is, to red chile haven The Shed, where the lines are long and the opportunities to chat plentiful, everyone wanted to talk (and talk) about the Astros No. 2.

It was like being transported into a world where Alex Bregman is Beyonce.

“It’s unbelievable,” Bregman tells PaperCity of his rabid home state support. “It’s a blue collar place, a hard working community, and I’m proud to be from there. They’re proud to have me come from New Mexico. We’re proud of each other.”

Proud of each other. Few professional athletes would put it like that. Then again, that’s probably part of why Alex Bregman is Alex Bregman.

This is a guy who joked about using his relatively puny home runs to his advantage in a Home Run Derby that saw him going against massive sluggers. “My key is to going to be to hit them a little lower than the other guys so it lands sooner so I don’t have as much time to wait between swings,” Breman deadpans. “When they hit the far ones,  they have to wait till it goes down. Mine’s just going to go to the front row, so I have more time.”

Then, Bregman goes out and almost steals the show in the Derby by losing by one in the first round when his last home run attempt just hits off the wall, inches from landing in the front row. Is it any surprise this guy gave his mom the Camaro?

This is a guy who still chooses to live in Albuquerque in the offseason. “It’s always good to hear from people in New Mexico,” Bregman says. “That’s home. I love Albuquerque.”

The rest of the baseball loving country is starting to catch on to what seemingly every citizen of New Mexico already knows. This Bregman is more than some feel-good character. He’s a still rising star.

This All-Star Game MVP Award is no robbery. It’s an ascension.