Kyle Goon: Orioles slugger Pete Alonso seeks a deeper connection to Baltimore. It’s not just for show.

Technically, Pete Alonso chose his walk-up song this season — “BIRDS” by Baltimore hardcore band Turnstile. But on his first day as an Oriole, it felt like the song chose him.

He had just finished his physical, sealing the deal on his five-year, $155 million contract with the Orioles. Alonso is a Scott Boras client, and someone at the agency who had worked in music pulled some strings to set up a special guest to his hotel: Pat McCrory, the guitarist from Turnstile, was among the first to welcome Alonso to Charm City.

“He came to the hotel just to say congrats and welcome,” Alonso said. “It was really cool.”

It’s not unique how a city like Baltimore — a perennial underdog along the mid-Atlantic — tries to put on its best face to welcome a five-time All-Star like Alonso. Snatching the Polar Bear from the New York Mets — one of the biggest free agents the Orioles have signed in years — had longtime fans celebrating this offseason.

Though Alonso (whose batting average is hovering uncomfortably close to .200) is still looking to produce on the field so far in his Baltimore tenure, his mere presence in the lineup gives this Orioles group considerably more star power at the plate.

What is more rare is that a star like Alonso works so hard to incorporate Baltimore into his image. From his walk-up nod to Turnstile, to the Duck Camp blue crab hat he wore to the BARCS animal shelter, to simply being so vocal about the many things he has come to love about his new team and new home in such a short amount of time, he’s trying to show his allegiance.

“It’s a way to show that I’m proud of representing not just the Orioles, but the city of Baltimore and pretty much like the whole state of Maryland,” he told me recently. “Really, really proud to be a part of it.”

The Tampa native is amassing a Maryland bucket list: Learn to properly pick a crab. Go fishing on the Chesapeake Bay (he has a boat back in Tampa). Watch Army-Navy live. Watch Preakness live (but probably not until baseball is over, given that it happens during the season).

It might feel a bit cliché to outsiders, but it’s not often that high-profile athletes — even the ones who play in Baltimore — embrace the city quite as much as Alonso is trying to. And according to former Orioles manager Buck Showalter, who managed Alonso with the Mets, it’s not fake, either.

“It didn’t surprise me like it did a lot of people that Pete picked Baltimore,” Showalter said. “It’s a great fit for Baltimore and the city. They look for sincere people. A phony gets exposed in a hurry.”

While his bat has been unusually cool this spring, Alonso has helped flash his effort in an unexpected way: with his defense. With dives, tough digs and leaping catches, Alonso is among the MLB’s top five first basemen in Outs Above Average so far this season — a somewhat unexpected bonus for a man who is best known for slugging homers.

His workmanlike attitude helped him become a beloved Met, but while he and his wife Haley loved their time in Manhattan, the shift to Baltimore has been welcome in other ways.

At one of his early dinners in Baltimore with Haley and his infant son Teddy, he saw some fans approaching out of the corner of his eye. Photo seekers, he thought — a regular part of his life as a multimillion-dollar athlete living in the Big Apple.

To his surprise, the fans asked for nothing but to say a few words. In Alonso’s retelling: Hey, we saw you’re with your wife and son. We respect that, but we’re big-time O’s fans and wanted to say welcome to town. Have a great night, and congratulations on the little one.

“I mean, beyond respectful,” Alonso said. “I was really kind of taken aback by that. It’s really special, because not only do they view you as a representative of the city, but also, outside of the stadium, when the jersey comes off, they’re like, ‘Yeah, this is a real human being who’s a part of the community.’”

Alonso was never miscast in New York, Showalter said, and indeed he thrived there once he learned to live with Queens crowds willing to boo their own players. Alonso adapted a mentality: If they’re booing me, it’s up to me to give them something to embrace.

That mentality has carried over in Baltimore, too, as he looks to make the star turn the Orioles expected when they signed him. I spoke to Alonso in the visiting locker room in Cleveland after a four-strikeout night, a Golden Sombrero. He acknowledged frustration with his struggles at the plate, and among the biggest motivators is to repay the warm reception he first got when he signed with the Orioles.

“All I wanna do is just play to the best of my ability to help get this team to the playoffs and win a championship,” he said. “That’s my goal every single day, because for me, there’s just nothing but pride and appreciation for this team, and every night, win or lose, it’s always like, ‘OK, how can we win tomorrow?’”

Showalter noted that Alonso never had big city appetites. Especially as he starts a family, the merits of finding a spot to settle down had increasing appeal.

“I said, ‘You’re gonna love the fans there,’” Showalter said. “They just want the Orioles to be good. There’s not a lot of pretense about how big your house is or what kind of car you drive.”

Showalter was one of the people who told Alonso to find ways to show investment in Baltimore, that he should make good-faith attempts to integrate into Maryland culture. Showalter himself still owns a home near Annapolis, and he used to have a PowerPoint for incoming players on Baltimore accent pronunciations of “Oreos” and “Warshington.”

(No word from Showalter if he gave any accent tips to Pete.)

For Alonso, his growing family may shape his approach. When Teddy was born last October, it changed the way Alonso thought about where he lived and worked. He started envisioning what it would be like to watch Teddy grow up around the ballpark. Some of the things the Alonso family has done so far are kid-friendly, like going to the National Aquarium together.

After the Orioles’ home opening win against Minnesota in March, Alonso took Teddy out to the field and laid him on his tummy on the grass. Then he held him in his arms and looked out at the skyline as the amber sunset trickled into Camden Yards.

His connection to this city is more than just a walk-up song, or a crab on a hat. Baltimore is where his kid will grow up.

As much as any one thing, Alonso is excited about that.

“I kept thinking to myself, ‘When he gets older, he’s gonna take his first swings in these batting cages and run the bases here,’” Alonso said. “In the moment where it’s like just walking around the field … it’s pretty surreal thinking about it.”