Stanton’s Power Reverberates Throughout Baseball

SAN DIEGO—It has been about 18 hours since Giancarlo Stanton turned Petco Park into a bandbox, and America’s eighth-largest city is still buzzing.

“Were you there?” the man at the local café asks the stranger in line behind him. It swells into a group discussion, women and children included, about who was there and where they were sitting.

“Stanton, man” says the sportswriter standing in the lobby of the Hilton Bayfront, shaking his head slowly.

“I want to be like Stanton!” the little boy exclaims as swings an invisible bat in the air while he walks with his family along the embarcadero.

That’s the true power of what Giancarlo Stanton did last night in the All-Star Game Home Run Derby. The chiseled 6-foot-6, 245-pound behemoth who lasted until the 76th pick of the 2007 draft—right after Denny Almonte and just ahead of Scott Moviel—changed what was thought to be possible in this post-steroid era, and enthralled even the most casual baseball fan.

“Taking the flight out here just for this,” Stanton told reporters afterward with his home run derby championship trophy sitting in front of him, “I figure it’s a waste if I don’t bring this bad boy home.”

Stanton’s 61 home runs were a derby record. Twenty of the 21 farthest-hit balls on the night were his. That doesn’t even include the batting practice shot that cleared the Western Metal Supply Co. building in left field.

With each of Stanton’s swings, the 50,000 fans jammed into Petco Park gasped and awed simultaneuously. With each crack of the bat, the “ohs” and “wows” got louder and louder, to the point they could be heard all emanating from the stadium on cue by the passersby, as recalled by the traffic cops stationed outside the park along adjacent streets.

The opposing contestants themselves were part of the ooing and ahing.

“He was hitting moonshots,” said Todd Frazier, the derby runner-up. “I thought I was a high school hitter compared to him hitting them that far.”

That Stanton is the one who did this, searing a collective memory into the conscience of an entire city with his power, was a possibility some saw coming as he made his way through the minors.

His first pro scouting report, in 2007, notes Stanton “hit a couple of homers that traveled close to 500 feet in a postseason minicamp, reminding some of a young Pat Burrell. Others saw Dave Winfield in his loose setup and swing.”

The Winfield comparison showed up again in Stanton’s 2008 scouting report, with a line about how Stanton “showed regular light-tower power, prompting comparisons to a young Dave Winfield.”

His 2009 scouting report, his final one before reaching the majors for good, notes the Marlins refused to include Stanton in a proposed trade for Manny Ramirez, and once again the Winfield comparison showed up.

The machine being used to measure these HR's is way off! No way in heck some of these Giancarlo shots aren't 500+ feet! #HRDerby #justsaying

— Junie Melendez (@juniemelendez) July 12, 2016

Opposing managers saw the same thing. Stanton was ranked the top power prospect by league managers in the South Atlantic League in 2008, both the Florida State League and Southern League in 2009, and in the Southern League again in 2010.

Now, he’s been named the top power hitter in the National League multiple times, become the game’s highest-paid player, and the man with a home run derby performance that shook an entire city.

“I grew up watching this,” Stanton said. “That’s where you built it up, childhood memories. Now I will have kids saying the same thing. They watched me do this. I like to return the favor.”

In all fairness to everybody else they aren't losing to a mortal man

— Christian Yelich (@ChristianYelich) July 12, 2016