For the New York Yankees, Giancarlo Stanton spent much of the 2020 season on the IL with a hamstring injury, when he came back into the lineup during a Blue Jays game on September 15th. On the 16th, Stanton went 4 for 4, including a home run and a double. He ended the season playing in only 24 games but hit 11 home runs. Now he has hit a home run in each of his last four games, including one in each of the postseason games. Last night he hit a Grand Slam helping the Yankees to a huge win in game one of the ALDS.
Giancarlo Stanton is hot right now and hitting the ball as he did in his 2017 MVP season. This all started when returning from the IL; he had better plate discipline and cut down on the strikeouts. He is presently batting .286 with seven RBI’s in the postseason games. If he keeps on playing as he is now, could Giancarlo Stanton have the bat that powers the New York Yankees to a 28th World Championship?
The Baseball superstar Giancarlo Stanton
Like many New York Yankees players, some we know and some we don’t know about their private lives. Stanton is no different, but here is what we do know. He is liked by many Yankees fans because he is a great player and disliked by many because he makes so much money, is frequently injured, and doesn’t always hit the ball.
His early life in California
But back to his early life. He was born to Michael Stanton and Jacinta Garay in Los Angeles, California, on November 8, 1989. He has an older brother and older sister. He was brought up in the Sunland-Tujunga area of Los Angels near the San Gabriel Mountain’s foothills.
In Stanton’s mind as a child, he didn’t care for his given name. Friends called him Carlo or Gene; his Mother called him Cruz (his middle name), although she wanted to name him Fidel, the Father objected. So Giancarlo decided he wanted to be called Mike from now on, and so it was until 2012 when he reinstated his preference for his real name Giancarlo. Stanton is of Irish African American descent, although his mother had Puerto Rican ancestry.
The future Yankee Giancarlo was a dominant player in just about every youth league sport he tried, including football. He continued playing sports after enrolling at Verdugo Hills High in Tujunga in 2003. He pitched and played the outfield for the varsity baseball squad. In 2005, as a sophomore, he hit a game-winning homer for the Dons in the city’s quarterfinals.
Unfortunately, Giancarlo’s grades were not measuring up to his stats. His parents, in the process of a divorce, switched him to a private school, Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, about 30 minutes away. Almost immediately, Giancarlo began coming into his own, both on and off the field. As he approached his final height of 6’6″ and packed on more muscle, few doubted he would make a living in sports. The only question was, which sport? He had accepted a scholarship to play baseball for Tulane and received offers from UCLA, UNLV, and USC to play football.
Stanton selected by the Miami Marlins
In 2007 when selected by the Miami Marlins in the second round of the draft, he was happy to receive a half-million signing bonus. He was again considering the Miami location, glad that he was not named Fidel. In 2008, Giancarlo spent the entire season with the Greensboro Grasshoppers of the Class-A South Atlantic League. Playing for manager Edwin Rodriguez, he was just 18 when the season started, but he torched enemy pitchers for 39 homers in 125 games. Giancarlo followed up his first campaign in pro ball with an outstanding 2009 season, as he moved steadily up the organizational ladder.
He spent 50 games with the Jupiter Hammerheads and hit .291 with 12 homers. Giancarlo started the 2010 season back in Jacksonville. That May, in a game against the Montgomery Biscuits, he hit a ball that cleared the scoreboard in left-centerfield later to be found to have gone 500′ from home plate. A month later, Giancarlo had surpassed 20 homers in just over 50 games. He got the call from the big club and was in the lineup at age 20 on June 8 against the Philadelphia Phillies with a $325 million contract.
In Stanton’s first major league game, he went 3 for 5 with two RBI’s. He continued to have success after success and award after award: two Silver Sluggers, two Hank Aarons, two home run Leaders, four All-stars, until he reached the MVP of the National League in 2017.
Giancarlo Stanton becomes a New York Yankee.
After the 2017 season, the Marlins dumped salary, Giancarlo Stanton was traded to the New York Yankees after a 59 home run season. The trade was for cash considerations, and the Marlins got Starlin Castro and minor leaguers. In 2018 he made his New York Yankees debut hitting two homers in his first game. He ended up the year with 38 homers and 100 RBI’s. Although he carried the team during Judge’s injuries and others, many fans criticized him for his team-leading 211 strikeouts.
On April 1, 2019, in a cruel April fool’s joke, placed him on the 10 days IL with a bicep strain. He returned to the lineup on June 20 to go back on the IL seven days later with a knee injury that limited him to just nine days on the playing field last season. With the Yankees unrelenting injuries last year and the departure to the IL of Hicks, Tauchman, and Encarnacion, the Yankees looked forward to returning to the outfield. Manager Aaron Boone is hoping Giancarlo can have a big impact on the postseason. He came back to play in nine games in September, but then went back on the IL.
Stanton came back from a knee ailment in time to play in the ALDS against the Minnesota Twins. He wasn’t much help as in three games, he hit .167 with no home runs and only 1 RBI. Stanton suffered a right quad injury during Game 1 of the ALCS against the Astros while running out a single in the second inning. He hit a home run in the sixth during the Yankees’ 7–0 win before the club realized after the game he was injured.
During spring training, Stanton played in only one game before going on the IL with a calf strain. He was expected to miss the start of the regular season, but when the start of the season was held back, the coronavirus Stanton was given the time to heal. After an August 8th game at Tropicana Field, he came down with a hamstring injury, keeping him away from the field until September 15th. Now that he’s back, he’s hot and eager to get a World Series ring and a win for the Yankees.
Giancarlo’s personals:
As I have said before, Stanton’s private life is pretty private he is not married but has been attached to several beautiful women over the years. He supposedly has a main squeeze right now, but it is doubtfully not the only one based on the previous history. On the lighter side, women know and appreciate Stanton as a sex symbol. In 2013 he posed gold clad and nude for ESPN’s body issue, something Bryce Harper of the then Nationals, Rob Gronkowski of the Patriots, among others, have done as well. Other than that, there are no scandals attached to his name.
Last year in September, he was featured as the love interest in singing star Lexy Panterra’s “Deep End” video. However, the star says they are just good friends. As if for now, the media beam is pondering the strong rumors of him dating a brunette beauty, Terez Owens. Owens is a model and sports blogger.
EmpireSportsMedia’s Columnist William Parlee is a member of the Society for American Baseball Research. Follow me on Twitter @parleewilliam