Miami Marlins: Giancarlo Stanton, A Nation Turns Its Lonely Eyes to You
I don’t know about you, but I’ve sort of felt cheated for the last couple of seasons by the inability of Giancarlo Stanton to stay on the field. And actually, he made matters worse at the All-Star Game in San Diego when put on one of the most impressive displays in the event’s history, crushing 61 home runs over three rounds. A whopping 38 of them traveled 440 feet or farther, a power display of epic proportions. Where have you gone, Giancarlo? A nation turns its lonely eyes to you…
Maybe it’s just the name that gets me, G-i-a-n-c-a-r-l-o Stanton, which sort of has a nice ring to it, like Joe DiMaggio. Or maybe it’s just that he looks so good standing at the plate, so big and strong and ready to leap tall buildings in a single bound. But whatever it is, fans of baseball everywhere should be hoping that Giancarlo Stanton can stay healthy, if only for the single reason that we would get to see the numbers he’d put up over 162 games in the prime of his career.
Baseball Reference averages a player’s career numbers over a 162-game season. However, Stanton’s statistics to this point don’t seem to do him justice. 41 home runs and 106 RBI are what he warrants over 162 games. And this is for a guy who hit 61 bombs in 30 minutes during the Home Run Derby in July.
“If Only He Can Stay Healthy…”
“If only he can stay healthy” has become the mantra whenever Giancarlo Stanton’s name comes up in conversations about baseball. And if it’s not that, then it’s about the $325 million backloaded contract that is on the books. A contract that says, according to ESPN, that “if Giancarlo Stanton opts out of his new 13-year, $325 million contract with the Miami Marlins after the first six seasons, he’ll be walking away from a staggering $218 million over the final seven seasons”. And that’s because he gave the Marlins a hometown discount for the first three years at $10 million per season.
So yes, of course it’s always about money. But it’s about more than that, too. Because Giancarlo Stanton at least gives the impression that he would indeed opt out of that contract, but not for the opportunity to test the market for more money as many players might do. Instead, if things keep going the way they have for him and his injury-riddled body, he would opt out to take less money because that would be the fair thing to do. After all, anything is possible.
Injuries: The Bane of All Athletes
The really good news, though, is that he just turned 27 in November. And there’s still plenty of time left for Giancarlo Stanton. But we also know that injuries are the bane of all athletes, and they can reduce them to mere mortals in a split second.
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We know this because we’ve seen it in baseball before. Herb Score, for instance, was the American League Rookie of the Year in 1955, when he had a 16-10 record, 2.85 earned run average and 245 strikeouts, tops in the major leagues and a record for a rookie that stood for 29 years. He went 20-9 in 1956 with a 2.53 ERA and was again the strikeout leader with 263.
And then on May 7, 1957, the New York Times wrote that “Score was pitching against the Yankees at Cleveland’s Municipal Stadium. The second batter to face him, shortstop Gil McDougald, drilled a low pitch on a line right back at him. The baseball struck Score in the face, knocking him down and sending blood streaming from his right eye, nose and mouth.” He would win only seven more games over the next five years before quitting the game.
Or, we can imagine the numbers that Ken Griffey Jr. would have put up if he didn’t have a tendency to run into walls making spectacular catches in the outfield. Or what the final numbers for Mickey Mantle would have been if he hadn’t caught a spike in a rubber drain at Yankee Stadium during the 1951 World Series, severely damaging his knee on a ball that the aging DiMaggio should have caught.
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But by the same token, being labeled “injury prone” is one of the worst tags that can be applied to a ballplayer. So far, injuries have followed Giancarlo Stanton throughout his career. And while it would come as no surprise if the pattern continues for Stanton, it sure would be a good thing if the pattern could be negated, if only for just even one season, so fans of baseball could watch and enjoy Giancarlo Stanton doing what he was born to do.