(This story originally appeared in the April 2021 edition of Yankees Magazine.)
Man is Giancarlo Stanton fascinating. He’s always going to be a lightning rod for Yankees fans, partly because of his stances on issues such as Black Lives Matter, his decision to kneel for the national anthem at times in 2020 and for the fact that some fans are just ignorant. I think a huge part of it, though, is that he makes home runs look so easy that fans forget to marvel at what he does do rather than gripe about what he doesn’t do.
In the 2020 postseason, despite the upsetting ending for Yankees fans, Stanton was a monster. This story, which I wrote during the offseason, focused on that remarkable performance in the spotlight, but I also looked at the ways that Stanton found his voice during the difficult summer of 2020. A guy who preferred to keep quiet and speak with his bat for his first few years in pinstripes, suddenly Stanton was speaking out about racial injustice, using his megaphone to force people to reckon with the Black experience in America. It was a remarkable turnaround, and as impressive to watch as it was frustrating to know all the reasons that it was necessary.
I doubt that Stanton unburdening himself of all that he has dealt with is the reason that he spent 2021 hitting the absolute cover off the ball — likely, that happened because Stanton has always been an extraordinary batter, almost assuredly the hardest hitter in MLB history. But it’s nice to see a player find his voice.
This was an incredibly racially charged story, one I was nervous was going to be killed by some higher-up before it could be published. We did get a letter in response; it didn’t mention Stanton by name, but it was addressed to Yankees Magazine, and it said that the writer wanted to cancel his subscription because some ungrateful players don’t respect this country or the fans who love America. I’m just guessing it was about this story, and not about, say, Whitey Ford. Oh well. We won’t miss that reader. But for the people who look to players such as Giancarlo Stanton to learn more about experiences they will never have, I’m grateful I got to write this, grateful it got published, and grateful that Stanton seems to have found a peace that he was seeking.