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lookingthroughmirrors · 3 years

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I’m Not A Serial Killer - Chapter 1

Alex Centric - Willex & Jukebox

His dad was never there to cheer him on, his Mum was never there to wipe away the tears. There’s always been something about him that was just never enough, he was never enough. Not for the perfect family, not for their image, not for anyone it seemed.

‘I’m sorry I can’t be perfect’

Everything had been going downhill since the second he woke up. It spiraled until he wound up barely coherent in an alley that looked like it had walked straight out of a horror movie. He doesn’t remember much except for the yelling, and the pain. HOMELESS seems to flash like a neon sign above his head, maybe luck is why Julie chose to walk home through there but he’s not about to jinx the only good that came from the day.

AO3 Link

~~~~~~~ Chapter 1 ~~~~~~~~~~

Julie kicks a pebble and watches as it rolls along the pavement, the sun shining down harshly causing a bead of sweat to roll down her face. Normally she’d be in school but with the heat wave it was decided to have school break early so there isn’t a risk of heat stroke. Julie’s dad is stuck at a shoot and was unable to cancel when she called him to make sure he knew she wasn't skipping. Adorning sunglasses she strolls happily down the street despite the heat. Not paying attention she rams straight into somebody hitting the deck with a solid thud. “Shit, wait-er sorry?” the person she collided with rambles slightly frantic.

Looking up she met with a boy her own age grasping a helmet in one hand and an old, slightly dingy looking skateboard in the other. Dropping the helmet he extends his hand out and she takes it with an appreciative smile hoping she doesn’t look too pissed. His wrist is adorned with multiple cord bracelets complementing his darker skin tone, hair as long as her own cascading down his back as he effortlessly pulls her back up onto her feet. “Thanks um-” “Willie, I’m Willie” he introduces with a charming smile “Julie” “Sorry for running into you” he mutters sheepishly through a mischief filled lopsided grin.

“Don’t worry about it-shit, Flynn is going to kill me” she breaks off into a grumble forgetting about the guy that just flattened her scrambling to pick up the trashed sunnies. “Oh for fucks sake” she grumbles looking at the cracked lenses, one side of the frame snapped in half, a chuckle breaks through her mutterings and she whips round with a piercing glare. “Hate to break it to you but you can’t make me melt” the asshole continues to chuckle at her misfortune “ See ya Sunglasses” he calls cheerful getting the bird flipped in his direction, his laugh echoing as he skates off down the streets.

“Chivalry isn’t dead my ass” she grumbles, turning down an empty street only a few minutes away from her house, stopping short when a groan sounds in the desolate open street. A shriek escapes her mouth as she stumbles upon a boy her age looking half dead blood and dirt caking his body. He flinches at the sound but that doesn’t stop her from slowly approaching him, his eyes flickering open his gaze following her movements nervously. “Are you okay?” he lets a low groan at her words, clutching his rib tightly and she puts her hands out infront of her as she gets closer. “Will you let me help you?” Julie holds her breath realizing it after a few seconds pass and he gives her a jerky nod. Sliding an arm under his Julie helps him up, barely stumbling along as she tries to support most of his weight. It takes 10 minutes for her to stumble and limp to her house, knees nearly buckling under the other teens weight. Julie glances at the barely conscious teen with a huff “Here’s to hoping you’re not a serial killer” she mumble managing to get them inside the studio ignoring the wave of emotions that crash over her deciding to focus on the injured guy slumped over her lounge.

Since mystery boy is decidedly not going anywhere she deems it safe to leave him for a minute to track down the first-aid kit stashed somewhere. The only sound is Julie’s quietly muttered curses and the groaning from the injured boy every few seconds. Finally digging it up, it’s pretty trashy looking, washed out paint and a thick layer of dust making up the cover. Putting the case down and checking that he’s not dead she goes to get a bowl of water and a face towel. Coming back into the room she barely manages to skid to the side, nearly sending the bowl flying , as mystery boy barrels past emptying his stomach contents into the bin.

‘Mental note, get new bin for the studio’

“What is it with people and body slamming today?” she mutters with a roll of her eyes before her expression softens once again as she turns to the boy, arms hugging the bin close to his chest as dry heaves sounding in utterly pathetic. placing a gentle hand on the boy's shoulder, he still flinches but not as bad as before. “ L-lu-” the boys mumbles his hands shaking, “ R-reg-” filing the names away for later she bites her lip staring helplessly as he gets more frantic mumbling unintelligibly. Making a split second decision she drags her fingers through his hair and the tenseness seems to melt away.

She’s not sure how long they end up sitting there in the silence, tension melting away from the boy as more time passes. As the golden hue of the afternoon light starts to shine through the window the beaten up teen starts to become coherent, eye’s not as unfocused and cloudy as before. He never quite passed out, almost vomiting every time he seemed to relax but he wasn’t really aware either.

His eyes flutter open and Julie only has a split second to register his eyes widening in panic before she stumbles backwards and the other teen darts to the other side of the studio eyes scanning the room frantically. “Hey, it’s okay” Julie says and the guys eyes dart to her still wringing his hands together nervously “I found you in an alleyway looking pretty beat up, I only brought you here to patch you up” while still radiating nervous energy he seems to calm down slightly at her words while still extremely wary, eyeing her suspiciously “How do I know you are telling the truth” without missing a beat she responds “How do I know you aren’t a serial killer?” eyeing her warily for a couple more seconds he finally lets his shoulders sag slowly walking towards her.

“Thanks” he stutters out “I mean-um for uh h-helping me and-and not leaving me in that alley” he rambles out through one breath bouncing slightly on the balls of his feet. “It’s okay, I’m Julie” she tries to give him what she hopes is a comforting smile, he returns it with a faint smile “Oh uh, I’m-I’m Alex” Julie puts her hand out and he grasps it with his much larger one, shaking it gently.

“Um d-do you want me to leave?” Alex's voice squeaks at the end of his sentence, looking like he wants to do anything but leave and her mind flashes to what he looked like when she found him and she can’t find it in herself to make him leave when he obviously isn’t in a good spot. “Nah, we can chill out here if you want to, we can watch T.V?” he looks at her incredulously, obviously not believing her.

“Seriously it’s fine, as long as you don’t want to leave you don’t have to” she gives him a kind smile flopping down onto the lounge flicking the T.V on, Alex, albeit hesitantly, follows her lead sitting on the other end of the lounge. About 30 minutes pass of them mindlessly watching T.V before he speaks up, face littered in prominent bruises “You’re oddly cool with a random person at your house” he comments looking at her in slight amusement and she replies with a smirk “Well I figure if you planned to do anything to me you would’ve done it by now” he huffs out a laugh, stopping short with a grimace of pain Julie wincing in sympathy “I don’t think your ribs are broken, I tried to check but i’m not the best with this stuff so i’m not sure but i think it’s only bad bruised” Alex nods and they both turn back to the T.V talking back and forth.

“Julie!” her dad’s voice echoes Alex freezing panic, sitting up ramrod straight as Julie flounders “In the studio!” she calls back shrugging at Alex’s glare. Her Dad freeze’s when he sees that she isn’t alone, his gaze melting to concern when he sees Alex’s state, Julie immediately shooting up beelining towards her dad “Dad please don’t be mad, Alex and I are partners for a school project and I told him we could work here. When I was walking home I found him like this and helped him get here, I think he could be seriously hurt and I didn’t know what to do, please don’t send him away” Ray makes a shushing motion, placing his hands on Julie’s shoulder “Calm down mija, I’m not mad. Alex? That’s your name?” that jolts Alex making him jump up from the lounge that he’d previously been trying to sink into “Um. yes s-sir. Alex Mercer”

“Call me Ray. Why don’t you come in for dinner, you look like you could use some food, we can discuss everything afterwards, assuming you don’t have to go home?” his words end in a question and Alex ducks his head, scuffing his shoe against the floor “Yeah, uh, my parents aren’t exactly happy. They told me not to come back, they’ve never really cared, I guess” Ray looks absolutely heartbroken while Julie can’t stop herself from linking his fingers with hers.

“Come on, dinner’s getting cold. Let’s just eat first and talk everything over later” Ray nods towards the house, leaving Julie and Alex to scramble after him towards the house. Alex grips her wrist, tugging slightly to get her attention “Why’d you lie?” he asks and she looks at him with a raised eyebrow “You think he’d let some random person I just met stay in our house?” Alex rubs his neck sheepishly “Yeah, good point. If it helps I have actually seen you around at school before, I’m in year 10” Julie smiles at that, she thought she recognized something about him “I’m in year 10 too, at least we know it wasn’t a full on lie, only a white lie” Alex seems to relax at the idea of outright lying to someone opening their home to him “Thanks, I mean uh, again, yeah uh, thanks again” he stumbles on his words Julie laughs as they continue into her house.

Dinner passes incident free with everyone getting to know Alex, Carlos barely took a second to breath while asking Alex question after question. Carlos heads off to play some ghost hunter video game that he hasn’t stopped talking about while Ray moves the conversation to the lounge. “Okay” he claps his hands together in front of him sitting on the coffee table as Alex and Julie take a spot on the lounge, Julie hugging one of the throw pillows to her chest. “Now mijo, I’m not going to send you away but the spare bedroom isn’t set up so I was thinking you could use the pull out couch in the studio until we work out everything. You are going to need to talk to your parents, I don’t know you well enough to say anything about it but you will need to talk to them, I won’t push as it’s not my place but you get it. Both of you have school tomorrow so don’t stay up too long, Julie you can only help set everything up out there before coming inside, both in rooms by 11, no later. Now I’ll leave you to watch a movie or something. I promise we will work everything out” with that Ray shakes Alex’s hand and placing a kiss on Julie’s head before going to his office to finish up some photo edits from a recent shoot.

“That went better than I thought” Julie mumbles and is immediately swooped up into a massive bear hug blonde hair flying in her face. “Thank you, thank you, thank you” he mumbles repeatedly into her hair, she doesn’t say anything letting him hug her tightly. “Sorry, ‘bout that” he mumbles pulling back sheepishly “I get it, today’s been all over the place” Julie reassures, she knows his emotional outbursts are just from whatever happened to him that’s ended with him having to sleep in the garage of a girl he’s never met before, not exactly what you would call normal.

An embarrassed blush taints his cheeks, though Julie just gives him a smile and flicks on ‘ Ghostbusters’. Slowly they build up a conversation and in the end the movie is forgotten as the two are immersed in a debate of whose better ‘ lady Gaga’ or ‘Ariana Grande’, Ray could barely make out what they were saying with how fast they’re talking. He watches from the kitchen, he stuck his head out to check and his brain nearly short circuited when he heard the music discussion. Since his wife’s passing 2 years ago Julie never touched the piano and would never even mention anything to do with music, she would just shut down. Now there she was sitting and talking about music, a bright smile on her face with the bruised and beaten looking blonde teen.

Speaking of the blonde haired teen, Alex seemed more carefree too like he’s in his element talking about music. It’s the first time he’s seen Julie look so genuinely happy in so long then surely the kid can’t be too bad. Despite his beat up, border lining on homeless appearance he can’t imagine the kid was out getting into fights or a laundry list of other things he could be doing. It’s nice to see that light return to Julie’s eyes, sparked with happiness.

#alex jatp #alive phantoms #alex x willie #alex mercer #julie and the phantoms #julie x luke #julie molina #reggie julie and the phantoms #reggie jatp #alex julie and the phantoms #willie jatp #willex fic #willex #Julie and Luke #julie and the himbos #Julie and willie #Julie and Flynn

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footballleague0 · 7 years

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Giancarlo Stanton’s breakthrough season through the eyes of those witnessing it

Giancarlo Stanton has hit 56 home runs off 48 pitchers in 13 major league parks this season. Those homers have traveled a combined distance of 4.42 miles at an average exit velocity of 108.9 mph, second highest in the majors behind New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge.

No one has kept a running statistical tab of Stanton’s batting practice output. But if a ball off Stanton’s bat dents a bleacher seat somewhere between 4:30 and 6 p.m., chances are Fredi Gonzalez delivered it. The Miami Marlins’ third-base coach is Stanton’s regular batting practice pitcher, and he keeps a mental catalogue of the screamers Stanton hits up the middle.

Each time one of those line drives approaches his face, Gonzalez gives a silent thank you to the inventor of the “L” screen.

“If I go a little bit away, I know that ball is coming my way,” Gonzalez said. “There have been 30 or 40 times when I’ve never seen the ball hit. The first time I see it is when it hits the ground off the screen. I’ve felt it come close. And then — whoomp! — it’s right there.

“He hasn’t knocked the screen over yet. He’s not that cartoonish. But if I was a pitcher, I would be scared.”

Major league hitters have done plenty of yard work in 2017, hitting an astounding 5,707 homers so far this season. We look at who hit ’em, when they hit ’em and how many they hit.

Stanton has already joined Ryan Howard of the 2006 Philadelphia Phillies (58), Jose Bautista of the 2010 Toronto Blue Jays (54) and Chris Davis of the 2013 Baltimore Orioles (53) as the fourth hitter in the past 12 years to crack the 50-homer mark. His output has slowed since he tied Rudy York’s MLB record with 18 homers in August — but if he can crank out another 2,000 feet worth of long balls in the coming week, things will get very interesting on the final weekend of the regular season.

Stanton needs five home runs to tie the total of 61 by Roger Maris that stood as the MLB record until Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds and the PED era came along. He has emerged as an MVP candidate while playing for a Marlins team that’s 72-80, 28th in baseball in attendance, and in the news primarily because the franchise is in the process of being sold from Jeffrey Loria to a group headlined by Derek Jeter. Stanton has also reignited divisions between baseball watchers who regard Bonds’ single-season total of 73 homers as the MLB gold standard, and purists who view Maris’ 61 as the legitimate, untarnished record.

What has it been like to watch a masher of Stanton’s magnitude up close and personal, from the dugout and the clubhouse? How has Stanton grown since his MLB debut as a 20-year-old man-child in 2010? ESPN.com talked to the Marlins teammates, coaches, front-office staff and broadcasters who know him best for their thoughts on Stanton’s memorable season and budding legacy.

The batting practice showOpponents regularly come out to watch Giancarlo Stanton in batting practice. Photo by Tony Quinn/Icon Sportswire

Brian Schneider, Marlins catching coach:

“I like it when he’s taking batting practice and the other team comes out specifically to watch him. It’s September and you have a lot of the call-ups, and guys come out early. The last time we played the Phillies, there were seven or eight guys out there early watching him in amazement. Their reaction was like our reaction watching him every day. It’s crazy how far he hits it.”

Fredi Gonzalez, Miami third-base coach:

“Ichiro has been in his group for the last month and a half. It’s Stanton, Ichiro, Miguel Rojas and J.T. Realmuto — or A.J. Ellis when J.T. doesn’t play.

“When Ichiro is in his group, they play a game where it’s 3-2, bases loaded. A home run counts as four runs. Ichiro has some juice, and one day he had an immaculate round. He had four home runs on four pitches. Stanton hit only three out, and Ichiro beat him.

“Usually he stays in the middle of the diamond and he’ll hit balls to straightaway center. But that’s the only time you’ll see him get competitive and go a little extra. That’s the only time I’ve seen him try to play Home Run Derby.”

The home runs you just can’t forgetGiancarlo Stanton’s homers have traveled a combined distance of 4.42 miles at an average exit velocity of 108.9 mph. Scott Cunningham/Getty Images

Catcher A.J. Ellis:

“We played a series against the Rangers this year, and Jason Grilli was pitching. He pitches with a lot of intensity and emotion, and he struck out Giancarlo and gave a very dramatic fist pump and yell after he put him away.

“You could see from the way Giancarlo reacted coming off the field that he didn’t really appreciate that. So in a rare outburst of emotion, the next day ‘G’ hit a home run off Grilli. He usually acts the same way on every single one. There’s no bat flipping, no extracurriculars after he hits them. But on this one in particular, he gave a yell and threw his arms up in the air. You could tell that one felt pretty good.”

Center fielder Christian Yelich:

“My favorite homer of his came against the Cubs and Jason Hammel [on June 16, 2014] at Marlins Park. It was a line drive down the right-field line on a curveball in the lefty batter’s box. He’s probably the only guy in baseball that can do that. That skill set is not something you see every day — just being able to hit the ball that hard and being that strong.

“Everybody can hit balls far. The line drives, to me, are the more impressive ones. For most guys, that ball might be a single or a double. He hit it for a homer.”

First baseman Justin Bour:

“I’ve seen a million of his homers by now and I’ve watched him in BP, but I’ve never seen anything like that one [off Hammel]. I’m pretty sure the first baseman jumped for it and the ball went out. You have the right fielder out there thinking he’s going to make a play off the wall or field a one-hopper. You’re thinking double off the bat or maybe even a single because he hit it that hard, and it went over the fence. There are so many to pick from. But you don’t see people hitting low liners out to right field like that. It was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen on a baseball field.”

Fredi Gonzalez:

“I bet you of the 55 he’s hit, I’ve seen maybe 15 of them actually land. Because as soon as he hits them, you know they’re gone. By the sound and the angle, you know they’re gone. Then I just watch the third baseman and shortstop look at each other like, ‘Did you see that?’

“He hit one in Atlanta to straightway center and [Braves third baseman] Rio Ruiz looked at me and went, ‘Wow!’ [Phillies third baseman] Maikel Franco had an expression that was like, ‘Holy cow. I’m glad he didn’t hit it on the ground.'”

Dave Van Horne, veteran broadcaster and Glenn Geffner’s radio partner in Miami:

“When Stanton first started to hit these tape-measure jobs, we had never seen anything like it. One day in Denver, Geff and I walked out to the concourse, out to that food area, to find the spot where one of his home run balls landed. I had never seen anything, even at Coors, hit that far. And the amazing thing to me about Stanton is, he doesn’t hit any wall-scrapers. There’s nothing coming down on the back of the wall. Ninety percent of them seem to be absolute no-doubters.”

Pitcher Dan Straily:

“You don’t want to be anywhere but in the dugout for his at-bats. Every time he comes to the plate, it’s captivating and you don’t want to miss something awesome. You don’t want to miss a ball leaving the stadium. With so many of the balls he hits, you’re like, ‘I’ve never seen a ball hit that far.’ It’s a fun at-bat to watch, every time it comes back around.”

The evolution of GiancarloGiancarlo Stanton worked with the Marlins’ hitting coach to close up his stance this season. Patrick McDermott-USA TODAY Sports

Tony Perez, Baseball Hall of Famer and a Marlins special assistant:

“I saw him when he was in Double-A ball and he won a home run contest. He hit the ball all over the place. I was there with Andre Dawson and I told him, ‘Pack it up, let’s go home.’ I said, ‘Wow, he’s something special.’

“Now he’s grown up and he’s changed. He’s more disciplined, and when he hits a streak, he’s dangerous. I used to see Gary Sheffield hit unbelievable line drives and Willie Stargell hit those long home runs, but this guy is amazing the way he hits.

“In the beginning, he wanted to do everything himself. He was his own man. He believed in himself a lot and he didn’t listen. Then this year he changed his stance. He closed up a little bit because he was wide-open and swinging at everything. He found himself working with the hitting coach [Mike Pagliarulo] and his assistant [Frank Menechino], and they’ve helped him a lot.”

Manager Don Mattingly:

“One thing I’ve noticed this year is, he’s more focused and irritated with himself over his at-bats when they’re not good. You can feel the helmet [slamming] behind you. I don’t really look around and see what guys are doing. But you hear it and you know when he’s mad about his at-bats. That’s been a little bit more open. I’ve seen him throw a bat down on the field, too, and I didn’t see a lot of that last year.

“He’s comfortable at the plate. This is the most I’ve seen him stay with something. I’ve seen him make a lot of changes in the past, with his hands, his feet, a toe tap and other little things. This little closed-off [stance] thing is something he’s really stayed with.

“He’s definitely not chasing as much. You still see some chase in there, but you see a lot more focus within an area of the plate. He’s making guys pay. He’ll miss some balls that he fouls back and you say, ‘He just missed that.’ But there was a section of the season when he wasn’t missing anything. It was like, ‘Holy cow, this is ridiculous.’ It’s something I’ve never seen.”

Straily on Stanton’s 14 first-inning home runs:

“He went through a stretch earlier this year where it seemed like he would ground out to shortstop the first at-bat every single at-bat. The guy was so frustrated, knowing he could get this [pitcher] and essentially he just missed. It sounds weird saying, ‘A ground ball to shortstop and he just missed.’ But with that guy, he clearly just missed. It was definitely the right angle and the right part of the field to use, and he’s used to hitting homers.

“Then suddenly he made an adjustment in his first at-bat of the game, and when he [got hot] a lot of his homers came in the first inning. It was cool to see how he saw an area of his game that he wasn’t elite at, and he was so focused every at-bat. He put a little more emphasis on that very first one, and those ground balls to shortstop started becoming homers.”

Fredi Gonzalez:

“I kind of joke with the guys. I told [Nationals third baseman] Anthony Rendon, ‘After he strikes out the first time, he usually lays a bunt down the second at-bat.’ Early in the year, [Mets third baseman] Wilmer Flores was playing back and Stanton hit a ground ball and it was a backhand. Flores couldn’t get the glove down fast enough and the ball hit him on the instep. I couldn’t stop laughing.

“You know what he also has? He has carry on his ball. There have been a few times when he hits one and we have runners on first and second, and I’m watching to see if the ball is off the wall or the warning track, and you see the outfielders and it keeps carrying and carrying. The next thing you know, it’s 10 rows deep. We have a saying in baseball, ‘It stays hit.’ Some guys hit the ball and it kind of dies in the gap. His ball stays hit.”

Facing StantonSome pitchers try to throw harder to beat Giancarlo Stanton, but that hasn’t proved to be an effective strategy. AP Photo/Jeff Roberson

Straily:

“Greg Maddux had a quote once. He said when he found himself in a tough situation, he didn’t try to throw harder. He tried to locate better. You see so many people try to muscle up on Giancarlo and end up leaving the ball over the heart of the plate. If you watch a guy who’s throwing 90 or 91, all of a sudden he’s throwing 94 against Giancarlo thinking that’s going to work.

“You’re better off trying to just locate it. If you take something off and you miss, it’s gonna get hammered just as hard. But you see people try with more effort, and you’re not going to be able to match his effort and his strength with his bat. Muscling up is not really the way to go.”

A.J. Ellis:

“I remember being on the other side. With Giancarlo, the way his at-bats are and his approach is, there are windows where you can pitch. So you go into the series as a catcher and a pitcher and say, ‘If we execute the ball to these places, to these windows, we’re gonna be successful and get this guy out.’ There’s a difference, though. Those window frames for him are home runs. For me and everyone else, they’re broken bat singles.

“If you’re not drilling those small windows — if you miss — you’re paying dearly for it. You see pitchers challenge him and try to hit certain spots. But there’s a lot of pressure on the mound, knowing mentally that if I miss, I’m going to have something hit extremely hard and extremely far off me.”

The lasting impressionGiancarlo Stanton seems to be motivated since the All-Star Game. Joe Skipper/Getty Images

Mike Berger, Marlins vice president and assistant general manager:

“I can’t get away from the charge that took place right after the All-Star Game. It seems like every home run he hit was impactful because it gave us an early lead in the first inning or it was a tack-on, 2-3-run homer. Just the frequency of the home runs. I’ve never seen anything like it.

“Aaron Judge won the Home Run Derby and Stanton was like, ‘Hey, Grasshopper, I’ll show you what I’m capable of as we come out of the break.’ Who knows if it motivated him? It may very well have. But it was a big deal, with everything that’s gone on with the uncertainty of the franchise and whatnot. I think he rose to the occasion and let his actions answer the question.

“We went from a Judge to a Supreme Court Justice. That’s kind of the way it was. [Aaron Judge] was an appellate judge and Stanton showed everybody that he’s a Supreme Court Justice.”

Dave Van Horne:

“The first time I saw Andre Dawson, I thought, ‘This is the best looking physique I’ve ever seen on a baseball player.’ Until this guy. Dawson was chiseled. He was slender and had zero body fat, but he had a massive upper body. Goodness knows what he would have done if he hadn’t hurt his knees playing football before he signed. He was an incredible athlete. But it was nothing like this guy.”

Berger:

“The way he embraced the whole All-Star week was impressive. He was the gracious celebrity All-Star host, and that’s what came through to me. There’s a lot of charm there. There’s a magnetic charisma, and it’s a Hollywood smile.

“I think the commercial he did for T-Mobile is fantastic, with the guy on the sidelines hammering him with nicknames. I even commented to my wife. I said, ‘You know what? He’s really natural at the give-and-take.’ Otherwise, he’s a pretty guarded dude who just does his work, but he was really natural there. A star was born with that 30-second give-and-take in that commercial.”

Van Horne:

“It’s 49 years for me, and in those 49 years, I’ve seen some pretty special players and a lot of Hall of Famers. I’ve never seen anything like this power display. I know that in his mind, 60 and 61 are the magic numbers, so it would really be something to see that. Plus, I was a child of that era, so those numbers are big for me, too.

“Let me put it this way: I totally understand why Stanton feels the way he does. And he’s not alone.

“I do five innings [of play-by-play] and Geff does four, but the one thing I like about my chances is, he’s hit more in the first inning (49) than any other inning in his career. I have the first two innings, so I might have a chance [to call it].

“I’ve seen Vladimir Guerrero. I saw Andre Dawson, obviously. Andres Galarraga, even Larry Walker. Guys that had really good long ball power, but nobody with the consistency of this player. And now he’s going to go through 2017 known as the major league home run leader. I’m sure it’s going to happen for him. To me, he’s a better overall player right now than he’s ever been.”

The post Giancarlo Stanton’s breakthrough season through the eyes of those witnessing it appeared first on Daily Star Sports.

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giantsfootball0 · 7 years

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Giancarlo Stanton’s breakthrough season through the eyes of those witnessing it

Each time one of those line drives approaches his face, Gonzalez gives a silent thank you to the inventor of the “L” screen.

“He hasn’t knocked the screen over yet. He’s not that cartoonish. But if I was a pitcher, I would be scared.”

Major league hitters have done plenty of yard work in 2017, hitting an astounding 5,707 homers so far this season. We look at who hit ’em, when they hit ’em and how many they hit.

The batting practice showOpponents regularly come out to watch Giancarlo Stanton in batting practice. Photo by Tony Quinn/Icon Sportswire

Brian Schneider, Marlins catching coach:

Fredi Gonzalez, Miami third-base coach:

“Ichiro has been in his group for the last month and a half. It’s Stanton, Ichiro, Miguel Rojas and J.T. Realmuto — or A.J. Ellis when J.T. doesn’t play.

The home runs you just can’t forgetGiancarlo Stanton’s homers have traveled a combined distance of 4.42 miles at an average exit velocity of 108.9 mph. Scott Cunningham/Getty Images

Catcher A.J. Ellis:

Center fielder Christian Yelich:

“Everybody can hit balls far. The line drives, to me, are the more impressive ones. For most guys, that ball might be a single or a double. He hit it for a homer.”

First baseman Justin Bour:

Fredi Gonzalez:

Dave Van Horne, veteran broadcaster and Glenn Geffner’s radio partner in Miami:

Pitcher Dan Straily:

The evolution of GiancarloGiancarlo Stanton worked with the Marlins’ hitting coach to close up his stance this season. Patrick McDermott-USA TODAY Sports

Tony Perez, Baseball Hall of Famer and a Marlins special assistant:

Manager Don Mattingly:

Straily on Stanton’s 14 first-inning home runs:

Fredi Gonzalez:

Facing StantonSome pitchers try to throw harder to beat Giancarlo Stanton, but that hasn’t proved to be an effective strategy. AP Photo/Jeff Roberson

Straily:

A.J. Ellis:

The lasting impressionGiancarlo Stanton seems to be motivated since the All-Star Game. Joe Skipper/Getty Images

Mike Berger, Marlins vice president and assistant general manager:

“We went from a Judge to a Supreme Court Justice. That’s kind of the way it was. [Aaron Judge] was an appellate judge and Stanton showed everybody that he’s a Supreme Court Justice.”

Dave Van Horne:

Berger:

Van Horne:

“Let me put it this way: I totally understand why Stanton feels the way he does. And he’s not alone.

The post Giancarlo Stanton’s breakthrough season through the eyes of those witnessing it appeared first on Daily Star Sports.

from https://dailystarsports.com/2017/09/21/giancarlo-stantons-breakthrough-season-through-the-eyes-of-those-witnessing-it/ from https://dailystarsports.tumblr.com/post/165579738166

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