The day that the New York Yankees, and of course their fans, have been waiting for is about to arrive. Or so it appears. With 70 games already in the books, the Yankees’ 35-year-old slugger Giancarlo Stanton is set to make his season debut in this week’s three game series at Yankee Stadium against the Los Angeles Angels, according to manager Aaron Boone.
“I did talk to him today. He feels good, so we’ll see what that means,” Boone told MLB.com prior to Saturday’s game against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. “I expect him in some way, shape or form in the Angels series to be in play.”
Stanton showed up to spring training injured, with severe pain in both elbows. The road back has been a long and halting one, but finally last week Stanton began a rehab assignment, actually playing in games for the Yankees’ Double-A minor league affiliate in New Jersey, the Somerset Patriots.
In his first three games with Somerset, Stanton notched three hits in 11 at-bats with a walk and three strikeouts. One of his three hits was a double. Stanton, who has hit 429 homers in his 15-year big league career, more than any other active player, did not put one out of the park in his Double-A rehab assignment.
Stanton was supposedly set for one presumably final game for Somerset on Sunday. But before he did that, Stanton made an unexpected detour, showing up at a pizza joint in nearby Raritan, New Jersey.
The active home run king ranks 51st on the all-time home run leaderboard, two homers ahead of Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets catcher Mike Piazza and two behind Baltimore Orioles shortstop Cal Ripken Jr.. That makes him famous enough that the owner of DeLucia’s Brick Oven Pizza in Raritan cleared his restaurant of all other customers to allow Stanton to enjoy his pizza without interruptions from fans.
“As a lifelong Yankees fan, it was truly an amazing experience to have the opportunity to meet someone like him. Definitely not an everyday occurrence to have a superstar walk through your door,” said Christian DeLucia, whose father, grandfather and great-grandfather owned the pizzeria before him, according to the local news site Patch.
The pizza place became famous when Barstool Sports founder and self-proclaimed pizza expert Dave Portnoy published a review of DeLucia’s product, giving it a record rating of 9.4 out of 10. Since then, the pizzeria has been a favored stop for celebrities and sports figures, including four-time Super Bowl winning quarterback Joe Montana, and New York Jets players Solomon Thomas and Bill Weber.
Originally it had been reported that Stanton would return to the Yankees lineup for at least one game of the team’s weekend series in Boston against the arch-rival Red Sox. That did not happen.
But Stanton was not in the Patriots lineup on Sunday, either, for their game against the Portland Sea Dogs, who happen to be the Red Sox Double-A affiliate.
What Stanton’s absence from the Sunday game meant was unclear. Whether he was on his way to New York for Monday’s game against the Angels, to whether he was experiencing another injury setback had not been reported as of Sunday afternoon.
Giancarlo Stanton Makes Unexpected Detour Before Long-Awaited Return to Yankees