Bringing the Boom: Giancarlo Stanton to defend Home Run Derby on home turf

The Marlins will be represented at the All-Star Game for the 25th time on Tuesday when the Midsummer Classic is played at Marlins Park in Little Havana.

Gary Sheffield and Bryan Harvey were part of the Marlins’ first All-Star Game at Baltimore’s Oriole Park at Camden Yards in 1993.

Last year, four Marlins (Marcell Ozuna, Jose Fernandez, Fernando Rodney and A.J. Ramos) were part of the All-Star Game in San Diego.

Ozuna and Giancarlo Stanton will play for the National League team Tuesday with Justin Bour joining Stanton in Monday’s Home Run Derby.

The Miami Herald continues to look back at the top All-Stars who have represented the Marlins — from Sheffield to Ozuna — through Tuesday’s big game.

Some wondered why Giancarlo Stanton would travel to the All-Star festivities in San Diego just to compete in the Home Run Derby.

He answered those questions in a hurry.

A native of Southern California, Stanton went home for last year’s Home Run Derby and won the title with by putting a record 61 shots out of Petco Park.

“Taking the flight out here just for this,” he said as he held the Derby trophy, “I figured it would have been a waste if I didn’t bring this bad boy home.”

On Monday night, Stanton gets to defend his crown on home turf as the Derby comes to Marlins Park.

Unlike last year, Stanton gets a crack at the big game on Tuesday as he was selected for his fourth All-Star Game. Due to injuries, Stanton missed two of them.

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Stanton, who hit his 26th homer of the season Sunday in San Francisco, flew across the country to get back to South Florida for the events.

Teammate Justin Bour isn’t on the All-Star team, but he is also part of the Derby for the first time. So, to, is Yankees phenom Aaron Judge.

Last year was Stanton’s second Derby and he became the first Marlins player to win it.

Stanton’s 61 homers were most in the event’s history as he put 20 more out than Bobby Abreu in 2005.

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In the first round, Stanton hit a record 24 homers to beat Robinson Cano, then hit 17 in the second round to top Baltimore’s Mark Trumbo. Stnaton hit 20 in the finale to drop defending champ Todd Frazier.

“I felt like I was a high school hitter compared to him,” Frazier said, “the way he was hitting them that far.”

Stanton’s first All-Star selection came in 2012 — yet because of knee surgery, he didn’t get to play in the game.

The All-Star Game in Kansas City went without a Marlins player with Stanton out — just one more thing to forget about that miserable first season at Marlins Park.

“The funny thing about it is,” then-manager Ozzie Guillen said, “when we built this ballclub we thought we were going to have five guys in the All-Star Game. You look at the names we have, we should have a pretty good group of guys. They're just not playing up to the caliber.”

Stanton did get to take part in the 2014 All-Star Game at Target Field in downtown Minneapolis and put on quite the show in the Derby. Although Stanton didn’t win, his shot to the furthest reaches of the park are still talked about in Minnesota.

“I’ve never seen anything like that in my life,” Pittsburgh’s Andrew McCutchen said.

Stanton went 0 for 3 as the DH in Minnesota.

In 2015, Stanton was again selected to the All-Star team but once more didn’t make that trip to Cincinnati after suffering a wrist injury.

Healthy and mashing the baseball this season, Stanton seems fired up for his All-Star homecoming in Little Havana.

“We’re in Miami,” he said, “so it’s going to be amazing.”

This story was originally published July 10, 2017 at 10:28 AM with the headline "Bringing the Boom: Giancarlo Stanton to defend Home Run Derby on home turf."