Giancarlo Stanton's impressions of the postseason had previously been formulated by secondhand accounts. All of the distinct sights and sounds associated with October baseball were purely a foreign concept, since eight consecutive losing seasons with the Miami Marlins kept him from reaching the stage he was destined to perform on. But Stanton, the National League's reigning MVP, took it upon himself to escape from further mediocrity. Last winter, just three years after signing a massive 13-year, $325 million deal, Stanton requested a trade to a playoff contender. And by a simple twist of fate, he landed in the Yankees' lap. His vision of a championship run shifted from far-fetched to attainable. So it came as no surprise that Stanton wasted no time to announce his postseason presence on Wednesday night. This was a moment that had been 1,144 career games in the making.