Giancarlo "Stealin" Stanton has a chance to make complaints about his contract forever disappear

Excuse me a moment, because last night, the world changed. 

I'm referring to Florida, home to family and friends - (candles lit) - where an unfolding catastrophe made a ballgame seem rather inconsequential. Last night should have been a time of joking phone texts, and TV moments shared from a distance. Instead, it was horror. Today, the Tropicana Dome is torn to shreds, thousands are homeless, millions without power - and, honestly, I'm embarrassed to assign a ballgame so much importance when, in fact, it doesn't matter. 

But this is the world we built, right? We cannot change now. Baseball is our diversion from the demons, our escape hatch from the things that go bump in the night. The Yankees are a concept that lets us briefly forget the roof that leaks, the car that does not run, the sciatica that ever worsens - the knowledge that we're getting older. 

Well, last night, the diversion came through. 

I will always remember Giancarlo Stanton's HR, which happened between channel-hops to cable news outlets that conveyed images far more disturbing than the Halloween horror promotions between innings. 

Today, as the world assesses the damage, I want to thank Stanton for coming through. Because of him, I somehow went to bed with a sense of hope. Is that nuts, or what? 

Without Stanton - who has drawn his share of complaints - I have absolutely no doubt the Yankees would have lost that game and would be heading into tonight on a railcar to elimination. 

For six years now, we have lamented Stanton's massive contract, which the Yankee front office neatly blamed whenever it passed on a free agent. (Thinking Bryce Harper and Manny Machado here.) As I always try to remind myself, Stanton's deal was never Stanton's fault. Nevertheless, there he stood, in the eye of a financial hurricane, to be judged more by spreadsheets rather than box scores. 

In fact, in 2018, when he came in a trade, Stanton embodied baseball's new reality: That every great star - be a slugger or an ace - will be, at the end of his career, a massive drain upon the team's finances. If a contract runs for 10 years, it's a given that the player will play his final seasons as a pariah. So it's been with Stanton, who we have through 2028, and he's already hobbling. 

But not last night. Nope. Last night, Stanton lifted the Yankees onto his shoulders and carried them past KC. And now, the Yankees can return the favor: If they can reach the world series, they can forever staunch Stanton's critics, as A-Rod nearly did in 2009 (A-Rod was too famous, too controversial, to silence everyone. By comparison, Stanton is much less polarizing.)  Can you imagine Stanton appearing at the 2035 Old-Timers Day and receiving gales of applause?

If the Yankees rally behind Stanton - (this means you, Mr. Captain) - we will never have to whine about his contract again. And when bad times converge, maybe we can still think about 2024 and smile - though that might not be easy. 

As the Wicked Witch of the West once said, while melting, "What a world, what a world!" Yep. What a world...