SAN FRANCISCO -- Mike Yastrzemski just wanted one day as a Major League Baseball player. The rest would be a bonus.
The days after his May 19 debut last season left him as a special Giants' treat, batting .272/.334/.518 with 21 home runs in just 107 games. Becoming a fan favorite was also a bonus.
Hitting at Oracle Park was something brand new to him. Despite it historically favoring pitchers, the ballpark factor near McCovey Cove was something he wouldn't be intimidated by. His college baseball days had helped him with that.
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Yaz played for the prestigious Vanderbilt Commodores. The school that has produced the likes of David Price, Sonny Gray, Tony Kemp and Dansby Swanson ... to name a few.
The home games are played at Hawkins Field, which holds a unique convex shape on the outside.
Inside, left fielders beware.
The outfield wall bends outward from the foul pole to left field and it curves. An outfield that opposing players referred to as "different". But Vandy players, such as Yastrzemski, knew how to handle it due to playing most of their games there.
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The unique way the outfield played only assisted him in his 2019 season successes.
"It's one of those things that, when you come to the ballpark and take batting practice for the first time, you start to understand how the ball plays," Yastrzemski told NBC Sports Bay Area back in February. "Whether it's carrying, whether the wind's crosswind, or -- however it happens to be that day, and you have to live with that and you have to be accepting of it, so trying to change the wind, or wishing we would play in a smaller ballpark -- it's kind of irrelevant, it is where we are, and I'm happy to be in this ballpark."
The 29-year-old said Oracle is his favorite place to play. That's not something you hear out of a position player very often.
"Even though a lot of people say it's tough to hit here, for some reason, I just feel comfortable in the box," Yaz said.
Asked if he was ever intimidated by the ballpark factor being anti-hitter, Yaz just smiled and said, "No."
"Growing up in the SEC, and playing in some of these smaller parks, I used to get caught up in that," he said.
He would get into a mentality where he thought he would simply hit home runs at those places that possessed a smaller size.
"It would just backfire," he said. "At Vandy, we had a pretty big pitcher's park and it played pretty true, and I never really hit a whole lot of homers, so I got used to learning how to adjust to that and saying, 'I don't need to try and do too much.'"
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It appears that mentality, just as the pitcher's parks he's grown accustomed to, stayed true.
Oracle Park underwent some changes this offseason. Changes that will favor the lefty with the bullpens moving from foul territory to the outfield. Triples Alley in right field will be cut from 421 feet to 415. This will only benefit him, but he wouldn't mind more assistance.
"I think you could still come in a little bit," Yastrzemski laughed.