This story was excerpted from Bryan Hoch's Yankees Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

It was the stadium where a young Giancarlo Stanton and his father used to scour the parking lot, hoping to scalp a couple of tickets to see players like Raul Mondesi, Mike Piazza and Hideo Nomo take the field for their beloved Dodgers.

More often than not, Stanton and his dad Mike found seats in the left-field bleachers, where the young ballplayer would test his skills by wrestling adults for batting practice homers.

Those memories flickered through Stanton’s mind this past week, as the slugger became just the third Yankee to win the All-Star Game’s Most Valuable Player Award, joining Derek Jeter (2000) and Mariano Rivera (2013).

“When the lights are brightest, that’s what you want to do,” Stanton said. “That’s what the fans come to see. That’s what we work tireless hours for.”

Stanton’s highlight in the American League’s 3-2 victory (their ninth consecutive triumph over the National League) was a jaw-dropping 457-foot homer off the Dodgers’ Tony Gonsolin that soared into -- yep, you guessed it -- the left-field bleachers.

“All full circle -- me playing there, me playing in left as well,” Stanton said. “I always tried to get a ball thrown to me from whoever was playing left field when I was a kid. Just to be out there is so fun, so cool.”

One of six Yankees selected to travel west for the All-Star festivities (Aaron Judge, Gerrit Cole, Nestor Cortes, Clay Holmes and Jose Trevino were all in the AL’s dugout, too), Stanton’s fifth career selection to the Midsummer Classic may prove to be his most meaningful.

A SoCal born-and-bred star who attended Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, Calif., -- “30 minutes with no traffic, but we all know L.A., that’s two hours,” he quipped -- and still craves double-fisted cheat meals at In-N-Out Burger, Stanton could have been a Dodger. He’d worked out at Chavez Ravine on the recommendation of legendary scout George Genovese, but club brass passed.

“Coulda, woulda, shoulda,” Stanton said.

Los Angeles’ loss is New York’s gain, and for at least one glorious night in Stanton’s career, that Hollywood setting was perfect.

“It's very special to me, so I think it's right up there with anything personally,” Stanton said. “I have some goals in terms of winning a championship and going all the way, but personally for the road I've gone to get to where I am now, this is very special.”