William Stanton

William Michael Stanton, or just "Mike" Stanton, is a professional baseball player from the United States of America and is a specialist relief pitcher. Stanton graduated from the Midland High School where he was part of the school's baseball, basketball and football teams. However, Mike pitched for the first time only in college when he played collegiate ball for the Southwestern University. He was also a student at the Alvin Community College.

In 1989, he was picked by the Atlanta Braves where he stayed until 1995. He was mostly part of the minor leagues in the beginning, but soon became a consistent performer, making many appearances in the Majors, even in the World Series, before being traded out to the Boston Red Sox. He was at Red Sox for 1 season before going to the Texas Rangers in 1996, a team which he left in the same year.

Mike was traded out to the New York Yankees in 1997 and he played mainly for the Yankees' affiliate minor league teams although he notched up quite a few Major League appearances up until 2002. He had a wonderful 2001 season where he was named to the American League All-Star team. In 2003, he changed teams and leagues, but remained in New York, playing for the Mets from 2003 – 2004 before returning to the Yankees for another season. Mike was mostly playing in the lower leagues, but was getting many opportunities to play in the MLB.

He was notching up his appearances although he was never a star player for any of his teams.

In 2005, the Yankees traded him out to the Washington Nationals who subsequently traded him again, in the same year, to the Boston Red Sox. A consistent performer, Mike remained a part of the MLB rosters in all the teams he played for, occasionally playing in the minor leagues as well.

In 2006, he returned to the Washington Nationals and was traded out again, in the same year, to the San Francisco Giants. In 2007, the Giants traded Stanton out to the Cincinnati Reds before finally signing a minor league contract for Spring Training with the Chicago Cubs.

Stanton has a 68-63 career win-loss record with a respectable 3.92 ERA and 84 saves. With over 1180 games pitched in, he is second in the all-time appearance record, behind Jesse Orosco with 1252. He has the highest total, though, amongst active players.