Pictured are the 2007 Florida Marlins’ top draft picks kneeling, from the left are, Bryan Petersen and Jameson Smith. Standing are Michael Stanton, Matthew Dominguez and Steve Cishek. Photo courtesy of George Sisson

JAMESTOWN — One late-summer afternoon in 2007, a 17-year-old outfielder with the Jamestown Jammers by the name of Mike Stanton took his turn in the batting cage at Diethrick Park.

A second-round pick in the MLB draft that year, Stanton didn’t sign with the Florida Marlins organization until August and, consequently, had been with the Jammers for all of one day, but George Sisson, the team’s assistant general manager that season, will always remember the teenager’s introduction to the franchise on the city’s east side.

“A pitch is thrown to Stanton … and he hits an absolute seed,” Sisson recalled Wednesday afternoon.

Unfortunately, first-round pick Matt Dominguez, who was taking groundballs at third base, had no time to react.

“It was a split-second from (Stanton’s) bat to (Dominguez’s) sternum,” Sisson said. “Dominguez dropped to one knee like he got shot in a Western. He goes down, and the gasps in that stadium in that moment were unbelievable.”

Stanton, who now uses “Giancarlo” as his first name, had literally left quite an impression.

“If that ball had hit me, you would have found the baseball sticking out of my backbone,” Sisson said.

In other words, Stanton introduced a short-season Class A team in the New York-Pennsylvania League to the term “exit velocity” long before it became commonplace in America’s pastime years later.

After the team trainer looked at Dominguez on the field, Sisson said he paid a visit to the clubhouse and found the infielder with a bag of ice on his chest.

“I remember Dominguez saying to the trainer, ‘Tell (the manager) I can play tonight,'” Sisson recalled.

And he did.

According to the boxscore published in The Post-Journal the next day, Dominguez belted a homer for the Jammers’ only run in a 2-1 loss to Batavia, but he also committed an error which, according to Sisson, drew some catcalls from the fans in the stands.

“I told the guys that if they only knew what that kid went through an hour and a half ago,” Sisson said.

For the record, Stanton didn’t exactly tear the cover off the ball during his nine games in Jamestown. In fact, he hit just .067 (2-for-30) with a home run and two RBIs.

That is merely a distant memory for the now 31-year-old.

The outfielder/designated hitter for the New York Yankees is coming off a recent four-game stretch in which he terrorized the Boston Red Sox and Toronto Blue Jays with four home runs and 13 RBIs in the Yankees’ battle for a postseason playoff berth.

“He was always very kind, very pleasant,” recalled Sisson, who is now the director of athletics at Jamestown Community College. “You would never know he was a high draft pick by the way he carried himself and by his interactions with his teammates.”

In other words, Stanton — he of the 347 career home runs and an MVP award — was just another teenager looking to find his way in the low minors.

Or, on occasion, seeking a ride to the Walmart in Lakewood, so he could get some snacks and drinks.

Sisson was more than happy to be the chauffeur.

Years later, he and his wife, Kim, remember those trips fondly.

“I don’t think there’s a time I go to Walmart that that doesn’t come up,” he said.