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Cecil Fielder
Nickname(s): Big Daddy
Born: 1963

DH-1B 1985-88, 90-98 Blue Jays, Tigers, Yankees, Angels, Indians

Cecil Fielder's Teammates

  • All Star 1990-91, 93
  • Led AL in HRs 1990-91
  • Led AL in RBIs 1990-92

GamesAverageHRRBI
Career 1470.2553191008
League DS 5.26315
League CS 8.19028
World Series 6.39102

Books and articles about Cecil Fielder

After 31 home runs in four seasons as a part-timer for the Blue Jays, Fielder revived his major-league career following a year in Japan, emerging almost overnight as one of the 90s most prolific sluggers and placing his name alongside baseball's most-hallowed home runs heroes. Often weighing in at over 250 pounds, he put to full use his considerable girth, massive arms and powerful legs, uncoiling a ferocious, all-or-nothing swing in the classic power-hitter mold that routinely generated both tape-measure blasts and prodigious strikeout totals. The good-natured first baseman, immensely popular with fans and players alike, was the first Tiger to hit a baseball completely over the left field roof at Tiger Stadium, and the first player ever to hit a ball over the outfield bleachers at Milwaukee's County Stadium. An harbinger of the home run happy decade that followed, Fielder's 51 circuit blasts in 1990 marked the first time an AL player had reached 50 since Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris in 1961.

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In 1989 Fielder blasted 38 round trippers for the Hanshin Tigers, leading Japan's Central League with a .628 slugging percentage. Detroit took a chance and signed him to a two-year deal in January 1990. Fielder made the decision look like a good investment when he began wowing teammates and opposing hurlers with displays of his massive power in spring training while winning the club's first base job. Overcoming a slow start to the regular season, Fielder soon heated up (including a three-homer display on May 6th at Toronto) and didn't stop busting fences the rest of the season. On October 3rd, the final game of the year, he joined the 50-home run club by clouting a pair of circuit blasts at Yankee Stadium. He led all of baseball in home runs, RBIs (132) and slugging percentage (.592), while also leading the AL in total bases and extra-base hits. His 182 strikeouts, meanwhile, were the fifth-highest total in baseball history. He finished second to Rickey Henderson in the AL MVP voting.

The next year produced much of the same. Fielder again led all of baseball in home runs (44) and RBIs (133), and again finished second in the MVP voting, this time behind Orioles shortstop Cal Ripken Jr. Angry over missing out on the honor for the second straight season, Fielder lashed out at over the voters, going so far as to accuse them of racism in their selection of Ripken, who was white.

He felt snubbed again in 1992, when he was left off the All Star team despite leading the league in RBIs at the midway point. "It's an ugly situation," Fielder said. "Is it the city we play in? Is it that so few fans come to our games?" He added that, "It's kind of petty stuff compared to the other disappointments of my career", referring to the years he spent in Toronto, when he posted good numbers in limited action but had to play in Japan to prove he deserved a full-time job. At season's end Fielder wound up third to Juan Gonzalez and Mark McGwire in the home run chase, but his 124 RBIs made him the first American Leaguer since Babe Ruth to lead the majors in runs batted in for three consecutive seasons. Over the next several years he continued to pile up impressive power totals for a series of mediocre Tiger teams. In the ninth inning of an April 2nd game at the Minnesota Metrodome, Fielder took off from first on a hit-and-run and lumbered safely into second when Melvin Nieves swung through the pitch and catcher Greg Myers' throw kicked off the heel of shortstop Pat Meares. It was Fielder's first stolen base at any level since 1984, and his first ever in 1,096 major-league games, a record for the most games at the start of a career without a steal. The Minnesota crowd cheered wildly after learning that it was his first steal, and after the game a Twins' attendant delivered the base to his locker. "The pressure is off now," Fielder said. "He (manager Buddy Bell) might start moving me a little more now that he has seen me run. Hopefully he won't."

After years of finishing well out of pennant contention with Detroit, Fielder was sent to the Yankees for outfielder Ruben Sierra in July 1996 just hours before the trading deadline. He launched 13 of his 39 home runs during his 53 games with New York, but his most vital contributions came during the post-season. Fielder homered and drove in four runs during the Yanks' four-game dismissal of Texas in the Division Series, and then helped New York polish off Baltimore with home runs in Game Three and Five of the League Championship Series at Camden Yards. His biggest hit however, which came during Game Five of the World Series at Atlanta, did not leave the ballpark. With the series even at the two games apiece and Andy Pettitte and John Smoltz settled into a scoreless pitcher's duel, Fielder ripped a fourth-inning double down the left field line to score Charlie Hayes. It would stand up as the only run of the game (and the last in the history of Fulton-County Stadium), as the Yankees hung on to claim a 3-2 series advantage. The club would win again in Game Six to capture the franchise's first World Series since 1978.

Fielder spent one more year with the Yankees, hitting just 13 home runs in 361 at-bats. He signed a free-agent deal with Anaheim in December 1997, and was tied for the team lead with 68 RBIs before unexpectedly getting released that August. Many speculated that the club didn't want to pay him several performance bonuses he would soon have been due, or that he failed to get along with manager Terry Collins. Whatever the reason, the Indians promptly picked him up for a pennant-run boost to their lineup, but let him go in mid-September after he hit .143 in 14 games. The following spring he signed a minor-league contract with the Blue Jays but was cut just before the start of the season when Toronto traded for Dave Hollins to serve as their DH. (AGL)


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FROM THE BASEBALL CHRONOLOGY
» January 15, 1990: Former Blue Jay Cecil Fielder signs with Detroit as a free agent after spending last season with Japan's Hanshin Tigers, where he hit 38 home runs.

» May 6, 1990: Cecil Fielder clubs three home runs, but the Tigers still lose to the Blue Jays 11–7. Toronto's Kelly Gruber hits two home runs to give him nine for the year, one behind Fielder. Ten home runs are hit in the game, one shy of the ML record.

» June 6, 1990: For the 2nd time this season, Cecil Fielder belts three home runs in a game, as Detroit beats the Indians 6–4. Fielder is only the 4th American League player to have two 3-HR games in a season.

» October 3, 1990: Cecil Fielder becomes the 11th player ever to hit 50 home runs when he belts his 50th and 51st in the Tigers' season finale, a 10–3 win over New York. He is the first AL player since 1961 to reach the 50 mark. Kevin Maas and Gary Ward also homer as Jack Morris (15–18) is the winner. Maas ends the season with 21 homers and 41 RBI, the only player, till Barry Bonds in 2001 to not double his homer total in RBI.

» November 20, 1990: Oakland's Rickey Henderson edges Detroit's Cecil Fielder for the American League MVP Award. Henderson hit .325 with 28 home runs and a ML-best 65 stolen bases.

» September 14, 1991: In the Tigers' 6-4 win over the Brewers, Detroit's Cecil Fielder hits a 502-foot home run, which is believed to be the 1st ball ever hit out of Milwaukee's County Stadium, off Dan Plesac. The ball lands in the back of a truck driven by Gary Schumacher, who doesn't stop until he is near Madison.

» November 8, 1991: Cal Ripken, Jr. is named the American League MVP, beating out Cecil Fielder of Detroit. The Gold Glove third baseman hit .323, 34 homers, and 114 RBIs.

» January 28, 1992: Tigers 1B Cecil Fielder avoids arbitration by agreeing to a $4.5 million contract, for the largest single–season deal in history.

» January 7, 1993: The Tigers sign Cecil Fielder to a 5-year $36 million contract, temporarily making him the highest paid player in the majors.

» June 6, 1993: Tigers defeat the Angels, 11-4. In the course of the game, they pull off a rare feat by hitting for the cycle in a 4-hitter span. With one out in the 3rd inning, Travis Fryman singles, Cecil Fielder homers, Kirk Gibson doubles, and Chad Kreuter triples. Of the five California pitchers to take the mound, the only one to retire Detroit in order is IF Rene Gonzalez, who has not pitched since American Legion ball.

» July 3, 1993: Detroit's Cecil Fielder becomes the 3rd player in history to homer onto the left field roof at Tiger Stadium, doing so in the Tigers' 11-5 loss to the Rangers. Harmon Killebrew and Frank Howard are the only other players to accomplish the feat.

» May 28, 1995: In a 14–12 White Sox win, the Tigers and Chicago combine to hit 12 home runs—7 by the Tigers—and 21 extra-base hits to set a major league and American League mark, respectively. The 2-teams combine to set a ML for extra bases on long hits (45), with Detroit contributing 24. The Sox start rookie James Baldwin (25 hits, 15 runs in 13.1 innings) and Detroit remainders him with a leadoff home run by Chad Curtis, a walk, single and 3-run homer by Cecil Fielder. Curtis and Fielder each homer in the 2nd to finish the rookie. The Sox sink David Wells with successive homers in the 4th by Durham, Karkovice, and Grebeck. Cecil Fielder, Chad Curtis, Kirk Gibson, and Ron Karkovice each homer twice, setting another AL mark for the most players with two home runs in a game. Ray Durham, Craig Grebeck, Frank Thomas, and Lou Whitaker also connect for 4-baggers. Detroit's Danny Bautista, anxious to join the home run derby, fans five times (on 18 pitches) in six at bats to tie another mark for a nine inning game

» April 2, 1996: Cecil Fielder pulls a belated April fool's joke on the Twins when, in the 9th inning, he takes off for 2nd base with a 3-2 count on Melvin Nieves and beats the throw from catcher Greg Myers. Fielder's swipe is his first in 1,096 games in the majors. Tiger rookie RHP Clint Sodowsky allows seven hits in five innings in his debut, and the Tigers win 10–6.

» April 16, 1996: Cecil Fielder pounds three home runs to lead the Tigers to a 13–8 clipping of the Blue Jays. Fielder has now hit nine homers for April.

» April 28, 1996: On the 100th anniversary of the opening of Bennett Field at Michigan and Trumbull Avenues, the Tigers lose to the A's, 6–3. Scott Brosius rings up his 3rd two-homer game of the season, and Mark McGwire adds a homer, estimated at 462 feet, that almost clears the RF roof at Tiger Stadium, to lead the A's. Oakland collects four homers off Greg Gohr, and adds another, while Detroit bangs two, including Cecil Fielder's 10th of the year.

» May 1, 1996: Roger Clemens strikes out 13 Tigers, including Cecil Fielder three times, for his first win of the year. The 5–1 victory for the Sox sends Detroit to its 12th loss in 13 games.

» June 15, 1996: At the Metrodome, Cecil Fielder's routine fly ball hits the ceiling for a 2-out 2-run double in the 7th breaks a 5–5 tie. The Tigers win, 7–5.

» June 25, 1996: In Detroit, the A's outslug the Tigers, 12–8. Bobby Higginson and Jason Giambi each drive in five runs while Cecil Fielder and Mark McGwire match homers. For McGwire, it is #300.

» July 31, 1996: At the trading deadline, Detroit trades 1B-DH Cecil Fielder, 32, to the Yankees for OF-DH Ruben Sierra and minor league P Matt Drews. The Yankees also obtain P David Weathers from the Marlins for P Mark Hutton, but will send him to the minors in three weeks.

» October 13, 1996: The Yankees defeat the Orioles, 6-4, giving them the American League pennant. The victors score all of their runs in the 3rd inning, which features home runs by Jim Leyritz, Cecil Fielder, and Darryl Strawberry. Scott Erickson gives the three homers in one inning, a first in the LCS. Bobby Bonilla, Todd Zeile, and Eddie Murray homer for the losers.

» April 26, 1997: The Yankees beat the White Sox by a score of 10-2 as DH Cecil Fielder gets five hits, including two doubles and a homer.

» May 11, 1997: Ruben Sierra, released by the Cincinnati Reds last week, signs a minor league contract with the Toronto Blue Jays. Sierra, 31, hit .244 with two homers with the Reds. The Yankees sent Sierra to Detroit last season as part of the Cecil Fielder trade, but Detroit is paying $4,875,000 of his $5.5 million contract. Sierra will play 14 games with Toronto, then get released again.

» June 18, 1997: At a packed Yankee Stadium, the Yankees edge the Mets, 3–2 on a 10th-inning RBI single by Tino Martinez. Solo home runs by Chad Curtis and Cecil Fielder off Rick Reed gives the Yankees their lead and Yankee starter David Cone dominates his former team and does not allow a hit until John Olerud's leadoff double in the seventh. The three games at Yankee Stadium draw 168,719.

» June 23, 1997: In Detroit, Yankee righty David Cone strikes out 16, his highest total in six years, and Cecil Fielder hits a three-run homer as New York wins, 5–2. Cone, who had shoulder surgery to repair an aneurysm on May 10, 1996, allows four hits, including homers by Bob Hamelin and Damion Easley, in eight innings.

» July 15, 1997: Despite a sluggish performance, Hideki Irabu wins his second major league start, leading the Yankees over Cleveland, 12-6. Irabu gives up five runs and nine hits in five innings, allowing homers to Tony Fernandez, Marquis Grissom, and Matt Williams. Cecil Fielder, the Yank's 270-pound DH, tries to score from first on a double and his head first slide results in a broken right thumb. Fielder will miss eight weeks.

» June 9, 1998: Cecil Fielder of the Angels and Yamil Benitez of the Diamondbacks each hit grand slams in the same inning in Anaheim's 10–8 win over Arizona. It is the 1st time that both teams hit grand slams in the same inning since 1992. Darin Erstad adds five hits for the Angels, while Fielder brings home six runs altogether.