Prince Fielder To Tigers

[Enigma869]

Looks like he is now truly stepping into his dad's shadow. A bit surprised that he would sign with Detroit, given his non-existent relationship with Cecil. I guess the money talks, as usual.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/74982 ... llion-deal

[AR]

That is a crazy contract. Wow.

[Ehwmatt]

Should be interesting to see what all that extra weight does to Prince in a few years when he gets on the wrong side of 30. Good lord, no professional athlete should be getting 9 or 10-year contracts. What a fucked up system.

I didn't know he didn't have a relationship with Cecil. How come?

[Enigma869]

I didn't know he didn't have a relationship with Cecil. How come?

Don't know all the details, but I'm reasonably certain that they haven't even spoken to each other in many years.

[Don]

Cecil Fielder tells reporter Jeremy Schaap of ESPN what caused his relationship with his son to sour to a point where they don’t speak and Cecil has vowed never to attend any of his son’s games.


Cecil Fielder told Schaap the estrangement began when his marriage with Stacy began to break up, with each blaming the other for recklessly spending the fortune Cecil made as a player. He says his wife turned their two children, Prince and his sister, Cecilynn, against him.

“When you got a parent hammering that it’s going south and everything that’s going south, and everything south, and your daddy did it . . . I had nothing to do with it, it’s your dad’s fault,” Fielder told Schaap.
Fielder says it was wrong for his ex-wife to bring the children into their disagreements.
“With her mashing, she wanted to involve those children and I told her, to this day, that was the wrong thing to do,” Fielder said. “And the fact that she let him think he was the man, Prince felt that he could talk to me any way that he wanted to at that point and I was like, ‘Look dude . . . it ain’t going down like that.’ ”

Schaap asked Fielder what caused the estrangement.

“I’m telling you that last conversation is the reason why we’re estranged,” Fielder said. “I’m just telling you . . . if you heard how Prince was talking to me, calling me the names he was calling me.”
Fielder wants to be a grandfather to his son’s two children.

There's also the rumor of Cecil allegedly taking $200,000 of an 18-year-old Prince’s signing bonus from the Brewers. I could see the kid getting bent out of shape about that, especially the way Cecil mismanaged his own 180 million dollars in salary over the years.
“I ain’t going to turn my back on my grandkids because my son is acting crazy,” Fielder said.
Cecil Fielder resides in Atlanta with his second wife and Prince’s sister. He is a manager of the Charlotte County Redfish, a minor-league baseball team in Port Charlotte, Fla.
Fielder said he tried to reconcile with his son at a Brewers-Atlanta Braves games last year.
It went badly.
According to Fielder, two security men came up to him inside the park and told him his son wanted him to wait outside the park. As he was leaving, Fielder said he asked Prince’s wife if he could take a picture of his two grandchildren, who were with their mom at the game.
“So I said, ‘Hey, before I leave, let me take a picture of my grandkids,’ ” Fielder said. “So this girl says it’s up to their father. I said, ‘I will never, ever go to a baseball game to see my son play. I ain’t going.’ I will watch him play, but I ain’t going. Because that was probably the worst thing that I have ever dealt with on the baseball field or at a ballpark. My son, this kid that I raised in baseball, telling me to leave the ballpark. I ain’t never going. Until he grows up enough to talk to me like a man, I ain’t going.”

There's also the issue of Cecil allegedly taking $200,000 of an 18-year-old Prince’s signing bonus from the Brewers. With the way Pops blew though 180 million dollars of salary over the years, I could see why the kid would be pissed.

[Uno_up]

Who the hell was Detroit competing with to get Fielder?...How was someone able to drive the contract up so high and for so many years? I am at a loss...I follow baseball very closely and the latest I had heard was that their were only rumors of him getting a 1-year deal with a team. This reeks of the A-Rod deal where Texas was bidding against themselves. This deal will be a disaster by year 5 latest, and because of his defense, he might not even be worth the $20+MM today. Plus, if Miggy really does move to 3rd, ouch.

It is absurd, but Ilitch will most likely not outlive the contract. This guy wants to win soooo badly. Now he has to money-up for the post-game buffets for the big guy. It'll be like a Rambo flick!

[conversationpc]

Sounds like Cecil has some problems of his own but, if any of that is true, the kid needs to grow up and man up. It's too bad those kids don't get to see their grandfather.

[Ehwmatt]

Sounds like Cecil has some problems of his own but, if any of that is true, the kid needs to grow up and man up. It's too bad those kids don't get to see their grandfather.

If Cecil took some of Prince's money, that alone is enough to drive the wedge forever. I've seen it time and again. Plus, add on the typical divorce one parent pitting the other parent as the bad guy brainwashing for all his life, and taking the money was probably plenty to make Prince say he was done forever.

I will say, and granted we are only getting one side of the story, it sounds like Cecil is dumb, but Prince is a jerk.

[SuiteMadameBlue]

We're going to miss Prince in Milwaukee. He was great to watch.

Here's a young Prince and his Dad during better times

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcvaYgWc9eY

[RPM]

Way to long of a contract. he is a very good player, but worth that over 5 years from now?
FOOLS! same with the A. P. money. both will look like bad contracts in the end!