DETROIT — Prince Fielder was giving the Tigers a preview.
There he was, on a field in Lakeland, Fla., during spring training in 2002, a 17-year-old swatting baseballs over fences with such frequency that his father, Cecil, a slugger for seven seasons with the Tigers in the early 1990s, proclaimed afterward: “I’m giving the Tigers a preview.”
But it was Prince hitting those balls and Prince turning those heads, much like he’d been doing throughout his childhood; first on Grosse Pointe, Mich., Little League fields, then at Tiger Stadium, then at Yankees spring training a few years later and then, on that February day in Lakeland, a few months before the plump prodigy would follow his plump parent into the major leagues.
The day, Feb. 19, 2002, and the quotes would serve as a preview of things to come, some sooner than others.
“Of course,” Prince told the Detroit Free Press, he would like the Tigers to draft him.
But the Tigers didn’t get a chance as he went No. 7 overall in that June’s amateur draft to the Milwaukee Brewers, one pick before the Tigers’ selection at No. 8.
And in the years that followed, father and son lost touch over reported disagreements relating to financial losses and Cecil’s divorce from Prince’s mother, Stacey.
Their relationship severed in 2004, during those divorce proceedings, when Prince engaged in shouting matches with Cecil in the courtroom and over the phone, according to a Sports Illustrated story in May 2007.
“Prince felt like he needed to protect his mother and become the man of the house, so we had some heated conversations,” Cecil told the magazine. “Some bad things were said.”
Prince, who was represented by Cecil after being drafted, said his dad took $200,000 of his signing bonus without permission.
Cecil, who was being pursued by creditors, disputed that and told the Yuma (Ariz.) Sun last summer: “Can’t anybody say I didn’t give my son everything in the world.”
And afterward, nothing was said, for two years until father attempted to reconnect with son after a 2006 game in Milwaukee.
There, Cecil told ESPN in 2007, a security guard said Prince wanted his dad removed from the ballpark.
“That was probably the worst thing I’ve ever dealt with at a ballpark,” Cecil told Jeremy Schaap on ESPN’s “E:60.” “My son, this kid that I raised in baseball, telling me to leave a ballpark.”
In 2005, Prince made his major league debut at 21.
In 2006, before an interleague series with the Tigers in Milwaukee, Prince told the Free Press they were “Just another team” and that “It would probably be a little different if we were playing at their stadium.”
And in 2007, Prince became the youngest player in major league history to hit 50 home runs _ making the Fielders the first father-son duo to each hit 50 home runs _ but fell short of besting Cecil’s career-best of 51 home runs with the Tigers in 1990.
As the most attractive free agent on the market after Albert Pujols, the Tigers decided $214 million over nine years for
Prince’s services would be worth it.
In 2002, former Tigers general manager Randy Smith called Prince’s workout “the most raw power I’ve seen from a high school player in batting practice.”
Former Tigers hitting coach Merv Rettenmund said he would have a heck of a career.
And Prince said Comerica Park’s fences were too big.
Now, in 2012, that high school player is a three-time All-Star. He is having a heck of a career. And Comerica Park’s fences have been moved in.
He’s also a family man himself with his wife, Chanel, and sons Haven and Jadyn. And his relationship with his father is getting better.
“We’re having a few chats,” Cecil told Sirius XM’s MLB Radio on Tuesday. “We’re doing a lot better than we were. Time heals all wounds, man… . He’s been there in Detroit most of his young life, so I think he’ll be comfortable.”
Now, he’ll be in Detroit for a good portion of his adult life, and the Tigers’ preview of Prince Fielder is no longer a preview. Now, it’s showtime.
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