Top Tigers #27: Cecil Fielder
By Blake VandeBunte • Feb 18th, 2009 • Category: Cecil Fielder, Top 100 Tigers- Rank: 27
- Name: Cecil Grant Fielder
- Position: First Base
- Tigers Tenure: 1990-1996
- Awards: All Star (1990-91, 1993), Silver Slugger (1990-91), MVP Votes (1990-1993, finished second in 1990 and 1991)
- Best Season: 1990. Most readers are old enough to recall Fielder’s magical 1990 season. Fielder was in his first season with the Tigers after signing as a free agent from Japan. He was out of MLB for the 1989 season and arrived in Detroit with a bang. He became the first player since George Foster in 1977 to top the 50 HR mark as he slugged 51 home runs. He also drove in 132 runs and finished the season with an OPS+ of 167. Fielder finished either first or second in the AL in the following categories: Slugging Percentage, OPS, Runs, Total Bases, Home Runs, RBI, OPS+, and Extra-Base Hits. He hit two home runs on the final game of the season against the Yankees to put him over the historic mark.
- Good Stuff: Fielder was likable and immensely popular. His big smile and towering home runs made nearly everyone in the state of Michigan a fan. He topped the 30 HR/100 RBI marks in four consecutive seasons and would have made it five straight if not for the player’s strike in 1994. He was the best power hitter in the American League during the first half of the 1990s and his home runs helped bring fans into Tiger Stadium, even though the teams were seldom very good. His 1990 season was one of the best in franchise history. Also, for being such a big fellow, he was surprising good defensively at first base.
- Bad Stuff: Fielder was painfully slow and struck out a lot. He stole the only two bases of his 13 year career during his final season in Detroit. He topped the 100 K mark every season he played with the Tigers. In fact, he topped the 150 K mark during his first three seasons in Detroit. He hit .277 in 1990, but that would be the high water mark for Fielder as his average was usually right around the .250 area. Things didn’t really end well for Fielder in Detroit as he was traded to the Yankees in 1996 for a pile of crap including Ruben Sierra. His personal life after his playing days can be described as checkered at best.
- Place In Tigers History: Fielder and Hank Greenberg are the only Tigers to ever reach the 50 HR mark in a single season. Although he wasn’t in Detroit for that long, Fielder still ranks fifth in franchise history in HR, besting Lou Whitaker by one. The Tigers were coming off a terrible 1989 season and Fielder helped make the Tigers relevant again. Those teams in the early 1990s were a lot of fun to follow and a lot of that had to do with the Big Daddy.
Share
Blake VandeBunte is a posting fiend.
Email this author | All posts by Blake VandeBunte
Big Daddy Cecil in the house!!!
Your boy Gary Sheffield made the MLB Speed Demons Team: http://morehardball.blogspot.com/2009/02/speed-demons-all-stolen-base-team.html
[...] 46, spent six and a half seasons with the Tigers and was named the 27th best Tiger of all-time by this website last [...]