Fielder’s Easygoing, but His Life Is Hectic : Baseball: Success on the field keeps Tiger slugger, who leads the majors in home runs and RBIs, busy off the field.

Tony Phillips watched Cecil Fielder’s batting-practice ball settle on the tarp covering Anaheim Stadium’s center-field seats, then listened to the crowd roar in approval.

Phillips, on his way to the batting cage, wondered aloud, “I’ve got to try and follow this?”

Fielder has been a tough act to follow this season. He’s leading the major leagues with 36 home runs and 111 runs batted in, and has the Tigers one game out of first place the AL East. But he struggled Tuesday night, going 0 for 3 and hit by a pitch in a 4-2 loss to the Angels.

Many consider Fielder a candidate for league MVP, an award he thought he should have won last season. He returned last year from a season with the Hanshin Tigers of the Japanese League to lead the AL with 51 homers and 132 RBIs.

“I don’t know if anything can match last year,” he said. “I should have won the MVP then, so that’s why I’m not getting caught up in it this year.

“It’s all up to the sportswriters. And I’m not going to climb into their heads and figure out what they’re thinking.

“I’ll just keep busting my butt for the team, trying to win. But I’m trying to do some of this for myself, too.”

It seems the batting cage is the only place Fielder can find peace these days. A former three-sport standout at Nogales High School, Fielder could barely get to the dugout without an old friend yelling at him from the stands.

“Have I been busy?,” he said. “Busy ain’t the word. I can’t enjoy myself on the road. People I don’t know are coming up to me all the time telling me they’re my friend.

“I just want to go home after the game with a couple buddies and take it easy. I don’t want to go back to the hotel with a whole entourage following me.”

Fielder can barely get a couple hours of sleep at night without his phone ringing.

“I can’t stay at the hotel at all,” he said. “The phone rings there all day and all night long. Friends, reporters, talk shows. I can’t even get any quality time with my mom while I’m here. That’s pretty bad.”

But Fielder said he can rough it for another month or two. At least while the Tigers are in a division race.

“I just keep reminding myself that I have to concern myself with what’s going on on the field,” he said. “You put on your uniform for all these years to get a chance to go to the World Series. Now we have a chance to go.”

Can the Tigers win it all?

“I don’t want to jump the gun,” he said. “But we’re going to be competitive from here on out.”

Despite the distractions and the pressures of the division race, Fielder said he’s maintained a relaxed, easy-going manner. He brought his 7-year-old son, Prince, a miniature clone of his father, on the road trip.

Fielder said Manager Sparky Anderson’s relaxed approach has been a key in the Tigers’ drive for the title.

“Skip don’t bother us at all,” Fielder said. “It’s our names, the players, who are on the lineup card every day. He lets us go out and play, the way it should be.