Power, No Glory : Fielder Putting Up Big Numbers for the Tigers, Who Give Him Little Help in Lineup or Standings

Cecil Fielder is feeling good, feeling comfortable. Hasn’t felt like this at the plate in a long time, he says.

Maybe since 1991, when he hit 44 homers and drove in 133 runs after having hit 51 and driven in 132 a year earlier.

“Locked in,” Fielder says. “Mentally there. Just have to be patient. Can’t swing at stuff in the dirt or above my head. If they challenge me in the zone I’m going to hit it.”

He hit three homers in Toronto on Tuesday and leads the majors with nine, two shy of the record for April. He leads the majors in runs batted in with 21 and faces the Angels in Anaheim tonight on a pace to hit 90 homers this season.

A fast start for the slow starter. He even has a stolen base, the first in 1,097 games for the 6-foot-3, estimated-to-be 257-pound first baseman, who changed his diet during the off-season and took off 20 to 40 pounds.

Feeling good, indeed. And he could feel better only if he knew for sure his production really translated to something in the standings.

The Detroit Tigers are rebuilding. They probably won’t be ready to compete for an American League East title for two years or more.

Fielder is 32. He did some rebuilding of his own by going to Japan in 1989, by going to winter leagues in Colombia and Venezuela and Puerto Rico.

Now he wants to win, to know that his team has a chance, at least. He said as much during the winter and was perceived to have said he wanted to be traded.

That wasn’t quite what he said, but he isn’t backing off either. It’s just that now, in the first month of the new season, Fielder is also careful to say he’s having fun, likes how the young Tigers go hard for nine innings, knows that it was time for an offense-oriented organization that had always put emphasis on veteran free agents because of a “terrible farm system” to turn that around.

He also says that the load can’t always be on the offense, that an absence of pitching--the Tigers have given up eight runs or more in 10 of 17 games--has been a familiar theme with the organization for too long.

“My concern is that I’m not 21, and getting beat up every day wears you down,” he said. “I don’t say, ‘Put me on the best team.’ I say, ‘Put me on a team where what I do makes a difference.’ I’m only saying what Wayne Gretzky said in L.A. I want to compete.

“If I had a choice, I’d like to see it happen with this team because this is where I’ve had my success. We’re playing well and I’m trying to stay positive, but we haven’t played Baltimore or New York, the beasts of the East, yet. All I’m saying is that I want to be fired up when I go on the field. It’s not enough to put in your time, pick up your check and not care about how you got beat or how you’re going to get better. I want a chance to win.”

The check is nice, of course. Fielder signed a five-year, $36-million contract in 1993. He has a 55-room mansion near Orlando, Fla., and a neighbor named Shaquille O’Neal. He’s a long way from playing the backcourt at Nogales High and dreaming about doing it with the Lakers, from unloading produce trucks during the summers.

The check is nice, yes, but the $9.2-million salary--the highest in baseball--makes him difficult to trade and doesn’t compensate for the scoreboard or the pressure he feels in the batter’s box. Last year, with no reliable protection, Fielder still hit 31 homers and drove in 82 runs in a short season, but tended to swing at anything and everything. He seldom got a pitch when it meant something.

“Mickey Tettleton had always been a threat behind Cece,” said Alan Trammell, one of the few veterans left in the Tiger clubhouse. “People may not have recognized the luxury until he was gone. Baseball is a contagious game. You need help, people to feed off.

“A large part of what Albert Belle did [in hitting 50 home runs with Cleveland last year] stemmed from the people he had around him. I’m not taking anything away from him, but he wouldn’t have had that year in our lineup. Was Cece frustrated? I think that describes it.”

Said Fielder: “Individually, I could make a big point of that, but it’s the whole scenario that’s frustrating. Face it, not having a competitive team is frustrating.”

The Tigers would prefer Fielder didn’t talk about all this, but in their eyes, it hasn’t eroded his leadership.

“When a player reaches an age at which he’s uncertain of how much he has left, there’s an anxiety and impatience that develops,” new Manager Buddy Bell said. “When you’ve put up the numbers he has, it’s scary to hear your team talk about rebuilding. The things Cecil is saying are understandable and probably true, but there’s not a whole lot we can do about it. I don’t take it personally, and I don’t think the organization does. We all want to win.”

Bell added that the only thing he has talked to Fielder about is the issue of protection, stressing that he has to be patient, that it wouldn’t matter who bats behind him because he’s a marked man, that as the major league home run leader in the ‘90s and the RBI leader for three consecutive years starting in 1990, teams aren’t going to let him beat them with the game on the line. Trammell has also talked to Fielder.

“I told him, ‘Cece, as long as we’re still here, let’s have some fun and forget the things we have no control over.’ ” Trammell said. “He’s a quality person who recognizes his responsibilities. I mean, we know this is a team that’s probably not going to win for a couple of years, but he’s quietly tried to step up and become a leader. I think the young guys are feeding off that.”

It may be easier to have fun in April than August, to stay patient before the losses mount.

Fielder is making no predictions as to where this good start takes him numerically. He would like to think that what he does will eventually take him to a winner.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Chasing Roger Maris

As Cecil Fielder pursues the single-season home run record, here’s how some of the most prolific sluggers in history fared month by month:

Player: Roger Maris*

Year: 1961

Total: 61

*

Player: Babe Ruth

Year: 1927

Total: 60

*

Player: Hack Wilson

Year: 1930

Total: 56

*

Player: Cecil Fielder

Year: 1990

Total: 51

*

Player: Cecil Fielder

Year: 1996

Total: ?

* Maris hit his first homer on May 3, the Yankees’ 17th game.

Researched by HOUSTON MITCHELL / Los Angeles Times

Fast Starts

Single-season home run leaders for month of April and number they hit that season:

*--*

Player, Year April Total Graig Nettles, 1974 11 22 Mike Schmidt, 1976 11 38 Willie Stargell, 1971 11 48 Reggie Jackson, 1974 10 29 Dave Kingman, 1984 10 35 Mark McGwire, 1992 10 42 Tony Perez, 1970 10 40 Frank Robinson, 1969 10 32 Gary Sheffield, 1994 *10 27 Matt Williams, 1994 *10 43

*--*

*--strike-shortened season

Source: Home Run Encyclopedia