HEAVEN SENT

Cecil Fielder’s bad moods usually disappear more quickly than a plate of food in front of the slugger, who is affectionately known as “Big Daddy.”

The Angels’ new designated hitter has a happy-go-lucky personality and a 1,000-watt smile that can fill a clubhouse with warmth and laughter, and why shouldn’t he?

His life has been filled with fame and fortune, his prodigious feats as a power hitter earning him a five-year, $36-million contract in 1993.

He has been married to his high-school sweetheart for 14 years, they have a son (13) and a daughter (6), and they live in a 19,500-square-foot, 50-room Florida dream house that is equipped with so many amenities they rarely have to leave home.

But for much of 1997, Fielder was downright grumpy. It was hard to tell--he wasn’t snapping at reporters every day or short with his teammates. But his relationship with the New York Yankees had grown so acrimonious that he actually considered leaving the game.

“It was not a fun year at all,” Fielder, 34, said of injury-plagued 1997, when he had only 13 homers and 61 runs batted in and went on the disabled list for the first time in his career.

“I lost that loving feeling for a while. I didn’t feel comfortable, the fans and George [Steinbrenner, Yankee owner] made it difficult, and it gave me a bad taste about playing. I considered retirement, but that would have been a mistake because I still have some things I want to accomplish.”

It was a bizarre transformation for Fielder, who went from World Series hero in 1996, when he hit .391 to help the Yankees defeat the Atlanta Braves, to bum in the eyes of Steinbrenner and Yankee fans, who were so peeved at Fielder last spring they booed him on opening day.

It began with Fielder, unwilling to be a platoon designated hitter with Darryl Strawberry, asking to be traded at the beginning of spring training. Some thought this was a ploy to pressure the team into signing him to a contract extension.

The Yankees had until March 15 to trade Fielder or risk losing him to free agency, but a minute before the deadline, at 11:59 p.m. on March 14, Fielder’s agent phoned the team and revoked the trade demand, assuring Fielder of his $7.2-million salary.

There were reports of a heated exchange between the agent and Steinbrenner, who was not happy that Fielder’s weight had bloated to 271 pounds, and New York columnists ripped the “money-hungry” Fielder for not having the guts or conviction to forsake his contract and leave.

It took Yankee fans less than a New York minute to weigh in with their displeasure.

“That was hard, getting booed on opening day,” said Fielder, who has averaged 33 homers and 107 RBIs for the past eight years. “That first day pretty much set the tone for the whole season.”

Things only got worse. On July 15 against Cleveland, Fielder tore a ligament in his right thumb during a headfirst dive into home plate, an injury that sidelined him for two months.

By the time Fielder returned in mid-September, it was clear the Yankees had no intention of re-signing him, even though Fielder used much of the down time to shed a few dozen pounds. There was one benefit to his DL stint, though: It cleared his head.

“Everyone comes to a point in their career when they wonder if this is what they really want to do,” Fielder said. “But you don’t realize how much you miss the game until the first time you’re home watching it. I made up my mind I wanted to play.”

The rest of baseball didn’t seem too convinced. Fielder had only two decent free-agent offers, from the Angels and Minnesota Twins, and the former Nogales High three-sport star chose to return to Southern California, taking a huge pay cut to $2.8 million.

It could be the steal of the season. Fielder reported to spring training in excellent shape, weighing about 245 pounds, and he’s highly motivated to prove to everyone, especially Steinbrenner and the Yankees, he can still play. And how convenient: The Angels open the season at home against New York on April 1.

“I was really surprised we were able to get him,” Angel Manager Terry Collins said. “One of the things that excites me about him is he wants to show people he’s not done. He’ll worry about next year when the time comes. He wants to put up big numbers and if he does, he’ll get another big contract.”

Fielder will probably bat behind Tim Salmon in the middle of the lineup, providing more protection for the Angels’ best hitter and, Collins hopes, the extra power the team lacked in 1997.

“One of the things the coaches felt at the end of last year was that we needed someone else in the lineup who could pick up a run with one swing,” Collins said. “And Cecil is a guy, like Mark McGwire and Ken Griffey, who immediately comes to mind.”

He’s more than a bomb dispenser, though. Fielder has a knack for performing in the clutch--he’s a lifetime .333 (43 for 129) hitter with the bases loaded--and he showed in 1996 he doesn’t cower in the spotlight.

A July 31 trade that season liberated Fielder from the Detroit Tigers and sent him to New York, where he hit .308 with three homers and 14 RBIs during the Yankees’ postseason run.

Atlanta pitchers fed him a steady diet of outside pitches in the World Series, but Fielder showed his versatility by slapping several base hits into right field. He also homered in the Yankees’ 5-2 Game 3 victory in Atlanta and hit an RBI double in their 1-0 Game 5 win.

“You’ve just got to want to be up in those situations,” Fielder said. “You can’t go up and say, ‘My God, there’s runners on second and third and no outs.’ You have to relax and look for a pitch to drive, not just one to put in play. That’s when you become a battler. Dealing with pressure makes you a better player.”

Regardless of what Fielder does in Anaheim, he has had a pretty good career for a guy who was once called “a non-athlete” by then-Toronto Blue Jay general manager Pat Gillick--who sold Fielder to the Japanese Hanshin Tigers in 1989--and who was a better football and basketball player in high school.

A smooth-passing, 6-foot-3 point guard, Fielder led Nogales to the 1981 Southern Section 2-A semifinals in the Sports Arena, but his team missed a chance for a perfect season when his 30-foot shot hit the front of the rim at the buzzer.

A decade--and more than a few pounds--later, hoping to prove himself to his skeptical Tiger teammates, Fielder procured a copy of a San Gabriel Valley Tribune photo that showed him dunking, and it was passed around the clubhouse.

“I said, ‘That’s me, man,’ ” Fielder said. “They couldn’t believe it.”

Baseball was an afterthought for Fielder--he didn’t go out for the varsity team until his junior year. His dream growing up in La Puente was to play for the Lakers, not the Angels. “If I was six inches taller,” Fielder said, “I would have had the chance.”

Fielder won’t be whipping no-look passes to Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant in the Great Western Forum when he returns to Southern California this spring, but at least his relatives and friends will get to see him perform for another hometown team.

“This is going to be real neat--I’ve pretty much come full circle,” Fielder said. “If things work out here, I’d like to play three years and retire. My family is all excited about me coming back, and if we win, it will make it that much better.”