It is no secret that Prince Fielder and his father, Cecil Fielder, have a fractured relationship. Stemming from the moment Cecil demanded a portion of Prince's salary as a reward for helping him negotiate his first MLB contract, the two had a falling out and refused to speak with each other. But after the younger Fielder received a huge nine-year, $214 million contract from the Detroit Tigers, we never got the chance to hear what the older Fielder thought of the most recent chapter in his son's life. That is, until yesterday.
During last night's Ted Williams Hitters Hall of Fame induction ceremony, Cecil Fielder used his time on the mic to detail some very personal issues that he has with his own son. "As a father, of course you're proud of what your son's been able to accomplish on the field. But as a father also you worry about how he is growing as a man, how—I want to say this correctly—how he is communicating with everybody that had something to do with how he got to where he is. And that part of my son, I think we're all a little disappointed."
Cecil went on to reveal that the Tigers' newly acquired first baseman has no relationship with any members of their extended family, he "hides behind" agent Scott Boras' representatives to dodge discussions over his family, and he shows no appreciation for those who helped him along the way. "We all knew the kid was obese. He had a hard time running to first base without getting tired. You don't transform your body by yourself, you've got to have trainers, you've got to have people cooking for you, there's a lot of things that go into that...There's a lot of people that wish he would get over whatever he's got going on with his self...Once he gets rid of that, I think those people he needs to reach out to other than me, I think hopefully he will."
Hey Cecil, did you leave anything out? We're just going to go out on a whim here, but there's no chance of a father-son reconciliation anytime soon, right?
[via SB Nation]
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