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Three-time All-Star First Baseman & Designated Hitter Cecil Fielder was one of the most feared sluggers in the American League in the early 1990s. In 1990, when he smashed 51 circuit clouts for the Detroit Tigers, Fielder became the first player in the A.L. to hit 50 home-runs in a season in 29 years, since team-mates Roger Maris (61* (2001)) and Mickey Mantle (54) both accomplished the feat for the World's Champion New York Yankees in 1961. (In those pre-steroid, pre-human growth hormone halcyon days of baseball, George Foster of the National League Cinncinnatti Reds was the only other player to pole 50 dingers, going yard 52 times for The Big Red Machine in 1977).
What was remarkable about Fielder's feat was that it was part of a come-back to the Big Leagues. Fielder had played baseball in Japan after quitting the Toronto Blue Jays, with whom he had appeared in the 1985 American League Championship Series. Coming back with the Tigers, he excelled as a power hitter. Ironically, Detroit's old ball-yard was known as lefty-friendly, with a second-tier of seating overhanging left field that made it relatively easy for a left-handed hitter with power to park one in the second deck. But Cecil Fielder was a righty, which makes his accomplishment (he followed his 51-tater season with 44, 33, 30, 28 and 39 homers, the last total split between the Tigers and the New York Yankees, whose stadium also favored left-handed power hitters and actually punished righties.) With the Yankees, Fiedler played in two A.L.C.S.s (1996 and '97) and was a member of manager 'Joe Torre''s '96 World's Championship Yankees team, batting .391 in six games (but ironically, not hitting a single home run).
In his career, his best hitting was done with the Tigers, with whom he twice led the American League in home-runs (1990 and '91) and three times in runs batted in (1990, '91 and '92). He was the runner-up in A.L. Most Valuable Player voting in consecutive years, 1990 and '91.
Cecil Fielder retired from baseball after dropping off to 13 homers with the Yankees in 1997 and 17 homers in a 1998 season split between the Anaheim Angels and Cleveland Indians. He ended his career with 319 home-runs and 1008 R.B.I.s. His son, right-handed-hitting Prince Fielder, is a star First Baseman with the Milwaukee Brewers and is on a pace in 2007 to tie or surpass his father's mark of 51 home-runs.
