Prince Fielder should probably just stop making public statements that are not pre-approved by a marketing team at this point. After his poor performance in the 2013 ALCS (.182/.280/.227, with zero RBI's), culminating in a rally-killing belly flop between third base and home plate that will be forever burned in our memories, Prince further alienated already frustrated fans by shrugging off the series loss with the comment, "It isn't really tough, man, for me [to move on] ... I have kids I have to take care of, so, for me it's over, bro."
Whoops.
Compare that to Jim Leyland's comments on the same subject of being eliminated from the postseason: "This one hurts bad because I thought we let it get away ... I'm very sorry that we didn't get that done for you [fans]."
Many could argue (and have) that Prince wasn't unmoved by the loss, he was just expressing that there are more important things in life than baseball - like his kids. Very admirable. But he said it wrong, and it was taken wrong, and he really didn't help his case when a reporter suggested that his comments might seem too flippant for disappointed fans, and his response was, "They don't play."
Well then. [Expletive] you too, buddy.
After all of that, many fans were more than happy to see Fielder pack his bags and head off to Texas. But not all fans. Fielder still has plenty of supporters in Detroit, forgive-and-forget fans who probably would have been inclined to give him a standing ovation as the Rangers come to Comerica Park for the next several days. That won't happen now, because Prince has a herniated disc in his neck, and he won't even be making the cross-country trip to Detroit with his new team.
So how does Prince feel about this turn of events? How does he feel about the fact that he won't be coming back to Comerica at all in 2014?
The headline at CBS Detroit is a little shocking: "Prince Fielder: 'I Don't Give A F--- About The Detroit Series'". (We've since learned he said "shit.") What? There's more to that statement, right? Yes, there is, and in context, he was probably trying to say that he's more concerned with getting healthy and getting back in the game than he is about playing a specific series. His "I don't give a ----" statement was followed with, "I just want to get back." But there it is again: Prince's comments come across as flippant, dismissive of whatever fans he had left in Detroit.
Sorry we won't be seeing you Prince, it would have been nice ... what's that? "I don't give a f--- about the series in Detroit."
Would it have killed him to say, "Yeah, man, I was looking forward to seeing the fans in Detroit again, but it ain't gonna happen, so right now I'm just focused on getting healthy"? Maybe that's too wordy for Prince, so maybe he could have just said, "Yeah, that's a bummer, bro, maybe some other time."
But no. "I don't give a ---- about the series in Detroit."
Well then. [Expletive] you too, buddy.
Good luck with the rest of your season.