 Welcome to another edition of Yes We're Here, I'm Jack Curry and today I'm happy to be joined by the man who was known as Big Daddy, prolific power hitter, hit 319 home runs in the major leagues. He was a world champion with the Yankees in 1996. It's good to speak with Cecil Fielder and Cecil, I've got to start by asking, how are you and your family handling all the quarantine? Well, it's going real good. I mean, we've been hunkered down, you know, since the beginning. My wife won't let me out of the house, so right now, we just, you know, at home, just trying to do everything we can to try to keep ourselves entertained and just, you know, just let this thing go. Let this thing hopefully one day go away and we get a cure for it and everybody be all right. Well, you've got a very smart woman behind you telling you. I'm following those rules myself as well. There's so much I want to ask you about your career, Cecil, but I do want to start in 1996. You were so identifiable as this power hitter with the Detroit Tigers, the batter that pitchers feared when they faced the Tigers, and then the Yankees require you. And I remember you being surprised that the Yankees swung that trade for you. What do you remember about hearing the news that you were headed to New York? Well, first of all, I never thought I was going to the Yankees. I didn't think that was going to happen at all. I was more thinking that I might end up in Texas. I don't know why that I thought that, but I thought I might end up in Texas. So when I hit two home runs that night, July 31st, and Buddy Bell told me, okay, that's it. You know, I said, what do you mean? I said, I'm going to give me another one, you know, I'm looking for some extra. And he said, no, that's it. You got to come out of the game. So they brought me out of the game and I was sitting up in the locker room. So my agent called me and said, hey, hold on for a minute. I think we got something going on here. Just hold on. And he got off the phone. That was about 10 o'clock. So I didn't leave the locker room. I stayed in the locker room and all of a sudden he came back on the phone with me and told me that, hey, you're going to the Yankees. I said, no way. I didn't believe it. Yankees had so much already. So I'm thinking that that wasn't going to be a fit, but it was a great fit. It was a great fit for that 1960s. So I want to take you back in time. Here's an article that I wrote at the time when I was writing for the New York Times. You said in my wildest dreams that I didn't think I was going to the Yankees, I was thinking that these guys are already playing excellent baseball. They're not going to change their rhythm. But by adding big daddy, you don't change the rhythm. You just keep things going. How did you keep things going? Man, I just tried to just fit in, man. I think coming over and just not trying to do too much, just fit in because that was going to be one of those exceptional years no matter what. Now it wouldn't have been exceptional if we wouldn't have won because that's what the goal was. But I think when they brought me over, it was just easy to fit in. My boy Tony was here, Strahl was here. Everybody was just doing what they do, man. Wade Boggs on the other corner. My boy Charlie Hayes. I have my boys here. So the kid, Jeter at the time, it took him to give me a haircut. It was just all love. I messed in quick. And then Joe kind of helped things too because he was so cool with it. Hey, man, just go out and play and do what you do. Don't worry about nothing. Just play. And I think that that always helps the player come into a new team just to get that, you know, that okay from the managers, just go out there and do what you do. You had three post-season at bats with the Blue Jays in 1985. You're a 21-year-old kid. You're probably thinking, ah, this is going to happen every year. It took 11 more years to get back there. And then you took advantage of it, nine for 23 in the World Series. You started all six games. What do you remember about that World Series where the Yankees had to come back against the Braves? Well, you know, I tell people all the time that, you know, those first two games at home, I didn't feel good about them because we hadn't been playing baseball. You know, you look at what Atlanta was doing. They came off of two games where they scored almost 30 runs against St. Louis to end that series over there. They were hot. Well, we were sitting at home waiting for them to get done. So when they got to New York, they were on the roll, right? So when we played those first two games, it was, those two games were the games for us to get ourselves prepared to play. So those two games at home, they beat us, right? But I didn't even feel concerned. It was one of them things that, when we went down to Atlanta, I knew we was going to get them. I knew in my heart that we was going to beat them in Atlanta. I just knew it because, you know, I thought we were the better team. I thought, I messed with Fred McGriff all the time, like, hey, Fred, you're the better team. You know, it's just, we're going to beat you guys. We swept you guys. Really? You guys beat us too, but we swept you forward. Cecil, you had a really special moment at Yankee Stadium before you ever became a Yankee. I was at that game, I happened to cover that game. Steve Atkins, 1991, last day of the regular season, you're sitting on 49 home runs. Tell me what happened next. Well, you know, the first couple days of that series, you know, it was just crazy because Donnie Mann-Indley was like, come on, man, you got to do it. I said, Donnie, man, I just got to try to get something to hit, man, because, you know, it was hard. I mean, it was not only mentally tough, but it was hard to really get some pictures to hit because the pictures didn't want to be, they didn't want to be named number 50, you know what I mean? But Atkins, you came in there and he tried one, I got it. You know, that was, you know, I always tell people, it was a great feeling at the time that it happened. But then what happened in baseball from that time on kind of ruined the, you know, it wasn't the same, you know what I mean? It wasn't the same feeling that I was one of 11 in 100 years of baseball to do it. You know what I mean? It just kind of got, you kind of washed, you know, watered down with everybody else doing it after that. So, you know, I always say, I always take the Babe Roof and I RBI titles with me because, you know, that's something that's, I don't know if that's going to be done again, but the home runs, it was like, ah, you know, it was 11 players after I did it that did it quick. You hit 51 later in that game, but when you got to 50, as you just said, you were the first American League to do that since Roger Maris, 30 years. So there was something so special about that. I know you said it got watered down, but don't you think Cecil, I know I think this. I think the true baseball fans and the smart baseball fans, they've started to recognize which numbers were probably inflated and which numbers were legitimate. Well, I do. I do. I think, you know, I don't know. I just feel that that's something that wasn't easy to do number one. I just think, you know, with all the things that were occurring in baseball, you know, the steroid area and all that, I mean, it's just, you know, guys were hitting 50 home runs like it was easy. And I'm like, dang, it's not that easy to do. And you had guys doing it back to back years. I mean, it was just ridiculous. How smart was it for you in your career to go to Japan? That was the best, man, let me tell you something. I tell people this all the time. That was the best move that I could ever make because, listen, me being in Toronto, okay, we got Willie Upshaw, we got myself, we got Fred McGriff and John Oleroot on the way. There's only one baseball, right? There's only nine spots in that lineup. Yeah. So I'm like, okay, you know, something's got to give, you know, because, you know, that's, to me, that was the best move. It gave me opportunity to play every day, you know, and just to learn, just to learn. I needed to learn. I needed to have guys throwing me fork balls and sliders and curveball. I needed to learn. I needed to, you know, learn myself how to sit on pitches, things that I really needed to work on. And I think, you know, going to Japan, this gave me the opportunity to just work on my craft, man, just, I think the confidence level that I brought back home was just crazy because I didn't feel nobody can get me out at that point. I just, okay, whoever it was, I didn't really care. They couldn't get me out. I don't want to just say, you know, we lost my roomie, Matt Keough, the other day, May section. Yes. That was my Japanese roommate. I mean, that was my partner in crime right there. And, you know, it's just, man, we're losing too many guys here lately. I mean, every time I open up Facebook, it seems like we're losing somebody. So, hey, fellas, we just got to take care of our bodies and hold on. Condolences to the Keough family. What's your favorite Matt Keough story? Oh, we got a lot of bad effect. The first time, you know, I went to Japan in the spring training, Matthew wasn't there, you know, so I was there by myself for about a month because he had been playing there for three or four years. So, you know, he's a veteran now. So he did. So I had to come there in January when the spring training started. So I'm over in the hockey camp, man. Nobody speaks English. The only guy I got speaking English is my interpreter. And I am, I am like, I'm so close to saying, hey, I got to go back home for a minute. So Matthew gets there, man. Matthew looks at me and says, hey, big fella, it don't look like you're doing too well. I said, no, man, I need, I need, man, I needed you to get over here. He said, well, I'll tell you what, let's take a ride down the street. I said, take a ride down the street. You drive, he said, oh, yeah, I drive here. So, you know, over there, you know, you're driving on the right side. So he's on the right side. Matthew, you're on the road side of the road. He said, no, I'm not. I'm on the right side of the road. So he pulls up to a, to a, he pulls up to a, like a drink machine, right? And I said, what you going to get a Coke? He said, no, I'm going to get a six pack. So we can actually go to a machine and get a six pack of beer, man. That's Matthew. They were, they were way ahead of us in Japan in 1989. You could do that. Huh? Six pack. So you, you loved hanging out with pitchers because when you were a minor leager in Kansas City, you've told, you told me, there's another quote from this story. He said, Coney was my dog. Why, why were you and David Cohn such quick buddies? I don't know. Coney and I, we hit, we kind of hit it off from the beginning. You know, once we got to the structural league, we had a great instructional league team that year. Matter of fact, our pitchers staff, I think they gave up one earn run and 47 and a third. We had Coney, we had Danny Jackson, we had Goobas off. So our pitchers staff was like lights out. I mean, we're incredible. So that year in, in rookie ball, I had 20 home runs in rookie ball. I'm going to stay with Kansas City and, you know, just go up the ladder, right? Man, come February, I'm out of there and I wish I could tell you the real story about me and Coney, but I can't really tell that story here on television. We're going to save that one for when I sit you and Coney at the ballpark. That one will be an awesome story. I think that this is so cool, Cecil, that in the baseball record book under home run leaders, it says Cecil Fielder, 319 home runs, Prince Fielder, your son, 319 home runs. I know he would have loved to have played more injuries curtailed his career. But what kind of exchange have you had about Prince about being dead even in home runs? I, he couldn't pass me. That's one. I just thought you couldn't do it. You know, we, I seen him the other day and I was just, I was talking to, you know, it just looked like the time went so fast. I mean, he's going to be 36 in a couple of days. I mean, he's going to be 36. So that means I'm going to be 57. So I was like, the time just flew by, man. And you know, I wish he would have had an opportunity. Listen, I think this means his daddy talking now. If he would have had four or five more years, he'd hit 500 home runs. I think you're right. And I don't, I don't think you have to be his dad just to say that. I think anybody who saw his power, his ability, and I go back to, I know the Detroit writers saw this all the time. I remember coming in as a Yankee writer. I think Prince was 12 or 13 years old at Tiger Stadium and he's putting balls into the seats. I told Mr. Illich a long time ago when, when, when Prince was probably seven or eight years old, I told Mr. I said, this kid's going to play in the big leagues, Mr. Illich. He said, I get out of here, you. I said, Miss Illich, this kid's going to play in the big leagues. He had to do, you, I don't know, but I just think at certain kids, you can tell. You can tell, man. I mean, this was a kid, he, he could emulate anybody in the batter's box from Jose Canseco to me, anybody, Barry Bonds. He could emulate anybody. And he would, and I, he was telling a story about my grandsons the other day that they were in the, in the, in the cage with him. And they were grabbing some signed bats that he had got from some of the guys, right? I said, oh, no, buddy. I said, let them kids hit with them bats. You should do the same dang thing. I'd have, I'd have Kirby Puckett. He broke my Kirby Puckett, man. I'm like, dude, what are you doing? So now his kids are in his bucket, swinging his bats. I said, oh, no, buddy, you better let them boys swing them bats. They're taking all of his memorabilia. Exactly. 13 year career. I've mentioned the home run total. You were an all star. You finished second in the MVP voting twice. Mentioned you're a World Series champion. When you reflect on your own career, where does your focus go? What are you most proud of? Well, it's got to be that 96 season. I mean, that, to me, I mean, I hate to say it like this, but I think that 96 season after that season, I could have retired. I think I had worked my butt off to get to that point, right? We won, right? And I think that 97, 98 season, it was not, it didn't, I didn't have the same fire. And I think a lot of athletes, you know, at our, at our ages, and at that point in our careers that we have, you know, accomplished something that, you know, we've been fighting for for our whole career and we finally get it done. I think it takes a little bit of that fire out, you know, because I was an older guy, now if I was, to your age, when I was 21 and we the one at 21, you know, I was still been trying to make that happen again and again and again, but at 34, you know, it's like, okay, what else is there left for me to do? You know, and that's, that's that, I wish I didn't have that feeling, but that's the feeling that I had. It's a, it's a fair and honest answer. And I think a lot of people would agree with you and point to a year where you wanted all that you had finally climbed that mountain. As we close out, Cecil, I got to say, props for wearing the Bob Marley T-shirt because he preached positivity in his music and we need some positive vibes right now to help us get through all this. Yeah, we do, man. I mean, we need some command. Let me tell you something. We need some positive. We need, we need something good to happen in this world. We have too many people suffering right now. So we need some positives. Well, Cecil, you're always been a positive guy and I'm so happy to reconnect with you. I agree with your wife. Stay in. Thanks for giving us some time here and talking some baseball with us. You got it, bro. Anytime.