Fielder left lasting legacy in Milwaukee

MILWAUKEE — Baseball will miss Prince Fielder. Ask the Milwaukee Brewers; they’ve been missing him since 2011.

Two neck surgeries in two years forced Fielder to end his career at age 32.

“The doctors told me that with two spinal fusions, I can’t play Major League Baseball anymore,” Fielder said in a tearful news conference Wednesday at Globe Life Park. “I just want to thank my teammates, all the coaches. I’m really going to miss being around those guys. It was a lot of fun. I’ve been in a big league clubhouse since I was their age, and not being able to play is tough.”

Many of Fielder’s finest seasons were played with the Brewers. He was a No. 1 Draft choice by Milwaukee in 2002. He was at the core of a rebuilding project that culminated with a division title and a franchise-record 96-victory season in 2011. Fielder became a free agent after that season and signed a nine-year, $214 million contract with the Tigers. He was traded to the Rangers for Ian Kinsler after the 2013 season.

Two prominent members of the Brewers’ organization were teammates of Fielder for five seasons in Milwaukee. Craig Counsell, now Milwaukee’s manager, and outfielder Ryan Braun, still a mainstay in the club’s lineup, expressed sorrow over the premature end of Fielder’s career.

“I’m sad,” Counsell said. “The game never lets anybody go when they completely want to, but for somebody like him, he should still be in the middle of a great career. It’s sad that it has to happen like that. Our thoughts go out to him.”

Counsell went through the same injury, the same surgery with the same surgeon in 2002. “I know what he’s going through. I know the pain he’s experiencing,” Counsell …

continue reading in source mlb.mlb.com