Prince's 10 most memorable Brewers homers
MILWAUKEE -- Prince Fielder hit 234 regular-season and postseason home runs in a Brewers uniform, beginning with a three-run shot on a memorable night at Miller Park in 2005 when Fielder was 21 years old, and ending with a go-ahead home run in Game 1 of the 2011 National League Championship Series, when Fielder was a week away from the end of his memorable tenure in Milwaukee.
As the city celebrated his return to Miller Park on Tuesday and his induction into the ballpark's Wall of Honor, we took a healthy hack at ranking his 10 most memorable homers as a Brewer:
10. Homer No. 1
By 2005, it was going on 13 years since the Brewers' last winning season, and 23 years since a postseason appearance. Fans were hungry for something to cheer about, which is why the 44,685 who were actually at Miller Park on June 25, 2005 -- and the many more who claim they were there, too -- have the moment seared in their brains when super-prospects Rickie Weeks and Fielder each hit their first career home runs on the same night in a 7-6 win over the Twins. Fielder's pinch-hit three-run shot in the sixth inning decided the game.
9. Homer No. 2
It didn't take long for Fielder to establish his reputation for delivering in big moments. His second career home run was the first of his four career walk-off homers, a two-run shot off the Pirates' Jose Mesa on Aug. 31, 2005.
8. Long ball
Fielder often said his hitting philosophy was, "Swing hard in case you hit it." So it was no surprise that he was known for hitting booming home runs, and while there was no Statcast™ in 2006 to give us data, it's generally agreed that Fielder's longest home run in front of the home fans was a moonshot against Jose Lima and the Mets on May 12, 2006. The Brewers media guide says it traveled 475 feet, matching another Fielder homer from 2011 for the second-longest in Miller Park history, behind Russell Branyan's 480-footer off Greg Maddux in '04.
7. Inside the park
Arguably, the best bit of Fielder trivia is that the 275-pounder hit not one but two inside-the-park home runs in his career, one at the Metrodome in Minneapolis on June 17, 2007, when outfielder Lew Ford lost a fly ball against the translucent roof, and another at Miller Park against the Blue Jays on June 19, 2008, when the baseball became lodged under the padding on the right-field wall. We'll go with the second for this list because it happened in front of the home fans.
6. 14th-inning walk-off
Context matters, and the context of Fielder's game-winning home run in the bottom of the 14th inning against the Rockies on May 20, 2011, was this: The Brewers had played a night game in San Diego the day before and landed back home in Milwaukee as the sun was coming up. They were at Miller Park that night for a four-hour, 35-minute marathon that required comebacks from 2-1 and 4-2 deficits in regulation, 5-4 in the 13th inning and 6-5 in the 14th to win. Fielder's two-run homer off Felipe Paulino decided it.
5. All-Star Game MVP
Fielder wasn't very popular in Phoenix during 2011 All-Star Game festivities, since he picked teammate Weeks over the D-backs' Justin Upton for the final spot in the Home Run Derby. But Fielder helped win the game for the National League by hitting a go-ahead, three-run homer off the Rangers' C.J. Wilson -- the only All-Star Game home run by a Brewers player until Christian Yelich hit one last week -- and won the All-Star Game MVP Award.
4. No. 50
Fielder became the youngest player in Major League history to hit 50 home runs in a season when he blasted a pair against the Cardinals at Miller Park on Sept. 25, 2007. No. 49 was a two-run shot off Braden Looper that gave the Brewers a 3-0 lead in the first inning. Historic No. 50 came against Kip Wells in the seventh.
"It was a great thrill," said then-Brewers manager Ned Yost. "I told the boys, 'We're watching a little history here. Remember it.' Fifty homers, that's an unbelievable feat. And to do it opposite field for his 50th just shows you his raw power."
3. Bowling pins
It was a remarkable game with a memorable ending. The Brewers surrendered a Giants run in the first inning on Sept. 6, 2009, then kept San Francisco off the scoreboard the rest of the afternoon while turning a triple play along the way. That positioned Fielder to hit a walk-off home run with one out in the 12th, and when he reached home plate, he raised his arms in the air while teammates tumbled to the ground as if they were bowling pins.
2. Stretch-drive walk-off
Fielder hit .316 in September 2008 with 21 RBIs, a bright spot for an offense mired in a funk so deep it cost Yost his job with 12 regular-season games to play. Fielder's biggest hit of the month was his line-drive walk-off shot on Sept. 23 against the Pirates for a win that kept pace with the Mets in a National League Wild Card chase that went all the way to the final day.
1. NLCS Game 1
The Cardinals took a 5-2 lead in Game 1 of the 2011 NLCS on Oct. 9, 2011, before Fielder & Co. powered their way to a fifth-inning lead and a series-opening win. After Ryan Braun's two-run double made it a one-run game, Fielder connected against Cards left-hander Jaime Garcia for a two-run homer and a 6-5 advantage, and Miller Park went crazy.
It would prove one of the last opportunities for those fans to show Fielder their appreciation. On Tuesday, they rose and cheered again.
"It's awesome. I wasn't expecting it," said Fielder of the Wall of Honor. "The plaque out there is pretty cool. Now I can brag to the kids about it."