Would It Kill Prince Fielder to Stay In Milwaukee?

[Sportsguy]

Jeez.

[trumad]

1. I don't know---

it is Milwaukee.

[wilt the stilt]

2. What baseball missses

is a sense of loyalty and how it impacts fans over the long haul. Now i know that money is important but think how basketball and football have figured this out "Loyalty in the long run helps the league". kobe is a Laker and Dirk is a Maverick. LeBron changed and look how the fans reacted. Football tags players as franchise players which insures payment to the top players. The few players in baseball that stick to teams(Jeter) will be remembered more fondly and brings about a sense of loyalty. Fans start to feel that this is their team. I don't know the answer but I think Baseball needs to figure out something.

[trumad]

3. really?

LeBron only? 3/4's of the Celtics played for other teams. Hell---3/4's of the Lakers played for other teams.

Bill Walton-- Shaq--- Rodman, Pierce, and on and on played for different teams.

[wilt the stilt]

4. yes i believe it.

As far as Walton. Is he loved in Boston like Bird or Mchale? Is Shaq loved in LA? hardly. How about MJ and Chicago? I loved Walton as a player(last great white center)but there is a special bond that develops between player and fan if loyalty is observed. Both ways.

[TZ]

6. MJ didn't spend his entire career in Chicago either.

He played for the Washington Wizards for a couple of seasons. Joe Montana played for the Chiefs for a couple of years too. Its really not uncommon for a player to go from one team to another even after becoming an icon in one place.

[wilt the stilt]

7. yes it does happen at the end of their careers

but not during the peak. Washington and kC don't care a bit about MJ or Montana?

[marmar]

9. "last great white center"

is that why you loved him? ...... Did we not know Bill Walton is white?

[wilt the stilt]

12. i love basketball

and even the black guys I used to play with and one of my inside sales guys who is African American knows that. The other one who was pretty good was Jack Sikma. Only if you don't really play and watch the game do you question that and this is from a guy who Black guys said to me "you are the biggest pain in the ass when I guarded htem in the half court. I wasn't fast enough for the full court but I was quick and I would body them just like Dennis Johnson did. If you are quick get in someone's face you take away their ability to jump. I could do that. Ask anyone who really played basketball and they will agree with me.

[trumad]

10. Walton left Portland for the Clippers

Shaq left Orlando for LA

Don't you think the original cities felt slighted when they left for more glory and fame?

Uh yeah...

Players leave their original teams all the time in Basketball for more money.

[wilt the stilt]

13. Trumad don't you think I know that

read "Breaks of the game" by David Halberstam. He wasn't loved in LA either. It's about the Trailblazers.(Walton and Ramsey. Walton was a guard until 10th grade. that is why he passed so well. Read all of Halberstam's sports books all are great(Oct "64 and summer of '49. Halberstam was a great liberal and chronicled the Civil rights movement for the Tennessean. He was voted an honorary member of the Civil Rights Movement. These are great books about the state of America(socially aware) with sports as a metaphor. Oh yeah I was at a lot of Dead concerts with Walton.

[trumad]

15. I'm just saying that folks throw out LeBron as a poster child

for leaving their first team. This has happened hundreds of times in the NBA and they usually leave for more money which wasn't LeBrons reason.

[Auggie]

5. What baseball misses is a salary cap and true revenue sharing

[madinmaryland]

8. +1,000,000,000,000

[HuckleB]

11. Absolutely.

And Milwaukee's owner is the only owner I know of who argues for those changes to baseball.

That might explain why Boras wants Fielder out of Milwaukee.

[Bluzmann57]

14. No.

But he sure would look good in a Cubs uniform.

[HuckleB]

16. At his size, the last thing you want the Cubs to do is give another huge long-term contract.

How many times do the Cubs need to do that before they learn?

[ProfessorGAC]

17. I've Wondered About His Desire To Play With. . .

. . .Braun. They seem to genuinely like each other, and they are quite the one-two punch. Fielder wants big $ but i don't see it as unrealistic that he would give a hometown discount.

He's also pretty darned sharp. I think he knows Boras works for him, and not the other way around.
GAC