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MLB ALL-STAR GAME

July 12, 2011

Prince Fielder

PHOENIX, ARIZONA

Q. Prince, can you just tell us about transforming these fans into Prince Fielder fans, and the same people that were upset with you being in the Home Run Derby, now you have them cheering for you in the All-Star Game.
PRINCE FIELDER: I'm sorry, he thought this was Gatorade, and it wasn't. It was Protein Recovery, weird, wow. (Laughter.)

Q. Is he okay?
PRINCE FIELDER: Yeah, he's good.

Q. Can you just tell us about transforming the fans, now they are cheering for you?
PRINCE FIELDER: Yeah, I don't know if I transformed them, but I understood. That just shows you how much Justin (Upton) means to them. Yeah, I didn't take it personal at all. I think these guys took it more personal than me.
Like I say, I understood it. No hard feelings. But home run, obviously I guess it would change, because it helped us win. That's why I didn't take it too personal when they were booing.

Q. Can you take us through the at-bat?
PRINCE FIELDER: Yeah, a couple cutters away and they threw me a two-seamer in, and then fouled it off my foot, that kind of hurt. And I think I hit another cutter to left-center. Yeah, it was a good at-bat.

Q. Your team is expected to be in the hunt down the stretch, and this clinches home-field advantage --
PRINCE FIELDER: Yeah, I think that will go through my mind later a little more I think, but right now I'm enjoying the victory with the kids and seeing them here. As far as the home-field advantage, it's great, because like you said, we play great at home. And if we are fortunate enough to get into the World Series, I think that would -- obviously it's going to help us a ton. So it's -- yeah, it's awesome. We won the MVP and we get to have home-field advantage so it was pretty cool.

Q. I know you said you didn't take it personally but you have a big group with you entourage-wise; after the Home Run Derby last night, did you talk about it at all as a family?
PRINCE FIELDER: Yeah, I mean, not really -- of course your family is going to be a little -- they didn't like it too much. But we didn't dwell on it. Like I said, it wasn't -- I didn't take it too personal, because like I said, I mean, I probably would have booed myself, too, if I was an Arizona fan. So I didn't take it personal. (Laughter.)

Q. Guys sometimes in their free agent year struggle a little bit and you've had such a great year; what do you credit that to?
PRINCE FIELDER: Our team is really good, that helps. Whenever you have a good team, at least I feel like, nobody has a bad year on the team. So I think when you're focused on winning and your team is winning, you know, the personal achievements and all that, those will come. But if you're not winning, it's that much harder. So I think this year I wanted to go in with the focus of winning because we have such -- the best team I've been on, as far as on the Brewers, so I think I went in with that, focusing on that, and yeah, like I said, when you win, everybody has a good year. So that's why I want to win.

Q. Your kids are obviously very important to you. As they get older does it change how you look at your dad or has it changed your relationship with him at all?
PRINCE FIELDER: No, because I'm just working on my relationship with them. You know, my dad's relationship has nothing to do with them. I'm just trying to be the best that I can be for them.
As far as my dad, I don't bring that in with our relationship at all.

Q. Piggybacking on Jerry's question, how emotional is the second half of the season going to be with the possibility that you may not be back in Milwaukee?
PRINCE FIELDER: I think it's going to be -- I mean, you know, very emotional. I mean, I would like -- like last year, I was guaranteed -- well, I had no choice but to come back, because I have one more year and it was emotional then, my last at-bat in Milwaukee, so I can only imagine with me not having a -- not signed for next year at all now, it will probably be a little more emotional. But I think -- hopefully I don't have to think about that until after we hold up the World Series trophy.

Q. If you had it to do over again, would it be just taking Upton to the Home Run Derby --
PRINCE FIELDER: Absolutely not. (Laughter.)

Q. With (Roy) Halladay and (Jair) Jurrjens and (Clayton) Kershaw, have you experienced the domination that you saw tonight?
PRINCE FIELDER: Yeah, I've seen them do that to the Brewers all the time. They are tough. I mean, I've always said, good pitching shuts down good hitting, unless they make a mistake, and they didn't make many tonight, especially on our side. So, yeah, I'm used to seeing that from them.

Q. Since the kids each have a microphone, can I ask what they thought about their dad's home run?
PRINCE FIELDER: Yeah, you want to talk?
HAVEN FIELDER: Uh-uh.

Q. What did you think about your dad's home run tonight?
JADEN FIELDER: I liked it.

Q. What are their names?
PRINCE FIELDER: This is Jaden and Haven.

Q. The timing of the home run coming right back after they had taken the lead in the top half of the inning, and did you think you had enough to get it out?
PRINCE FIELDER: Yeah, I thought I hit it good but I saw Curtis (Granderson) running it down, it made me nervous because he was at full speed, so you know, I knew if it wasn't a homer, I'd better hurry up and get to second because he might throw me out, because he was on it. Got a little scared there for a second.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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