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MLB ALL-STAR GAMEJuly 9, 2012Axton BuchtaPrince FielderKANSAS CITY, MISSOURI JUSTIN RECKAMP: Major League Baseball and the competitors put on an amazing performance tonight and State Farm is very proud to be part of such a great vent. Kansas City and Kauffman Stadium were great hosts to the 2012 State Farm Home Run Derby and we appreciate the hospitality. We would like to congratulate Prince Fielder for an outstanding performance and thank him for donating to great causes including the Boys & Girls Club of America. Because of Prince's performance, Axton's local Kansas City Boys & Girls Club location will receive $50,000 for his role in tonight's event. Overall, tonight's State Farm Home Run Derby generated $615,000 that will have an impact for years to come and demonstrates State Farm's commitment for helping communities get to a better state. Congrats on being the 2012 State Farm Home Run Derby champion. PRINCE FIELDER: Thank you, man. I want to thank Sandy Guerreo for coming out and throwing excellent BP. Thanks to you and to these guys for cheering me on. It was a blast. Q. We talked beforehand about last year when you got booed for not selecting Upton and your kids were a little upset; a little different this time around for your kids? PRINCE FIELDER: Yeah, definitely. You still don't like anyone to get booed at an event like this, but I mean, you know, it's whatever. It's definitely not, you know, bad, I guess. Q. You won in 2009 in St.Louis; what is it about Home Run Derbies in Missouri that you do so well? PRINCE FIELDER: Good fans. Good fans really keep you going. Q. What about you Jadyn, you were sure that your dad was going to win. Why were you so sure he was going to win tonight? JADYN FIELDER: Because he's the best player ever. (Laughter.) Q. You and Griffey are the only ones to win this multiple times. What is the significance of that for you? PRINCE FIELDER: It means a lot, just being mentioned with him is real special because as a kid when I was at their age, he was the first person with an NBA Jam in their house, so my dad would let me go over and play video games all day. He always took care of me when I was a kid, so to be mentioned with him is real special. Q. Between Mark and Jose‑‑ how much did that help refuel you? PRINCE FIELDER: Definitely helped with the downtime, but still was tired. There's no way around it. Q. A name like Prince and a crown up on center field, you got off to a slow start and just got in. Did you do anything different in the second round on? PRINCE FIELDER: No. The ball just met the barrel more I guess. I don't know. They just went further the next time. Q. A lot of fans think that it's easy watching that and that you can hit home runs on cue. Talk about how difficult is it to perform? PRINCE FIELDER: Definitely not easy. You have to use a round bat and hit a round ball square. So figure that out and it will be easy. Q. You've really risen to the occasion the last couple of All‑Star Games. Talk about how much you dig this atmosphere? PRINCE FIELDER: Oh, it's fun, and these guys are out there, they are having a blast. And especially when you have kids, when you see your kids having a good time and seeing how much they enjoy it, you have a good time, as well. I'm just happy that I'm healthy and able to be here and happy that they like it, too. Q. $615,000, can you just talk about that legacy that you are leaving, and can I ask Axton what that means? AXTON BUCHTA: Well, it means a lot to my club. We don't have a lot of stuff over there, but it's just I love that place so much. I have a lot of fun over there. I have a lot of friends over there. And to have a donation like that is just absolutely amazing, and I thank you, so much, and everybody at the Youth Center thanks you for your donation. PRINCE FIELDER: Any time. (Laughter.) Q. Axton, how old are you? AXTON BUCHTA: I am 17 years old. PRINCE FIELDER: It means a lot, seeing how happy he is. Any time you can make someone happy doing something you love, it's always a good thing. Just like I said, I'm happy that he's happy and you know, it was a good time. Q. You have a trophy now for each‑‑ PRINCE FIELDER: Yeah, they don't have to fight over it. Q. And one for each league. What's next? Will you keep doing these? PRINCE FIELDER: Definitely. If I'm invited, definitely keep doing them. They are a lot of fun. Just a lot of fun. Q. Would you advise whoever the captain is next year to choose one of the Mets? PRINCE FIELDER: Whoever the captain picks, that's why he's the captain. Whoever the captain wants to pick, that's who he wants to pick. It's definitely not a‑‑ you know, there's no maliciousness involved. Sometimes you just don't pick someone. He's not mad at Billy at all. It's all right. Q. How did he take that and how much fun did you guys have with it? PRINCE FIELDER: He handled it great. He's on the Yankees, so I'm sure he gets booed at a lot of places because they win a lot. I'm sure it's not the first time. Someone told me, if they are booing you, you have to be doing something good. They wouldn't be booing someone that wasn't doing much. Q. After Jose put up the big number in the first rounds, and you got him in the last‑‑ PRINCE FIELDER: At the end, you saw how he put up a good show. I was just trying to hit as many as I could, give me some breathing room. Q. You had eight home runs in the last round, maybe one or two outs‑‑ the number of home runs. PRINCE FIELDER: I wasn't trying to swing too hard. That's probably why they went over, I was out of breath. That's why I was taking a lot of pitches in between. I'm just happy it worked out. Q. How about the fountains in right field? PRINCE FIELDER: They were far. I had to bring it in a little bit. That was far. That's not easy to hit it out there. Q. What was the pitch count on Sandy, and how is his arm doing? PRINCE FIELDER: Sandy's fine. He'll throw again if I want him to. He's more than fine. Q. A lot of guys who take part in this say how difficult it is when you're trying to hit home runs and you have this crowd; does it just look easy, or does it feel easy for you to be able to do this? PRINCE FIELDER: It just looks‑‑ I don't know. I don't think it looks easy, because it's hard. You see me, I'm sweating, out of breath, and it's definitely not easy. It's just, you know, if you get in a groove and have a good thrower like I did, good things can happen. ROB BUTCHER: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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