Fielder Left Opposing Fans Low and Dry

With three home runs in his first two games, Detroit’s Cecil Fielder is off to a fast start in his campaign to win the American League MVP trophy that eluded him when he finished second in the voting in 1990 and ’91. He is not one to back down from a challenge.

In an interview for the cover story of last Sunday’s New York Times Magazine, he recalls a “Get Cecil Fielder Out Night” in Greensboro, N.C., during his minor league days.

“Any time a Greensboro pitcher kept him off the bases, the beer was free for the rest of the inning,” author Peter De Jonge writes. “Fielder was convinced they chose him so that the rednecks in the crowd could enjoy themselves rooting against a black. Still, he couldn’t resist taking them all on.

“ ‘I said, ‘You want to get me out, come on,’ says Fielder with a laugh. ‘Man I ripped them. I killed them. My first four at-bats, I went four for four. Wham, wham, wham, wham. They weren’t going to drink off me.’ ”

Add Fielder: Now that Fielder is the major league home run king, he is more popular in Japan than when he played for the Hanshin Tigers.

According to De Jonge: “When Fielder got off to a slow start, reporters called him ogata senpuki , the big electric fan, and TV commentators rued the departure of his predecessor, Randy Bass, a real hitter.

“Then Fielder, who looked even bigger in Hanshin Tiger stripes, started erupting. He became the first player to reach the back of the Tokyo Dome, with a 500-foot shot that bounced off a ‘King Kong’ movie poster.”

“ ‘I hit the monkey in the leg,’ he says.”

Trivia time: What is the name of the Augusta National Golf Club’s fourth hole, where co-leader Jeff Sluman had a hole in one Thursday in the first round of the Masters?

Slashing: Writes Roger Phillips of the Long Beach Press-Telegram: “If David Stern ran the NHL and John Ziegler the NBA, Gatorade would be airing ‘I want to be like Wayne’ commercials, and Michael Jordan would be on strike.”

Trivia answer: Flowering Crab Apple.

Quotebook: George Bush, on greeting members of the 1992 U.S. Winter Olympic team Wednesday at the White House: “I almost didn’t recognize you all without the interruptions for commercials.’