Since Fielder’s first full season in 2006, he has played in a major league-best 1,218 of 1,231 possible games with the Milwaukee Brewers and now the Detroit Tigers. Only three others – Dodgers first baseman Adrian Gonzalez, Yankees outfielder Ichiro Suzuki and Tigers third baseman Miguel Cabrera – have more than 1,200.
Cabrera’s eyes twinkle when trying to explain how Fielder’s name finds its way into the lineup daily. For one, he’s good. Like, on-a-Hall-of-Fame-path good. Playing first base, a position without enormous demands, helps. Even more than that is luck – not just the body refusing to give in to his swing but opponents not getting reckless on the basepaths or pitchers not losing a fastball just a little too much inside and breaking a finger or an arm or anything, really. And most of all, Cabrera believes, is an exorbitant pain threshold to tolerate the little nagging injuries that make playing 162 games such a rarity. Only 10 players did it more than twice over the last 10 years.
“When you’ve got small injuries and you’re playing through pain, at some point in the season your body is going to react,” Cabrera said. “Sometimes the pain level is high, sometimes it’s low, but when it’s high you have to learn how to handle it. You don’t know when your body is going to stop and keep you from playing every day, so you’ve got to appreciate now because you can go out and perform.
“You don’t know [Fielder] is hurt. We don’t know until two weeks after. He’s out there every day. And it’s funny. Two weeks later, we’ll be like, ‘Oh my God. He actually played through that?’ He plays every day, so you don’t think he has something.”
Fielder shrugged.
“Once the game starts,” he said, “the adrenaline picks up and you’re in the action, and you don’t feel it as much.”