Daddy Doesn't Love Me

You hate my contract and you still pick me?

Our Hero: Prince Fielder

What You Need To Know:  Drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers in 2002, Fielder joined the big club in 2005 and was anchored at first base until 2011. Upon becoming a free agent, he left Milwaukee for Detroit where he ended up signing a 9-year (which makes me slightly insane) contract worth $214 million (Prince, will you adopt me?).  He's a power hitter who is surprisingly light on his feet for a guy who looks morbidly obese.  He's also a bit of an iron man, having not missed a game since September 13, 2010.  Remember, there are 162 games in the regular season.  There are also many people (myself included) that believe a big reason Miguel Cabrera nabbed the first Triple Crown in 45 years is because Prince Fielder was hitting behind him in the lineup.

His Baggage:  One as old as time - Daddy Issues. Prince's Daddy is Cecil Fielder, who was with the Tigers from 1990-1996.  Prince was a fixture around the Tigers clubhouse as a kid, even taking batting practice.  Urban legend has him smashing homeruns at old Tiger Stadium as a 12-year-old.  Things started going downhill after Cecil left the game.  Gambling problems and his divorce from Prince's mama made for hard feelings.  Also the minor detail that when Cecil helped Prince negotiate his first major league contract that Cecil made damn sure that Cecil got paid.  Father and son reportedly stopped speaking, although depending on what story you read these days they're mending fences.

The Proposed Category Romance Plot:  He's achieved the dream he's had since he was a little boy, to be one of the best baseball players on the planet.  Although it's led to a lot of sacrifices and hard feelings, he is rewarded when he signs a lucrative free agent contract in the off-season. However it's with the team that made his father, a former big league ballplayer, famous.  Estranged, he now finds himself back in the city where the old man still casts a long shadow, where everyone comes up to him and wants to regal him with memories of Daddy's greatness.  It's a road that holds nothing but painful memories, and now because it was the best deal, the most money, and with a team laden with talent - he's back in the one place he never wanted to come back to in the first place.

Home and a chick's name.  That works.

Our Heroine:  Like our hero she grew up around baseball, the daughter of a well-respected bench/utility player.  When her mother died of cancer, her father fought her grandparents over custody, even when they argued that major league baseball locker rooms were no place for little girls to grow up.  Her father was determined to keep them together, to not split up their family, and she spent her life traveling with Daddy, watching games from the owner's box, and when she was old enough to get a summer job?  She started working with the grounds crew.  Now she's the head groundskeeper, and her childhood playmate, the hero, is back in the city that holds many unhappy memories for him.  Even if he is the $200 million man, he sure doesn't look like he wants to be there, but she sure is happy to see him back home.

What Category Romance Line?:  Reunited childhood sweethearts?  Daddy Issues?  A heroine who wants to help the hero work through his baggage?  We have ourselves a Harlequin Superromance.