Oh Oh! What's up with Prince? (non-playing)

[RoseBowlMtg]

One of the perks for paying your season tickets early was you got to get a $60 food & beverage voucher per seat or an autographed Prince Fielder bat. After paying the bill last year I called my rep and asked when the event would happen and he said sometime around the start of the season when Prince gets back in town. OK, flexible, we will know later. Later came yesterday in the form of a letter. Dated April 11, the bat signing and meeting will happen Apr 26th from 10:30-11:30 but....

 

"Unfortunately, due to a last minute scheduling conflict, we have learned Prince will no longer be able to take part in this special event. However, we are excited to announce that Ryan Braun, 2007 ROY, will be taking Prince's place."

 

First off: "last minute"? A letter dated 15 days in advanced with an announced replacement is not last minute.

 

I understand if a player doesn't want to do these things but he must have agreed to it at some time, now to have the balls to blow off the "season ticket holders" who this season paid more than a month earlier than past yrs in advanced for this perk, is showing where his head is and foreshadowing his departure imo.

 

Am I reading too much into this or....has Prince gone diva on us at 23?

 

Thoughts?

[rwa12]

I think you're reading too much into this. They may have just picked a date without consulting him, that conflicted with something. The choice of phrasing could have been better, but it seems like these promotions change all the time. At least they are replacing the signer with someone who is of equal value, monetary wise. It would have hurt if they replaced him with Suppan or Gwynn or someone like that.

[RoseBowlMtg]

Yeah I don't mind that Ryan jumped in but the when the Brewers said last November the date would be flexible to fit into Prince's schedule that meant many choices. They picked Apr 26th from 10:30-11:30 when they have a game against the Marlins at 6:05 that night. Having a game the night before means they are in town so the conflict "at the last minute" isn't away from Milwaukee. I'm interested seeing what Prince has to do at that time the day after a night game with a game that night. He "no longer will be able to take part in this "special event". That means he planned to but something came up? Contract? No meat? No HR's? I can't wait to get to a big city?

 

As for not consulting with him they didn't know the schedule since they wanted to work it to Prince's liking. rwa you might be right but if Prince wanted to do this they could have done it any date this year. Season ticket holders will be here all yr and obviously are very patient. I have a bad feeling about this!

[endaround]

It could be his family is in town, a changed Birthday party for one of his kids whose birthday is during a road trip, his wife's family might have something going on, etc. Things change

[1992casey]

It sounds to me that this signing needed to be set up to fit several players' schedules and that the Brewers may have dropped the ball a bit in their original communication.

[RoseBowlMtg]

True endaround but the date was going to be set to fit Prince's schedule. A letter was sent out on April 11th stating a "last minute scheduling conflict" happened. Well that eliminates kids birthdays. Point is a season ticket holder would wait around all year for Prince and it did not have to happen at the beginning of the season. I believe if Prince wanted this to happen they could have aranged it.

 

If they thought Saturday's were the perfect time here are some other Saturdays:

 

May 10th: maybe not since the game is at 2:45 but move it up to 9:30-10:30 and all would be fine

May 31st: Same 6:05 time

June 14th: Same 6:05 time

June 21st: same 6: 05 time

July 5th: same 6:05 time

July 12th: same 6:05 time

July 26th: same 6:05 time

Aug 9th: same 6:05 time

Aug 23: same 6:05 time

Sept 6th same 6:05 time

Sept 27th probably not since Cubs game scheduled for 12:05

 

After April 26th the Brewers have 11 Saturday home games where 9 of them were the exact same time. Without a need to perk the season ticket holders early in the year they could have seen if any of those games would have "fit" into Prince's schedule where he didn't have a kid's birthday, family obligation or his dog ate his homework. Pretty fishy!

[RoseBowlMtg]

It sounds to me that this signing needed to be set up to fit several players' schedules and that the Brewers may have dropped the ball a bit in their original communication.

Why do you say that casey? In November I paid a month earlier than ever and chose to meet Prince and get a bat. This letter said a last minute scheduling conflict Prince wouldn't make it. A date was never set, change it. Who else is there signing but Prince? No one. This has to fit Prince's schedule and there were 9 other identical Saturday's it could have worked. To me it seems like Prince said he didn't want to do it and the Brewers are covering for him. Do you think any season ticket holder would have been upset about attending in any of the 6 other Saturday's prior to the All-Star break? Of course not. There was never a set time and the thing about season ticket holders is they are around for the entire year for the most part. No one would have been upset about a later date since no date was every set.

[twobrewers]

M'eh.

Honestly, I think the Brewers just dropped the ball. They promised these things to season ticket holders way before they had made arrangements for them to actually happen.

I know they have been having some difficulty in fulfilling their obligations. It has taken them forever to set a date for the Prince bat as well as the autographed baseballs. Baseball players have tons of things on their schedule other than baseball. This has been very difficult for the Brewers to schedule.

For all we know, Prince might have set that day aside to take part in a Make-A-Wish program. Or he is busy signing his new contract. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/tongue.gif

[1992casey]

I'm not a season ticket holder, so I'm working with what's relayed to me here on the board. But it sounds to me that fans may have been given the impression that the Brewers were going to work around each player's schedule while they were actually intending to do all the signings on one date.

[naivin]

What's up with Prince? From the sound of it, a scheduling conflict.

[Pedro]

I'm with RoseBowl on this. When I talked with the Brewers this winter and asked about a date, they said it would be determined based on Fielder's schedule. It just seems to me like this is something Fielder decided he no longer wants to do, for whatever reason. And if there truly is a scheduling conflict, I think most people would have been fine with the date moving; or with having the option of either going to the Braun in-person signing on the 26th or having Fielder sign a bat and it being mailed or picked-up. Myself, I'm now going with the $60 per seat food/drink voucher, since my daughter really wanted to meet Fielder (and already has met and received an autograph from Braun) and that is no longer an option.

[hawing]

That's interesting.

 

As a partial season ticket holder we dutifully ranked our preferences last fall for meeting our choice of the "four young exciting players" at an exclusive event this spring. Last month I asked our rep when the date would be selected (thinking that if it were a weekday for some reason that I'd better make sure I could take the day off work). His guess, at the time, was that the event would be held on one of the Brewers' off days in April that was contiguous to a homestand - hence, either April 7 or April 28. Then a couple of weeks passed before we got the postcard saying to save the date for April 26.

 

The details of this event are due to be mailed this coming week. I will be a little disappointed if they replace the originally stated players (Corey, CV, Yovani and Rickie).

 

As for RBM's lead post, I think extrapolating this into an "early" departure for Prince might be going a little far. But had I received your mailing, I'd also wonder what's "last minute" about 15 days out. Maybe time moves differently for superstar baseball players?

 

We'll be out of town when our "details" are mailed, but perhaps another recipient can post them on the forum.

[RoseBowlMtg]

OK here is my story: We have been season ticket holders since day 1: 91 season tix holders remained 3 yrs ago and we never had to pay our tix before January 15th. We would get a perk, like batting practice, to pay before Feb 15th. This year the date moved up to December 15th where if you paid then my tix would be $60 each instead of $95 if paid a month later. They threw in the Prince signing which is huge imo. So $60 x 2 tickets x 81 games = $9720 + 81 gold parking passes = $1215 for a total of $10,935 now before Christmas instead of after. I'm not really complaining but it does make a difference and that is what they offered. As Pedro said the date was never set and always flexible. How many scheduling conflicts could you have?

 

Let's say the Brewers dropped the ball and never asked Prince but offered it to their season tix holders. Well at some time they had to approach him and Prince declined. I don't see it. Prince is pissed and we know he holds grudges. His contract, his being mad about booing the home team, I wonder how he liked the Mets fans booing Johan yesterday?, frustrated about his lack of production, his dad's situation, being young and not maturing yet? I have no clue but even if you want to blame the Brewers Prince had to say no which says something or they had to be afraid to ask him. To me those seem less likely.

[GenoSeligPrieb]

"Am I reading too much into this or....has Prince gone diva on us at 23? "

 

Maybe not Prince himself, but can we rule out the ominous influence of Scott Boras? I can see baseball's version of a computer virus making his newest star less available for lower-profile gigs like this one, and more available for Good Morning America...live in New York.

 

If Prince has ANY kind of anger toward Brewer management, I could absolutely see Boras in his ear, reminding him of that all year long. LaPorta better pick out a good first baseman's mitt...

[bando1234]

Two words: Vegetarian convention

[TooLiveBrew]

Maybe not Prince himself, but can we rule out the ominous influence of Scott Boras?

 

Geno, come on. Get over the Boras thing. Yea, an agent wants to make his player less attractive to fans. Oh, but I know! It's really part of some secret computer virus!

 

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