During last night’s Atlanta at Washington game. 20 year old Bryce Harper hit a home run and although not blatant, he did admire his work and trotted around the bases.
The next time up, Braves pitcher Julio Teheran plunked him in the legs on the first pitch. Old school baseball. Harper bitched about it as he walked towards first base and Teheran slowly walked off the mound asking Harper what he was going to about it.
Harper has a rep of being a little brash. Teheran had a few of his fellow teammates up front to protect him... the 6’4” first baseman and a 6’5” outfielder. The looks on the faces were straight out of the Bob Gibson scowling manual.
Personally, I would have plunked Rodriguez with the first pitch thrown to him on Monday night. He is a disgrace to baseball.
Harper would make short work of him.
Leaving the batter’s box, Harper didn’t do anything that any other player doesn’t do. The bigger problem was that upon reaching home, he threw a kiss towards the sky (was listening to the game on the radio, so I didn’t see it, but that is how it was described).
What the Braves didn’t realize was the reason that he did that. He had been spending time with a young cancer patient, who died, and it was for them that Harper did that. A nice tribute from a good-hearted young man.
When it comes to Harper, people are looking so hard for something negative that it must be due to jealousy. Harper’s reaction to being hit by the punk Braves pitcher (apologies for any redundancy) was also well measured and classy. He didn’t rush the mound, but he also didn’t take it lying down.