Bryce Harper versus Mike Trout: Food blogger versus meteorologist
Bryce Harper and his wife, Kayla, have started a food blog, but how does that compare to Mike Trout’s love of weather?
In this corner, we have 24-year-old Bryce Harper, currently hitting .338/.444/.641 and well on his way to leading the Washington Nationals to the NL East title. He’s second in the National League in FanGraphs Wins Above Replacement (to teammate Anthony Rendon) and just two seasons removed from an MVP season. At his very finest, he is in the conversation for the title of best player in baseball.
In this corner, we have 25-year-old Mike Trout, currently hitting .330/.453/.713 in a season that saw him miss seven weeks with a thumb injury. He’s trying to lead the Los Angeles Angels to an AL wild card spot. Despite the lost time, he’s seventh in the AL in FanGraphs WAR. With two AL MVP awards and three second-placed finishes in the last five years, he’s the unquestioned best player in baseball.
Harper will need a couple more seasons like this one and his 2015 NL MVP year to challenge Trout for on field supremacy, but he’s making strides off the field with the launch of a new blog. Harper and his wife, Kayla, announced the launch of Harp Eats with an Instagram post.
Their first post explained the reason behind the blog:
"bharper3407 Not only do we love baseball, our families, and the Lord, but food is a passion of ours as well! I’ve gotten a lot of asks to start a food blog on where I travel and eat through out the season and off season..From healthy to not healthy it’s a wide variety of what we love to eat! So go ahead and follow us on our tour of our favorite places from our kitchen at home to the kitchens across the world! Spread the word and follow.More from Call to the PenPhiladelphia Phillies, ready for a stretch run, bomb St. Louis CardinalsPhiladelphia Phillies: The 4 players on the franchise’s Mount RushmoreBoston Red Sox fans should be upset over Mookie Betts’ commentAnalyzing the Boston Red Sox trade for Dave Henderson and Spike Owen2023 MLB postseason likely to have a strange look without Yankees, Red Sox, Cardinals"
The Harpers are foodies and they are using Instagram to share their enjoyment of food online (I have foodie friends. They never invite me to dinner at nice places. I think they’re worried I’ll order the wrong wine with my entrée). One of the recent posts at Harp Eats was a breakfast they enjoyed in Scottsdale, Arizona. The Harpers ate gluten free chocolate chip pancakes with some egg and salmon tacos (two-thirds of the things in that meal I have never eaten).
They have four posts up so far and some are more descriptive than others. They’ve also identified some of the restaurants in which they dined, which brings out the suggestions from their online followers of other restaurants in the area to try. Everyone seems to be enjoying their posts, even if some are a little jealous of the couple. One person commented, “The harps are living my food goals while I sit here eating ramen.”
While Bryce and his wife are celebrating their foodie-ness with the world, Mike Trout’s off-field interests are in an entirely different area. He’s a budding meteorologist and a lover of weather. It’s kind of the perfect thing for Mike Trout to love. As good as he is at baseball, and he’s the best there is, he doesn’t have a big personality like some famous athletes. He’s doesn’t do or say anything controversial, and you never hear anything bad about him off the field. He answers questions like he took a course in MLB interviewing from Crash Davis (caution: there are swear words in this clip).
For most people, weather is just the go-to conversational topic that you bring up when you can’t think of anything else to talk about. Not Mike Trout. He’s obsessive about checking the multiple weather apps on his phone in each city he visits. Two years ago, a Reddit user did some investigation into Mike Trout’s fascination with weather by going through Trout’s Twitter posts. His investigation went back to 2012, when he revealed that Trout uses a third-party weather app rather than the one that came with his phone.
In 2014, Trout interacted with the New Jersey Weather Blog, which is mostly populated with amateur meteorology/storm-chasing people in New Jersey (where Trout grew up). Further research revealed at the time that Trout followed 17 different meteorologists and more than 20 weather-related accounts on Twitter. The man loves his weather.
Next: A look at the company Trout is trying to join this season
So there it is. Two of the best young players in baseball. On the field, they are incredibly talented players who are at the top of their game. Off the field, one is a foodie who Instagrams his meals with his wife and the other is obsessed with weather.