Philadelphia Phillies water torture ends with Bryce Harper deal
By Rick Soisson
It’s over. The water torture for Philadelphia Phillies fans is finally over.
Before this winter, the last time Philadelphia was thrown into a major tizzy over signing an athlete for one of our professional teams was about four years ago when Eagles Coach Chip Kelly coveted Marcus Mariota. The Carson Wentz thing wasn’t an extended matter because it was a bit of a surprise the Eagles jumped up in the draft late to get him. Neither jock chase, however, was anything in comparison to the water-torture winter suffered by Philadelphia Phillies fans waiting for Bryce Harper. And That Other Guy.
Back in 2015, when your correspondent put together a short, satirical fantasy about the Eagles trading for Mariota, some of the steps involved were bizarre, but when “Coach Machiakelly” got Mariota, the final judgement was: “And the world was new.”
When the Phillies got Harper on Feb. 28, they didn’t have to convert a player into Euros as Machiakelly did. They just had to cough up $330 million over 13 years, but without any opt-out clause. That Other Guy signing with San Diego surely triggered the Phillies moving to the figure agreed to. For weeks it had seemed about to happen, perhaps no day more so than Feb. 22 when Phillies principal owner John Middleton flew to meet Harper and his wife in Las Vegas, their hometown.
But the world being transformed after Feb. 28 seemed a definite thing.
One thing that now has to disappear is the cynical attitude of many observers about reports of Harper signing. There will be no more articles about the “110th day” of a “free agency nightmare” or articles about the Phillies as possibly the only team really in the Harper Sweepstakes.
No more will writers strain, as Todd Zolecki did, to explain why Middleton flew to Vegas: “Perhaps Harper and his wife want to see if they can have a similar relationship [to their ‘incredibly close’ ties to Nationals owner Mark Lerner] with Philadelphia Phillies ownership, too.”