Stop the presses: Philadelphians boo star Bryce Harper
It did not take long for Philadelphia Phillies fans to boo Bryce Harper.
Opening Day stories are always meaningless, Bob Feller’s no-hitter perhaps notwithstanding. In the long run, however, even that great performance didn’t usher in a shining era of dominance for the Cleveland Indians. Neither is what happened Mar. 28 to new Philadelphia Phillies star Bryce Harper likely to be important as such.
Baseball is a team game, and nothing any one player does is fully meaningful without a supporting cast. Still, because the game isolates individuals more than any other team game, we watch the individuals and tally up what they did and what occurred to them. This is particularly true for recently minted hyper-millionaire players like Harper.
What happened to the “poor man’s Mike Trout,” then? (And by the way, that phrase has been around for over six years.) Didn’t Harper start with his new, very generous team yesterday?
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Yes, Harper made his Philadelphia Phillies debut yesterday, didn’t get a hit, and was booed.
Some may not consider this news because…Philadelphia, but then again, there’s that individual thing, and in this case, an individual $330 million contract. Of course, the folks who booed Harper yesterday in the fourth inning when he struck out aren’t paying his salary, nor is Harper’s salary this year likely to alter Phillies owner John Middleton’s lifestyle at all. But, again, someone had to boo him because…Philadelphia.
Accordingly, those fourth inning boos allowed MLB.com writer Mark Feinsand to have a little laugh and create a misspelling on Twitter:
“If you had ‘Under 2.5’ on the number of at-bats it would take for Harper to hear any boos in Philly, you win! Bryce strikes out with a runner on third here in the fourth, brining [sic] out a handful of jeers. Not many, but not none, either.”
And Feinsand isn’t even a Philly guy. He comes from New York City if we’re to judge by his high school, and went to Boston College, but of course, both New York City and Boston folks enjoy pointing out people in Philadelphia are known for booing and other unpleasant behavior, as though those two cities feature civilized fans.
No, his Philly Phanatic shoes didn’t save Bryce Harper from boos.
Moreover, it didn’t save him from a fairly wide dissemination of an NJ.com video of him being booed after his second strikeout, but if anyone can actually find the one person apparently booing in this video, I’ll give you twenty bucks.
Everybody take a deep breath. Bryce Harper hasn’t failed yet. Nobody sensible thinks that, and no one following the Phillies doesn’t know Harper was intentionally walked late yesterday, and then immediately scored on Rhys Hoskins’ grand slam. Oh, and the Phillies won, 10-4.
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On the other hand, had I been there, I might have booed those shoes. As my daughter would say, “They really clashed.”