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In depth breakdown of Bryce Harper’s shocking tell-all interview

By Ben Fadden

CLEARWATER, FLORIDA - MARCH 07: Bryce Harper #3 of the Philadelphia Phillies leaves the field against the Boston Red Soxof a Grapefruit League spring training game on March 07, 2020 in Clearwater, Florida. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
CLEARWATER, FLORIDA - MARCH 07: Bryce Harper #3 of the Philadelphia Phillies leaves the field against the Boston Red Soxof a Grapefruit League spring training game on March 07, 2020 in Clearwater, Florida. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images) /
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Harper is absolutely in on playing in the Olympics

If Major League Baseball wants any help with growing the game, they need to talk to Bryce Harper. Harper emphatically explained the biggest reason why baseball isn’t successfully growing the game and it is safe to say he is ready to play in the Olympics if that possibility arises.

“They [MLB] have to do the Olympics every four years. You want to grow the game? You really want to take it to different countries and places, you put the baseball back into the Olympics, but let the big league players play.”

Harper further expressed his frustration that major leaguers don’t get to play in the world’s biggest sporting event.

“It’s such a travesty for me…the 2020 Olympics in Japan, in Tokyo, and you’re not sending big league guys? Are you kidding me? You wanna grow the game as much as possible and you’re not gonna let us play in the Olympics because you don’t want to cut out on money for a two week period? Like okay, that’s dumb.” He continued, “You have [Shohei] Ohtani going back and playing for Japan facing Mike Trout. Just imagine that… You know damn well Ohtani’s gonna try to punch him out and Trout hopefully goes deep 900 feet in the Tokyo Dome.”

Harper is 100% right when it comes to MLB missing out on a huge opportunity to grow the game. The World Baseball Classic is fine and all, but it doesn’t get much national attention and it just simply isn’t the Olympics.

People might not think it’s smart to send the league’s best players to the Olympics because they would be right in the middle of the regular season, but Harper believes that wouldn’t be a problem.

“Shut down the season for 2 weeks, go to a 142-game schedule every four years and that’s it,” he said.

Sure, the league will lose some revenue from two fewer weeks of the season every four years, but if you have to sacrifice money for bringing more attention to the game, which seems like Rob Manfred’s biggest goal, then the league should gladly do that.

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