The Working Class City
I certainly didn’t see Bryce Harper leaving Washington for a hated division rival in the Philadelphia Phillies but to Harper, it was a match made in heaven because it reminded him of his family.
“I understand what they’re going through because my dad did it every damn day,” Harper said when referring to the Philadelphia working-class citizens. Harper’s father worked from 2 a.m. to 12 p.m. in Las Vegas as a union ironworker tying rebar before coaching Bryce in the afternoons.
“That’s what fuels me going out there every single day. I wanna play 158-162 [games] because those fans work through their whole week to buy a ticket for a Saturday day game or Saturday night game and if I’m not playing that’s a slap in the face to them…They are the working-class city.”
If there was a city that displayed Bryce Harper’s level of intensity and love for sports, it would be the city of Philadelphia.
During the interview, he said his dad told him a story about how in the first week Harper was in a Philadelphia, someone came up to his dad, Ron, and said that if Bryce ever needs anything then just come to the streets.
That was when Harper knew he made the right choice for him and his family.
Harper’s situation right now might not be as fruitful as the Nationals current situation is and that is why I disagree with his decision to leave Washington, especially when they still had Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg, and Anthony Rendon in the prime of their careers.
But former World Series champion manager Joe Girardi was a great hire for them and he is the right guy to lead a club that has a lot of potential, especially a few years down the road when prospects like Spencer Howard and Alec Bohm have arrived in the City of Brotherly Love.
As always let me know what you think about Harper’s brawl with Strickland, his opinion on the Olympics, and of course his off-season before he netted the $330 million contract from John Middleton.