Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Harper considers himself ‘blessed’ after being beaned
Bryce Harper admitted he was mentally re-playing what he considers to be an accidental beaning in his head Friday as he was talking about it in a media Zoom session. He also considered it to be a bit of a blessed event.
“I’m just super excited and blessed to be able to have this conversation with you guys right now,” Harper said prior to the Phillies’ game with the Mets at Citizens Bank Park. “Going through that situation, seeing how many guys have been hit in the face or in the upper area of their body ... they didn’t get the reaction that I did. So I’m just very thankful to be having this conversation, being able to come home to my family the other night and just being able to come to the ballpark today.”
Harper took a 97 mph fastball to the face Wednesday night from St. Louis lefty Genesis Cabrera. The Phillies’ star sat out his second straight game Friday, but thankfully not because of any significant structural or deeper damage.
“No concussion, no symptoms,” Harper said. “I had (a concussion) in the past when I was younger, like 10, 12, 13 years old, somewhere in there. So I know the symptoms and I didn’t have any of those. I felt fine. But I definitely had the angels on my side.”
What wasn’t on Harper’s side was the angle the ball took. It came straight past Harper’s right hand — he was trying to ward it off but was too late — and crashed full force into his left cheekbone. Other than some mild bleeding near the nose, Harper was later found to have no broken bones.
But after hitting his face the ball deflected down and off the inside of his left wrist. It is pain there that has Harper sidelined.
“It hit me flush in the face, got me pretty good,” he said. “Then once it ricocheted off, instead of going straight to the backstop, it got me in the wrist. So it kind of hit me in that perfect spot, right on the bone and the little tendon area right there.” Bad luck? Hardly. Harper said he’ll test swinging a bat for Saturday’s game, “and if I can go tomorrow then I will, and if not, then we’ll take another day.
“I just really want to be smart about it,” Harper said. “I feel good at the plate right now so I don’t want to be dumb and go out there and just say, ‘Hey, I want to be play’ just because I want to look tough, like I have done in the past.”
This more mature Harper, 28, married and the father of two young children, knows how lucky he is. And he had no problem admitting how shaken he was by how near he came to a disastrous moment in his life.
“It kind of hit me inside; I was emotional, a little upset about the situation,” Harper said, “just because I was thinking about my kids, thinking about my wife. Baseball kind of goes to the side in that situation, and in that moment, you’re thinking about bigger things. You start thinking about your family and kids and what-ifs, right?
“For 30 minutes to an hour after, I was kind of worried,’What’s going on with my head? With my face? With my body?’ ... all those thoughts creep into your mind. It was definitely a whirlwind of emotions at the time.”
Harper was given a CT scan that night in a St. Louis hospital but was soon discharged with essentially a clean bill of health. He would have trouble sleeping later, however, dealing with both the physical and mental fallout of being beaned.
“That night definitely weighed heavily on me,” he said. “Once I got out of there, going to the hospital with a CT scan and all that stuff and they said everything checked out good, I was just so fortunate to be able to get out of the hospital. Everything was good and I could breathe (easy). I was definitely in a lot of pain, and just replaying it in my mind ... you’re talking about a couple of inches up or a couple of inches over to either side, and we might be having a different conversation now.”
Harper talked to his wife and his parents soon after the incident to alleviate any worries, and now he’d still like to talk to somebody else — Genesis Cabrera.
The 24-year-old hard thrower had just come into the game Wednesday night when he hit Harper with his first pitch in the sixth inning. And with his second pitch ... he hit Didi Gregorius in the ribs.
That brought several comments from the Phillies bench and from manager Joe Girardi, who went after the umpires and was ejected after they decided to merely warn both benches. On his way toward the clubhouse, Girardi yelled at Cabrera, who was making a show of trying to indicate the ball was slipping from his grip.
“I couldn’t imagine being Genesis in that situation,” Harper said. “The ball gets away from you ... it’s part of the game. It s something you never want to see happen but it can slip away and hit somebody.”
Harper said he received a text on Thursday from Cardinals manager Mike Shildt expressing well-wishes on his and the Cardinals’ behalf. Harper responded in kind, asking his regards be passed onto Cabrera.
“I know he didn’t do it on purpose,” Harper said. “I just wanted to make sure he was OK. He’s a young pitcher and that can definitely mess with somebody. We’ve seen it in the past, with guys that hit somebody or throw a pitch to the badckstop, then the floodgates just open.
“So I’m thinking about Genesis, prayed for him last night, just wanted to make sure he was OK.”
NOTES » Gregorius missed the last game of the Cardinals series due to rib pain from the pitch, but missed the opener of the Mets series because he was put on the COVID-19 list. ... Bench coach Rob Thomson ran the Phillies Friday night because Girardi was away, attending his daughter’s college graduation.