Harper was built for moments like this
You can spend months wondering about and waiting for the payoff by the uncommon sports superstar. Waiting for an athlete, in this case a 26-year-old baseball player, who plays the game he grew up loving better than almost all the rest, occasionally has it love him back with more than just an astounding financial reward.
It cost John Middleton and his Phillies’ ownership partners an awful lot of money to bring someone like that to Philadelphia, but Bryce Harper showed Thursday night what such an investment can profoundly produce.
In a game unlike any other in recent Phillies memory, the home team put together an astounding late-inning comeback against an alleged World Series contender, the Chicago Cubs. Capitalizing when it counted on a mistake by Cubs manager Joe Maddon, doggedly ignoring a five-run hole, the Phillies finally were allowed to experience ultimate joy at the crack of Bryce Harper’s bat.
Having fought back from a two-strike hole, he turned on a high, 2-2 sinker that didn’t sink, at least not until after Harper belted it into the second deck in right field at Citizens Bank Park. Home run.
Grand slam.
Walk-off victory. Six-run ninth-inning stunner. Season turnaround? “Bryce is remarkable in moments like these. He’s built for
them,” manager Gabe Kapler said after a stunning 7-5 Phillies victory brought them a sweep of the Cubs and perhaps a renewed lease on their playoff lives.
“That’s it. That’s why you sign one of the best players in baseball, and why you spend so much time and energy trying to get him to come to Philadelphia,” Kapler added. “Bryce ultimately deserves all the credit for having ice water in his veins in that moment and staying relaxed. Staying relaxed and loose and confident. It was really fun to watch. But as enjoyable as watching the home run was, watching guys embrace and watching guys celebrate together, because they fight so hard just to get an opportunity to have a moment like that; for it actually to come to fruition — a walkoff grand slam against the Cubs in a playoff race?
“It was as dramatic a game as I’ve been a part of.”
Don’t discount that as only so much usual managerspeak, for Kapler the player was a member of the 2004 Boston Red Sox, who had to and did win Games 4 through 7 against the Yankees in the American League Championship Series that year, before sweeping the Cardinals for a World Series title.
Perhaps living that experience defined for a younger Kapler the ultimate never-say-die lesson. Maybe it instilled the seemingly constant sense of positive enthusiasm and motivation with which he steels himself on a daily basis.
And maybe he just knows that if all else fails, he still has Bryce Harper. And so the possibilities are endless, even when the situation seems dire and the pressure multiplied.
“I love it,” Harper said. “I think before I went up to the plate, I touched my heart a little and wondered, ‘Why am I not jittery, or excited or whatever it is?’ But that’s just how I am. I go up there, each at-bat is the same. I don’t really worry about bases loaded or a guy on first or anything like that. I just try to get a pitch over the plate I can handle and drive and hopefully good things will happen.”
Despite criticism over his batting average or his league leading strikeout total, Harper, the Phillies’ $330,000,000 man, has produced a lot of good moments. This monumental home run was his third in two nights, 25th of the season, and accounted for his 87th RBI. It was his sixth career walk-off homer, the last coming AGAINST the Phillies in 2017.
“I just love those moments,” Harper said of all the times the spotlight tries to cook him. “I love those opportunities. I think it’s helped me a lot from a young age, going through those moments and having those opportunities at 8, 9 or 10 years old in big-time games. Going to different states and cities and playing for different teams with guys I didn’t know, and with expectations and things like that, I just love it. It’s a lot of fun.”
Especially when he emerges from them as triumphant as any true superstar should be.
“These fans do expect that and I expect to do that for them on a nightly basis,” Harper said, “and if I don’t, they’re going to let me know it. And I like that, too.”
Harper was so ignited by this latest manifestation of baseball majesty that at first he couldn’t help but stand and admire. Or so it seemed.
“I watched it for a minute just to make sure it was fair,” Harper said. But of course, it didn’t seem fair, at least not for Cubs starter Yu Darvish, who had tantalized the flailing Phillies for seven innings before Maddon decided his starter had enough after 92 pitches.
Numbers tell you that, you know.
“He was done,” Maddon responded.
But Harper wasn’t. He started toward the plate after Rhys Hoskins had been hit by a pitch from reliever Pedro Strop, the Cubs’ third reliever and second of the inning. As Maddon came out to bring in reliever No. 4, lefty Derek Holland, Harper checked his heart and absorbed the moment.
The opportunity. The event that would reveal to fans, teammates and the paycheck signers themselves what bringing a superstar to town can occasionally and profoundly produce.
Moments of thrill unlike any other. For this one, Harper watched where his shot was headed, then he took off at top speed around the bases, eager for his celebratory reward.
One he shared with teammates that find him easy to know.
“One of my favorite moments I’ve ever had,” Phillies recent addition and seven-year MLB veteran Brad Miller said. “That was awesome. I think everyone in baseball expects him to do something like that every time he comes up.”