PHILADELPHIA — He runs hard to every base, after every rolling grounder, after every dart into a gap.
He swings when he is supposed to swing, looks when he is supposed to look, and rarely misses a chance to deliver when it most matters.
He taught himself a new position and has come to play it at an award-winning level. He accepted elbow surgery, but refused to linger on the injured list one day longer than necessary.
He shows up early, stays late, takes extra bases, leads in the room and always shows respect for a fan base that occasionally can trend rude.
That’s what Bryce Harper does for the $330,000,000 spent by John Middleton – not sometimes, not when the camera is on, not just when he is hitting a home run to win a World Series spot. That’s what he does always.
For that, it has become time for everyone in his Phillies sphere to help him achieve what he desperately craves – a world championship, in many ways for himself, but more, for a city, a franchise, an owner and for history.
In an era when so many big-timers in various sports – here’s a two-fingers-toward-the-eyes, looking-at-you motion toward James Harden – take the money and then, instead of committing to win a championship, demand to be traded, Harper has attacked the challenge. Not unlike Ryan Howard, famed for his late-inning dugout plea to “Get me to the plate, boys,” Harper will not wait for someone else to do that job.
Just the same, Middleton has continued to spend, Dave Dombrowski has continued to engineer a championship-level roster, and plenty of his teammates have done what they can to make it happen. Even Didi Gregorius. For all of that and more, there is Harper, deep into another postseason, still waiting for that payoff.
Maybe he can make it happen this time.
And maybe, given the way he has produced again – his two home runs and stare-down of a middling Atlanta middle infielder the other night are destined for Philadelphia baseball lore – his teammates will win one for the best player in modern Phillies history.
Bryson Stott understands that situation. He sees how his long-time friend and mentor from their home area around Las Vegas is so desperate to deliver a championship that he will fight through surgery and sprint through stop signs. He sees it, feels it, knows it.
“Yeah. I think he’s one of the best, if not the best, hitters in the league,” Stott was saying Thursday, before Game 4 of the NLDS. “And just the way he kind of shows up every day and wants to win and wants every guy in the clubhouse to succeed, is pretty awesome.”
So is there an urgency to win one for the one player who likely would appreciate it the most?
“I think if you asked him that question, he would say, ‘Don’t win it for me,’” Stott said. “He’d say, ‘Win it for the city of Philadelphia.’ So, I mean, it’s a team thing. It’s a city thing. And I think he’d tell you the same thing.”
He’d say precisely the same thing.
“I love this place,” Harper said after Game 3. “Flat out, I love this place. There’s nothing like coming into the Bank and playing in front of these fans. Blue collar mentality, tough, fighting every single day. I get chills, man. I get so fired up. Man, I love this place.
“I signed here for a reason, to do everything I could to bring back a trophy to this town, to Mr. Middleton, to this organization. I got chills thinking about it, because that’s what it’s all about. I absolutely love this place. I love every single person in this organization, fighting, clawing every single day to get back to that moment. There were so many good times in ’07, ’08, ’09, 2010, ’11. And I want to get back to that.”
The Phillies were at that place in 1980, when a different dynamic was in place. The year before, after years of frustration, they injected Pete Rose into the clubhouse, with even the most accomplished players acknowledging that he was enough to put the operation over the top within two years. Harper – a modern day Charlie Hustle – is in his fifth year with the Phillies, and in that time has been supplemented by Trea Turner and Zack Wheeler, multiple live bullpen arms, some gifted farm-system products and a couple of fresh managers.
It has all worked to put the Phillies in position to win their first championship since 2008. And if it doesn’t happen, then Middleton must move them even closer next season, even if it means re-signing Aaron Nola at a premium fee.
“This is such a great game that we play,” he said. “I’m so thankful to play this game and have these moments and have these opportunities and play for such a great organization. There’s nothing like it.”
For that, he will run and hit and score and make faces and lead.
For that, he deserves his turn to be a champion.
Contact Jack McCaffery at jmccaffery@delcotimes.com
Source: Berkshire mont
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