Perspective: Nationals fans get their boos in, but Bryce Harper has the last word
By Thomas Boswell Thomas Boswell Sports columnist Email Bio Follow Columnist April 2 at 11:23 PM Before the Washington Nationals met Bryce Harper in a Philadelphia Phillies uniform for the first time Tuesday night at Nationals Park, veteran Ryan Zimmerman provided his calm, wise, Virginia gentleman perspective on the night.
Bryce Harper had three hits in his return to D.C., including a monster home run, in the Phillies’ 8-2 win. Only chronology does justice to this night, when anything involving Harper incited the crowd — and before the night was done — inflamed Bryce himself to three hits, three RBI and an epic insult of a bat flip whirled directly toward the Nats’ dugout as he started his eighth-inning home run trot in the Phillies’ 8-2 win.
“BOOOO!!!” thundered the crowd when that video board showed Harper highlights in a tribute, though his Home Run Derby moment brought some cheers. “The crowd was really into it. More than I thought it would be. It was really a loud, rowdy crowd tonight — against him,” said Scherzer, who added that he respected how Harper “stood there and held his ground” in battling to get a contract that was a record.For those who say that Washington baseball fans are a bit mild, seldom boo foes and, except in the playoffs, don’t rise to the volume and passion of baseball-rabid crowds in cities such as Boston or St. Louis, we now need to add an asterisk.
If I’d been the Nats, desperate to solve a half-dozen serious roster problems, I’d have done what they did: make Harper a decent offer, give him a negotiating floor with other teams, but assume he wouldn’t take the deal. Then grab free agents fast.But the Nats had a retroactive shock, too, almost as big as Bryce finding himself in Philadelphia. Harper’s average annual salary is now $25.4 million, not the $35 million to $40 million many expected.
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