The fans behind the infamous “Bruce” Harper sign at a Washington Nationals game on Saturday say the misspelling was intentional and done as a joke.
Fans Ryan Winnick and Kyle Banas are not even Nationals fans — one is a Phillies fan and the other a Yankees fan — so they thought it would be funny to make a big sign saying how far they had traveled for the game, only to have the biggest star player’s name misspelled. They figured changing Bryce Harper to “Bruce” would get them a lot of attention on the web, and they were right.
Winnick shared a text message conversation with The Washington Post that shows he and Banas had talked about the plan ahead of time. He also posted on a Nationals sub-Reddit last week about his plan:
“I am going to the phillies game this saturday, and of course going to batting practice. Last time I went i got lucky and scored Kershaw’s autograph. what would be a funny sign to make him come over? Ideas: Bryce Babes ( 2 guys holding the sign) ” i traveled 4000 miles to see bruce harper!” ( purposely mispelled” thoughts?”
There is no doubt now that the plan was premeditated, so congratulations to the fans for accomplishing their goals! Now, if we could only figure out the reason behind Dusty Baker screwing up Harper’s name …
