When Bryce Harper ripped a reporter in Toronto for asking him if he was going to have a beer after the game, he wasn’t just trying to embarrass the guy for asking a lame question that had nothing to do with baseball. Had the reporter done his homework, he would have known that Harper doesn’t drink and doesn’t party. He is a Mormon, which is a religion that forbids the consumption of alcohol. During a recent interview with Holden and Danny on 106.7 The Fan, Harper explained why the question annoyed him so badly.
“I’d rather be a good person off the field than a good baseball player on the field,” he explained. “I wanna be as good as I can be off the field for these fans and this town and I don’t wanna put anything into my body and do anything outside of this clubhouse that’s going to affect this team or anybody in this city or anything like that.
“I give everything I can every single day and I don’t wanna go out, I don’t wanna party, I don’t wanna drink or anything like that. So, when someone asks me a question that, I think it’s a little disrespectful and, you know, it was the first thing that came to my mind. Like I said, my body is a temple and I’m not going to put anything in it that will affect me or the way I play because I want to give everything I can for this team and this city every single day.”
Keep in mind, this is the 19-year-old kid who said he wants to be like Joe Namath by tearing it up on and off the field. These comments couldn’t be any more different from those ones. He said he doesn’t intend to be “Johnny Good” but instead have fun off the field as well. Perhaps he has had a change of heart, or perhaps Bryce is waiting until he turns 21 and accomplishes a lot more on the field before he begins that stage of his life. Whatever the case, the Harper we hear talking now sounds a lot more mature than the one who did stuff like this before he got the the majors.
Thanks to DC Sports Bog for sharing the interview with us
Photo credit: Tom Szczerbowski-US PRESSWIRE
