Bryce Harper is a wildly talented ballplayer, someone who’s beautiful swing and natural power rivals that of Josh Hamilton. He has the rare talent to be able to hit four home runs in a single junior college game. When you’re as good as he is, your bat does your talking. Unfortunately the immature and cocky youngster thinks he needs to prove his worth with on-field taunts, which is quite frankly, sad.
Harper bashed his 14th home run of the season for the Hagerstown Suns Monday evening and felt the need to show up the opposing pitcher. Harper admired his home run and then when opposing pitcher Zach Neal said something to him about it, Harper responded with an air kiss. Here’s the video of Bryce Harper pimping his home run then blowing a kiss:
Ordinarily we might overlook such an event if it weren’t such a frequent occurrence for the emerging star. This is the same Harper who was ejected from the JUCO World Series last year after showing up an umpire. Scouts have said players genuinely dislike Harper, and it’s well known he has top of the scale arrogance and a large sense of entitlement.
He appeared at his press conference after being drafted with a pink tie and his faux-hawk going. His talent is screaming superstar, but his character is lacking modesty. He surely needs to be humbled, and I’m not sure a 98mph fastball in the ear hole will be able to do the trick. It shouldn’t have to. But I suppose if his parents wanted him featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated at the age of 16, we can’t be surprised they didn’t teach him about modesty. Hopefully at some point he’ll learn that trait so he can become a more likable guy. For now, he’s made himself extremely easy to dislike.
