It was one of the ugliest things I have ever seen on a baseball field. Bryce Harper had a ball hit over his head, and he turned around and sprinted after it as it carried, watching the ball the whole time, not paying any attention to where he was at on the field. Running full speed, he ran straight into the outfield scoreboard, which is covered in chain link. His body went stiff and his eyes shut. He crumbled to the ground and lay there still, face down, deep in the outfield. He was unconcious for a short time. It was ugly. Though this incident was much more severe, it brought me back to a moment when I was watching Harper playing for the Hagerstown Suns, before he made it to the bigs. He was playing right, and he got a fly ball over his head. In pursuit of the ball, he hit the wall and crumbled. It was almost a replay, other than all the blood that came with his latest collision.
Immediately after hitting the wall, Harper lays face down on the warning track, unconcious.
The collision left Bryce with 11 stitches in his chin. The chain link on the fence was what caused his chin to get cut up. Harper did not sustain a concussion, however, which is good. Everyone's immediate reaction was that he got a concussion, the way he hit his head off the wall, then laid on the ground for a while and got up and stumbled a bit, as if his head was in the clouds. Even MASN (Mid Atlantic Sports Network) announcer F.P. Santangelo said, "he's not all there right now" after Harper hit the wall.
A bloody chinned Bryce Harper walks off the field after running into the right field scoreboard at Dodger stadium
facefirst at full speed.
"He's not all there right now." - F.P. Santangelo
So is Bryce Harper too hardcore? Should he tune down his all out, 120% play? Ryan Zimmerman said it like this; "I would rather him not go all-out into the wall. Some people look at it as a bad thing. If you play that hard every day, there is something to be said about that. He's going to play a long time and you have to learn to take care of your body. As he grows, he'll learn what to do and what not to do." Jordan Zimmermann said "That's all you can ask for as a pitcher, a guy going 110 percent." I'm sure Zimmermann did not like seeing him hit the wall though. Nobody did. Manager Davey Johnson says he does not want to change Bryce. He shouldn't change. Nobody likes seeing him get hurt, but everyone loves watching Bryce Harper give it his all on the baseball field. It's what makes him Bryce Harper. Harper sent out a tweet the day after his injury, saying "I will keep playing this game hard for the rest of my life even if it kills me! I'll never stop! #RespectTheGame" Now that is just dedication. Harold Reynolds of MLB Now said that he believes Bryce should move back to catcher, his original position, or somewhere else in the infield. I can't really argue much with that. First off, Harper has always had a lot of trouble seeing the ball in the outfield. The colorful stands are the backdrop that he has to pick the tiny, white baseball out of, and his eyes aren't very good. The Nationals said they wanted to convert Harper into an outfielder to prolong his career, but they would always keep that catching option open. It doesn't look like the outfield is prolonging his career. If he were to move to catcher, he'd be competing with Wilson Ramos and Kurt Suzuki. I say if you're going to move him, try him at second base. Danny Espinosa hasn't done particularly good for a while, and he's actually a shortstop turned second baseman, so if you started Harper at second you still have Espinosa as an infield utility player. I truly believe Harper could play anywhere with his heart. There is no denying that Bryce Harper respects the game.
Yeah, if that is not respecting the game
then I don't know what is.
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