{"id":79495,"date":"2017-04-17T16:08:38","date_gmt":"2017-04-17T16:08:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sandbox.web.rcn.net\/rcntv\/?p=79495"},"modified":"2023-02-24T16:46:48","modified_gmt":"2023-02-24T16:46:48","slug":"behind-mic-bryce-harper-enough-already","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/behind-mic-bryce-harper-enough-already\/","title":{"rendered":"Behind the Mic:  Bryce Harper &#8211; Enough Already!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Easter Sunday was a really nice day.\u00a0 The whole family was present with everyone making it to the house.\u00a0 Once again, my wife put together an extensive dinner, maintaining the traditions of a Ukrainian Easter; paska (Ukrainian bread); one egg shared by all to start the dinner; and a Ukrainian hymn signifying that Christ had risen.\u00a0 It was sunny and warm outside and inside.\u00a0 Even sports took a respite for the day.<\/p>\n<p>And then at 11:00pm, I watched the news which has become the most dramatic program on TV these days. \u00a0And I always check out the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/phillies\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Phillies <\/a>results.\u00a0 The Phillies lost.\u00a0 Bryce Harper hit his second home run of the day on a 3-2 count with the Phils leading 4-3 in the bottom of the ninth with two outs and two on to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/nationals\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Washington<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Do the math \u2013 a 6-4 loss.\u00a0 It was Harper\u2019s 18<sup>th<\/sup> home run against the Phillies in his five years with the Nationals.<\/p>\n<p>If you root for any team other than the Nationals, Bryce Harper is not your favorite player.\u00a0 He just seems to have a way of ruining one\u2019s day.<\/p>\n<p>But, let\u2019s face it &#8211; Bryce Harper is REALLY, REALLY good.\u00a0 He is a baseball superstar who truly lives up to the description every day he steps on the field.\u00a0 I knew a bit about his journey to the major leagues, but I decided to investigate a bit further. \u00a0Wikipedia is always a good place to start.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>He received his GED after his sophomore year in high school so he could begin his path to professional baseball career at the age of 17.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>He played one season for the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.csncoyotes.com\/index.aspx?path=baseball\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">College of Southern Nevada<\/a> as a catcher with his older brother pitching on the team. Harper was the Player of the Year in the conference.\u00a0 He topped that honor by being named the best amateur player in the country.\u00a0 And he played only one collegiate season.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>He was drafted #1 by the Nationals in 2010; signed a 5-year, $9.9 million contract with 26 seconds left before the signing deadline. His signing bonus was $6.25 million.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>He struggled early in his minor league career because as an optometrist told him, \u201cYou have some of the worst eyes I\u2019ve ever seen.\u201d Once he received contact lenses, he hit an amazing .480.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>His major league debut occurred on April 28, 2012; he was an All-Star that year; and he was named the National League\u2019s Rookie of the Year.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Including this season, he has hit a home run on opening day every year in the majors.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>His longest career home run (461-feet) is, naturally, against the Phillies.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>He is a Seventh Day Adventist and drinks no alcohol.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A 4-3 Phillies win at the end of a nice Easter Sunday would have been a perfect way to end the day, but now that I know more about Bryce Harper and his road to the majors, it\u2019s very hard not to respect his talents and his work ethic.\u00a0 I wish he just wouldn\u2019t be so hard on the Phillies.<\/p>\n<p><strong>ABOVE THE EARS (SOME MUSINGS)<\/strong><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.philadelphiaeagles.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Eagles<\/a> might want to consider hiring the \u201cEaster Bunny\u201d as a linebacker. Take a look.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Nationals\/status\/853686707555840000\/photo\/1\">https:\/\/twitter.com\/Nationals\/status\/853686707555840000\/photo\/1<\/a><\/p>\n<p>And it was a legal hit \u2013 the bunny did not lead with his EARS!!<\/p>\n<ol start=\"2\">\n<li>Image, either good or bad, is so important for professional athletes. It often determines their future once they decide to leave the game they play.\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.giants.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Giants<\/a>\u2019 quarterback <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nfl.com\/player\/elimanning\/2505996\/profile\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Eli Manning<\/a> always appeared to be one of those squeaky clean guys, much like his brother <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nfl.com\/player\/peytonmanning\/2501863\/profile\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Peyton<\/a>.\u00a0 Now we hear he may be involved in a memorabilia scam to sell items advertised as game-used when they were not and is being sued.\u00a0 I have never been enamored with sports mementos, but this should be an interesting story.<\/li>\n<li>Last week, I spoke of some potential rule changes to shorten baseball games. The first report is out for this season and the games are averaging over five minutes longer than last year.<\/li>\n<li>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/cubs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Chicago Cubs<\/a> passed out their championship rings this past week. 108 white diamonds, 33 custom-cut red rubies and 46 blue sapphires make up the face.\u00a0 The inner band features the infamous goat.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><a href=\"\/atvn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Cubs-Rings.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-79496 aligncenter\" src=\"\/atvn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Cubs-Rings.png\" alt=\"Cubs Rings\" width=\"459\" height=\"246\" \/><\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 5. \u00a0Our first look at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.goleopards.com\/sports\/m-footbl\/lafa-m-footbl-body.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Lafayette\u2019s <\/a>new head coach, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.goleopards.com\/sports\/m-footbl\/mtt\/john_garrett_1034385.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">John Garrett<\/a>, will take place on Saturday, April 29, when we televise the Lafayette Maroon-White game. The action is LIVE at 1:00pm.<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Easter Sunday was a really nice day.\u00a0 The whole family was present with everyone making it to the house.\u00a0 Once again, my wife put together an extensive dinner, maintaining the traditions of a Ukrainian Easter; paska (Ukrainian bread); one egg shared by all to start the dinner; and a Ukrainian hymn signifying that Christ had&#8230;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"Yoast SEO Relevanssi index exclude","inline_featured_image":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,4],"tags":[671,134,176,294,570,421],"class_list":["post-79495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-behind-the-mic","category-featured","category-sports","tag-bryce-harper","tag-cubs","tag-eagles","tag-lafayette","tag-nationals","tag-phillies"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Behind the Mic: Bryce Harper - Enough Already! 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