What Bryce Harper should know about playing in Philly

I​ know​ what it’s​ like​ to play​ in Philadelphia.​ I​ was​ there​ as a major​ leaguer​ from 1998​ to​ 2002,​ then​ again​ in​​ my final year in 2004, but even before that, I played there in college from 1988 until the 1991 draft.

 

I was a huge Phillies fan growing up in North Jersey, so you can imagine how cool it was for me to get traded to Philly in 1997 and have former Phillies legends whom I admired from childhood as coaches and spring training guests. These players had sparked my love for the game, which endures to this day even as I’ve moved to the media side of baseball. My favorite part is being able to tell players’ stories — the human side of the game. And I’ve learned that knowing the history is an important part of telling that story. I’ve heard that Bryce Harper, the most famous new Phillie in a long time, is a baseball historian of sorts himself, with a deep understanding of the previous generations of players that came before him.

 

 

 

Excerpt from The Athletic.

Photo Credit: The Athletic