In his first of many appearances on ESPN’s “Sunday Night Baseball” as a member of the Philadelphia Phillies, Bryce Harper helped complete a season-opening sweep of the Atlanta Braves with his second home run in as many games. Unlike on Opening Day, when at least a few fans at Citizens Bank Park booed Harper — perhaps sarcastically — following his second strikeout, he and the home crowd were all smiles Sunday.
“You’ve seen him happy in D.C., you’ve seen him happy in his career, but there is something right now about Bryce, and he’s got 13 years here in Philadelphia,” ESPN analyst Jessica Mendoza said after Harper’s homer in the seventh inning. “Of course, a couple home runs in two days helps you a little bit.”
Fellow analyst Alex Rodriguez couldn’t resist taking an uninformed shot at D.C. as a sports town.
“D.C. is about 130 miles down the road, but let’s make it clear, it’s a world of difference between markets,” Rodriguez said. “If you’re over there, you’re thinking about politics and what happens in the White House. If you’re here, this is a sports town and they looove their Phillies.”
This is a weird shot from A-Rod pic.twitter.com/gIAChgulgr
— Chris Lingebach (@ChrisLingebach) April 1, 2019
Questioning D.C.'s “sports town” credentials is nothing new — ESPN’s Michael Wilbon did it last year during the Capitals’ Stanley Cup run — but Rodriguez’s take is especially silly.
During the bottom of the fifth inning of Sunday’s game, Phillies starter Jake Arrieta fouled off five two-strike pitches from Braves rookie Kyle Wright before lining out to center. The crowd got louder and louder throughout Arrieta’s impressive 11-pitch at-bat; ESPN’s cameras showed whole sections of fans on their feet and young Phillies fans screaming their faces off. I wouldn’t expect to see a similar scene at Nationals Park, but not because the D.C. fans who are reluctant to stand for anything but a home run are too busy thinking about Trump’s foreign policy. The late conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer wrote that God created baseball as a relief from politics, and that’s the vibe I generally get at Nationals Park, outside of the fourth-inning Presidents’ Race. It’s possible to be passionate and informed about politics and sports.
This is the part where I could point out, as several fans who were irked by Rodriguez’s comments already have, that Washington has outdrawn the Phillies for five consecutive seasons. Instead, let’s revisit what the president said just last week when hosting the Stanley Cup champion Capitals at the White House.
“I just want to wish you a lot of luck,” Trump told the team. “In Washington that’s all that they want to talk about. They don’t want to talk about anything else. I can’t get the subject on to anything else, so you’ve got to win quickly because we’ve got to get back to work.”
Maybe D.C. is too much of a sports town?
Nationals fans weren’t the only ones annoyed with Rodriguez on Sunday. Phillies fans mocked him, too, after he called a cheesesteak that he sampled during the broadcast a “cheese sandwich” and referred to Phillies first baseman Rhys Hoskins as Rhys Haskins more than once.
Meanwhile, Harper is looking forward to his first return to D.C. in a Phillies uniform Tuesday. It’s a safe bet that the crowd won’t be thinking about politics when he steps in against Max Scherzer.
“I’m excited,” Harper said on “SportsCenter” after the game. “I’ll definitely probably hear some cheers, hear some boos, but for me, it’s part of sports. It’s part of going to a new place. I played there for the first seven years of my career. I loved every single moment of it. Those fans are great, the city of D.C.’s great. I’m excited to get back in that ballpark, somewhere where I’m very comfortable and play a couple games.”
Dear A-Rod — Real Washingtonians don’t spend all day thinking about politics. We have our own lives.
— Rick Snider (@Snide_Remarks) April 1, 2019
FP really stands for Foreign Policy https://t.co/JHGe1KuiEe
— F.P. Santangelo (@FightinHydrant) April 1, 2019
What does @AROD mean when it comes to DC vs. Philadelphia athletes? Says difference in D.C. is that "you're (athletes) thinking about politics & what happened in the White House." If "you're here, this is a sports town & they love their #Phillies." Too much cheese whiz.
— Chris Russell (@Russellmania621) April 1, 2019
I’m pretty sure the 2018 MLB All-Star Game showcases everything that’s wrong about what Alex Rodriguez said about DC and our sports. Kindly cease taking about my town like that, @AROD.
— Capital Sports Forecast (@NatsWx) April 1, 2019
#SundayNightBaseball. Tell Arod that DC is a baseball city. How insulting. We stood by Harper good and bad. That’s what real baseball cities do! We don’t boo our own players.
— Regina Piazza (@PiazaRegina) April 1, 2019
Go kick rocks @AROD
— Julia M. Payne (@jmpayne24) April 1, 2019
Most of us DC can actually multitask so we can think about politics and baseball and love our Nationals
Listening to @AROD describe the difference between DC and Philly would be insulting if I could ever take him seriously. #SundayNightBaseball
— Jeremy Art (@jeremyart) April 1, 2019
— Adam's tweets rock (@Bad_Ad) April 1, 2019
@AROD here’s attendance over the last five years. Nats above Phillies every year. pic.twitter.com/vgPQxjg7U3
— New Columbia Heights (@newcolumbiahts) April 1, 2019
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