Harper’s Skills Don’t Include Helmet Throwing
Here are a few facts about Bryce Harper most people already knew. Harper can hit a 400 foot home run with ease. He enjoys the fun of baseball, but doesn’t believe in second place trophies. Bryce can throw a runner out at home from the warning track with amazing accuracy. However, he has serious accuracy issues when it comes to throwing his helmet at an opposing pitcher from 5 feet away.
On a beautiful Memorial Day game, Hunter Strickland decided to be a bit of a bad sport. In the 8th inning of Mondays game Strickland threw a pitch straight at Harper’s thigh and Bryce didn’t take exception to it. Bryce charged the mound and attempted to throw his helmet at Strickland. Unfortunately the helmet throw looked more like 50 cent throwing out the first pitch at Shea Stadium.
Even though the helmet did not connect, a punch or two from each guy did. It made me so happy to finally see an exciting thing happen in a baseball game. It looks like both of these guys will be seeing suspensions, but if you ask me, baseball should give them a bonus for drawing some extra viewers to the sport for at least 3 minutes.
Well, so much for a quiet afternoon of Memorial Day baseball. Giants reliever Hunter Strickland drills Bryce Harper in the hip — clearly on purpose and probably because Harper hit two home runs off him in the 2014 playoffs. Harper charged, the two exchanged punches — both nailing each other in the face — and we’re going to get some suspensions. Mostly, however, it was a gutless, bush-league pitch from Strickland.
David Schoenfield, ESPN Senior Writer