There was not a particular game, or play, or at-bat that keyed the chant. There wasn’t a scoreboard prompt. There was nothing organized. There was nothing formal.
It was just organic. It was just spontaneous. It was just sincere, and it was just right.
“M-V-P! … M-V-P!” the chorus went whenever Bryce Harper strolled to the plate. “M-V-P!”
Creative? No. But the popular recognition of Harper was different from all the other MVP yelling in pro sports, for it was pure. He wasn’t leading the league in home runs. Or RBIs. Or batting average. Or on-base percentage. Or fielding accuracy. Or stolen bases. Or slam-into-the-wall outfield plays.
Rather, the chanting was exactly what it was designed to be: A recognition from a fan base that something spectacular was happening before their eyes. Key word: Eyes. They didn’t need some sports scientist to analyze the statistics to tell them what they were seeing. They didn’t need to cross-reference their feelings with whatever else some other candidate might have been achieving. They didn’t need to look around for validation. If somebody on social media found it offensive, no one cared.
All the fans of the Phillies knew – and their baseball-knowledge bona fides were not to be questioned – was that they were savoring something unlike anything they’d witnessed in a Philadelphia baseball stadium in the modern era. They were noticing that Bryce Harper might not have been the best in the league at any one thing, but that he was the best in, to rent a term from gymnastics, the all-around competition.
“The MVP of the National League is Bryce Harper,” said Mike Schmidt, who’d won the award three times. “On Aug. 1, he put his team on his back, became the best player in the league, and stole it.”
By Thursday, all of that was official, when Harper formally was named the MVP of the National League. And while he hardly has been a secret since the time he landed on the cover of Sports Illustrated at age 16, and indeed has come to be known by many as the face of baseball, a strange conversation has risen in recent weeks: For all of his awards, and he did win a Silver Slugger award this season, he might be underrated.
“Yeah, I’m OK with that,” Harper said. “Each year coming in, you want to get as good as possible. No matter who you are, if you are the highest-paid player in baseball or not rated that high, everybody’s mission and mentality should be the same: To get better each year and try to get the team to the next level and keep trying to win a World Series.”
Though he didn’t win the race in any of the triple-crown categories, Harper’s 1.044 OPS and 42 doubles led the National League. More, he led the depth-challenged and bullpen-rotten Phillies into the final week of the season with a chance to reach the playoffs for the first time since 2011.
“He’s an all-around player,” Joe Girardi said. “You can talk about his offensive numbers, but he had 10 assists in the outfield and he played 72 days in a row when we really needed him. We had some injuries and he was really productive at that time.
“He does it the right way.”
With the argument destined to be eternal – should the MVP award go to the statistically most accomplished player or the one most valuable to his team? – it will be up to history to judge where Harper rates among baseball legends. But he is only 29, owns two MVP plaques, and already has done enough for deep Hall of Fame consideration. First ballot, by the way.
By collecting at least 100 walks, 40 doubles and 35 home runs last season, Harper joined a club that had previously included only Babe Ruth (twice), Stan Musial and Barry Bonds. His 49 extra-base hits and 64 walks after the All-Star game granted him company with only Bonds and Jimmie Foxx. Until Thursday, only Foxx, Bonds, Alex Rodriguez and Frank Robinson had won MVP recognition with more than one team.
Name dropper?
“All those other guys you talk about have the World Series as well,” Harper said. “And that’s the next goal. That has to be the next step. You want to be in it and up on that platform with your teammates and doing that.
“I don’t want to just check off this box and say, ‘Hey, I’m good. I won an MVP in Philadelphia.’ I want to keep going and doing my thing and realizing that we want to be the team that keeps getting ready for October.”
Harper wasn’t an All-Star last season. He wasn’t selected. It’s what can happen when a handful of games is used to measure an all-around superstar who is best appreciated as an acquired taste.
Contact Jack McCaffery at jmccaffery@21st-centurymedia.com
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