By Ronald N. Guy Jr.
Boys will be boys.
And so will young men, it seems.
Somewhat lost in the at-or-near first place Baltimore
Orioles and Washington Nationals is the absence of both teams’ young phenoms –
Manny Machado and Bryce Harper – from the lineup for large chunks of this
season’s first half. Winning masks all
warts. It’s like beer for
not-so-pretty-faces.
Machado didn’t make his 2014 debut until May 1, the result
of offseason knee surgery. On June 8,
he threw a 21-year-old fit after a pitch from Oakland A’s reliever Fernando
Abad buzzed by his surgically repaired knee.
Machado purposefully let his bat helicopter onto the field after an
empty swing at the next pitch. The
benches cleared and a lot of bad breath and choice words were exchanged. It was, shall we say, an unattractive
moment. The temper tantrum cost Machado
five games, a suspension he served last week.
Not to be “out-controversied”, Harper, continuing his
reckless play, ripped up a thumb sliding into third on April 25, had surgery
and missed two months. But he’s back
now – with an attitude. The day after
playing his first game since April, Harper, as reported by The Washington
Post, popped off about his position in the batting order and the team’s
defensive alignment. He didn’t like
batting sixth and wanted to play center field, not left, despite being on ice
for two months. Harper also offered to
anyone and everyone that Ryan Zimmerman should have continued in left field and
defensive stalwart Danny Espinosa should have remained at second base. The intended or unintended message behind
Harper’s loose-lipped commentary was this: I’m better than the guys hitting in
front of me and Denard Span (one of the best defensive center fielders in
baseball) should be on the bench.
Youth often lacks proper physical and verbal
temperance. Harper is good, but his
hype still leads his production. He has
never hit 30 homeruns, had 100 RBI or flirted with a .300 batting average in a
season. Harper’s never been a serious
MVP candidate and currently has had as many surgeries as All-Star Game
appearances (2). After being called up
in 2012 at age 19, Harper stayed healthy and played 139 games. Last year, that number fell to 119 as he
battled knee issues, a consequence of a collision with an outfield wall. Through last Sunday, Harper’s posted for
just 28 of 87 games in 2014. The song
apparently, as Led Zeppelin might say, remains the same.
And this guy has an opinion on how a major league team
should be managed? This reckless and
bumptious youth has the audacity to challenge, and maybe undermine, first year
manager and long-time major leaguer Matt Williams? Clearly Harper needs to be humbled, put in his place, served a
slice of humble pie and prescribed an aggressive course of ego-arrest. He needs a timeout chair, to stand in the
corner and have all his electronics taken away.
Or does he?
I love this cast of Nationals. They are classy, easy to like and the best professional sports
team in Washington, D.C. But sometimes
they are too nice. The camaraderie is
too great. Their gentlemen factor is
too high. They represent themselves,
their families, MLB and the nation’s capital too well. You’d introduce your daughters to these
Nationals and loan them expensive yard equipment. Those are commendable qualities, but in the world of
ultra-competitive athletics, they can lead to “the S-word”: soft.
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