Rays prospect hates Bryce Harper’s ‘make baseball fun again’ cap
Washington Nationals slugger Bryce Harper has been outspoken about his desire to inject some personality back into baseball. The 23-year-old started his campaign in the offseason when he proclaimed baseball was “tired,” and took things to the next level on opening day, wearing a cap that read “make baseball fun again” during postgame interviews.
[Related: Bryce Harper wore a cap with the slogan “make baseball fun again” following an opening day victory]
While Harper has received plenty of criticism for his comments, most of those have come from former major leaguers who played in different eras. For the most part, other young stars around the game have agreed with Harper’s sentiment.
That’s no longer the case. Tampa Bay Rays pitching prospect Brent Honeywell saw Harper’s hat, and made it clear that he doesn’t agree with Harper’s antics.
It wasn’t just the cap, though. Honeywell also addressed Harper’s offseason comments.
Not surprisingly, Honeywell received a couple responses from fans on Twitter. To his credit, he said he would never intentionally hit Harper, and instead expressed a desire to one day go up against him in the majors.
As many of the other responses to Honeywell pointed out, though, this is exactly what Harper meant when he expressed players could no longer have fun. Honeywell is criticizing a cap that was meant to be humorous. This isn’t a case where Harper bat-flipped into the stratosphere and then laughed at the opposing pitcher while galloping around the baseball as if he were riding a horse.
It also misses Harper’s point. He’s not saying the game of baseball is terrible and needs to be changed. He wants players to be able to show off their personalities and celebrate big moments. Honeywell seemed to interpret Harper’s comments as if the young slugger dislikes baseball and has no interest in playing it. Anyone who has watched Harper play knows that’s not the case.
[Related: Bryce Harper went yard on opening day for the fourth time in his young career]
Given that we’re talking about Harper, it’s no surprise someone is upset about one of his opinions. Honeywell is free to believe what he wants, and it’s encouraging that he wants to settle it by striking Harper out one day, not by putting one in his ear.
Honeywell was listed as the 65th best prospect in baseball coming into the season by Baseball America, and he’s one of the better prospects in the Rays’ system, so he should have that opportunity soon. When that happens, he better be ready, because you know Harper will be more than excited to step up to the plate.
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Chris Cwik is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Chris_Cwik
