Phillies’ Bryce Harper fires message at critics who want him to smile more

Bryce Harper is well on his way to the Baseball Hall of Fame, having won a pair of MVPs and four Silver Sluggers, but for some, one thing is missing: a smile.

Although Harper has been understandably frustrated by his team’s shortcomings in the postseason, including a World Series loss in 2022 and an NLCS Game 7 defeat the following year, there is a contingent of fans who want to see the eight-time All-Star show more enthusiasm. And that includes his own family.

“I have fun playing,” Harper said, via The Athletic’s Matt Gelb. “It’s not that I don’t have fun. I just don’t smile as much as everybody wants me to smile. I mean, my mom and dad get so mad at me. And (my wife), Kayla, sometimes. Because they’re like, ‘Oh, we just want you to have fun.’ Like, I’m having fun. But it’s totally different playing amateur baseball than it is professionally, you know?”

Harper entered MLB in 2012 as one of the most anticipated prospects in history. Having been drafted first overall in 2010 by the Washington Nationals, Harper was labeled the ‘Chosen One’ by Sports Illustrated, much like NBA superstar LeBron James years earlier.

Also like James, Harper quickly found personal success — he won the NL Rookie of the Year in 2012, and he earned All-Star selections in each of his first two seasons — but the team success eluded him. Washington, despite rattling off seven straight winning seasons after failing to record just one in the previous seven years, lost in the NLDS in 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2017, with three series ending in a Game 5 defeat. In that time, the Nationals boasted two Cy Young Awards (both by Max Scherzer), two Managers of the Year (Davey Johnson and Matt Williams), and a Rookie of the Year and league MVP in Harper.

Of course, the year after Harper left in free agency for the Phillies, the Nationals put it all together, winning the World Series in Game 7 against the Houston Astros. Meanwhile, in his first season in Philly, Harper missed out on the playoffs, just as he did the next two seasons, the second of which was when he won the NL MVP award for a second time.

Since then, the Phillies have made four consecutive postseason appearances, although 2022 remains their best campaign; they went from the Wild Card all the way to the World Series, only to lose to the Astros. The following year, Game 7 of the NLCS was as far as they got despite taking a 3-2 series lead back to Philadelphia. Each of the past two years, the Phillies have lost in four games in the NLDS after finishing atop the NL East.

Harper, who is entering his 15th MLB season, is keenly aware that the lack of playoff success ultimately, whether fair or not, will be seen as a reflection of him, which may have changed the way he expresses himself while playing.

“I have a blast playing baseball,” Harper said. “I love this game. I love being part of something bigger than myself, obviously, but everything will always come back to me. Right? There’s no disrespect to anybody in here. There’s no disrespect to anybody in baseball. But, like, everything will always come back to: ‘OK, well, what did Harper do in that situation?’ And I don’t care about that. That doesn’t bother me. That has no impact on the way I’m feeling.

“I want this marriage to be right for a long time with the Phillies. I don’t want it to just stop after I’m done playing. … I want the Phillies to have an impact on baseball for a long time. I want Aidan Miller to be great. I want Justin Crawford to be great. I want Andrew Painter to be great. Because that helps this organization for the long haul, not just for now. That’s why I signed seven years ago.”

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