Welcome to the big leagues
Not impressed with Bryce Harper’s youthful exuberance, Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Cole Hamels decides 12 years ago today to welcome the Washington Nationals’ rookie outfielder to the majors by deliberately – and admittedly – drilling him in the back with a first-pitch fastball in the bottom of the first inning.
For his payback, the 19-year-old Harper takes his base, eventually reaches third and then steals home in the 2012 game Philadelphia wins 9-3 before a Sunday night crowd of 33,058 at Nationals Park.
Bryce Harper
Then, as baseball’s undocumented rules of etiquette mandate, Washington starter Jordan Zimmermann hits Hamels in the ankle with a pitch in the top of the third inning, leaving plate umpire Andy Fletcher to warn both dugouts to knock off the shenanigans.
The game then peacefully continues until its conclusion at 11 p.m., after which Hamels verbally throws some more brushback at Harper, who less than two years earlier is playing out his amateur career at the University of Southern Nevada.
“I was trying to hit him,” Hamels says after the game. “I’m not going to deny it.”
Exactly why, Hamels is not specific, other than to say rookies need to be treated like, well rookies. Even the highly touted, and equally overhyped, ones like Harper.
Cole Hamels
“That’s something I grew up watching, that’s kind of what happened,” Hamels says in his postgame confessional. “So, I’m just trying to continue the old baseball because I think some people are kind of getting away from it. I remember when I was a rookie the strike zone was really, really small and you didn’t say anything because that’s the way baseball is.
“But I think, unfortunately,” Hamels continues with comments that surely will be met with a suspension, “the league’s protecting certain players and making it not that old-school, prestigious way of baseball.”
The translation, Hamels says, “It’s just, ‘Welcome to the big leagues.’ ”
The commissioner’s office then welcomes Hamels to sit out the next five games with a suspension.