2. The Bryce Harper/Hunter Strickland brawl
Late in a Memorial Day game between the Nationals and Giants, we saw a pretty solid fight between Washington outfielder Bryce Harper and Giants pitcher Hunter Strickland.
Bryce Harper vs Hunter Strickland Brawl in slow-mo. Both got in a good punch. Harper suspended 4 games, Strickland 6 pic.twitter.com/h7JRzeYaRY
— Ron Futrell (@RonFutrell) May 31, 2017
In and of itself, a brawl is nothing surprising. This one saw a little more action than most but even still, each man landed only one punch. Strickland landed a direct quick jab, while Harper landed a bigger, but more glancing shot on Strickland.
The more shocking developments were what set the fight up, as well as the fallout from it.
Strickland claimed that he was trying to throw Harper inside and a pitch got away from him. If you believe that, we salute your faith in humanity but not your grasp on reality. It was fairly obvious that Strickland was throwing at Harper because prior to that plate appearance, the two had only faced off twice with both at-bats resulting in towering Harper home runs. During at least one of those, Strickland didn’t care for Harper’s actions rounding the bases.
The catch is that both home runs occurred during the 2014 NLDS. Not only did the Giants go on to win that series (as well as the World Series), but they won both games in which Harper homered off of Strickland. This wasn’t an issue between San Francisco and Harper. If it was, someone on the Giants would have thrown at him in 2015 or 2016. It never happened. This was Strickland’s issue. A grudge he carried for the better part of three years.
What’s even more shocking is how people have reacted. Plenty of people have been critical of Harper. But we’ve heard essentially nobody defend Strickland. Baseball’s Unwritten Rule Book is a weird thing. It’s very nature is painfully easy to criticize. But to some people, it’s gospel.
Harper’s earned plenty of scorn (and frankly, mostly undeserved scorn) over the years for his home run celebrations. But nobody was defending Strickland throwing at him so long after the fact.
It may be a sign that even to the “insiders,” Baseball’s Rule Book is becoming outdated. Let’s hope so because the sooner this happens, the better off we’ll all be.