For a moment Tuesday night, it appeared Bryce Harper might enter the pantheon of American sports heroes on an international stage.
With the United States trailing Venezuela 2-0 in the bottom of the eighth inning of the World Baseball Classic championship game in Miami, the Philadelphia Phillies star and member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints stepped into the batter’s box with two outs and teammate Bobby Witt Jr. (of the Kansas City Royals) on first base.
Objectively speaking, Harper had been bad through nearly seven games of the WBC, tallying just five hits in 27 at-bats — just four singles and a double — with one RBI.
But Harper took an Andres Machado 1-0 pitch deep to center field, tying the game with an inning to play.
Harper’s homer wound up being for naught for the Americans, however, as Venezuela’s Eugenio Suarez (of the Cincinnati Reds) drove home Javier Sanoja (of the Miami Marlins) from second on a double in the top of the ninth to make the score 3-2, and Daniel Palencia (of the Chicago Cubs) shut the door in the bottom of the ninth to seal Venezuela’s victory.
Despite the loss, Harper could be seen after the game congratulating Venezuela’s players on their championship win, and later he spoke to ESPN’s Jeff Passan about the unity baseball can bring.
“It’s America’s pastime, but that’s the greatest thing about our game,” Harper told Passan of baseball. “We can share it with all these different countries as well and bring it all together and be part of this. And it’s awesome. It’s really awesome.”
Harper also told Passan why he wanted his family — wife Kayla and their four children — with him during the WBC.
“The thing about having my family with me,” Harper said, “is I want them to share these moments with me.”
Harper concluded, “Baseball’s in a really good spot, in a really good situation. And there’s a lot of young talent in all countries. And I think the world saw baseball’s a great game.
“It’s a lot of fun to watch the cultures from every other country and ours as well. It’s one of the best sports in the world, and to be able to bring people together and teams together and players together to do that these last two weeks has been a blast.”
