Bryce Just Wants Your Extra Time and Your...

Kiss! 

Bryce Harper, the power-hitting Nats prospect that is meant one day to give Stephen Strasburg his wins, is now the subject of sports media's morality officers. You see, Bryce made the mistake of admiring his home-run against the Greensboro Grasshoppers, and as you can see from the video, he stared down the pitcher as he trotted toward home, eventually blowing him a kiss. 

Harper's just a kid. No, Harper must grow up! No, it is actually "the single most arrogant home-run trot ever." He has to learn the "intangibles", he has to forget he was ever on the cover of Sports Illustrated. It is the sign of a decaying sports-media when it cannot describe an event with any perceptiveness or clarity, but reders a moral judgement on it. According to this line of thinking, baseball isn't about muscles in coordinated motion, dirt, leather and spit - it is about "heart" or "grit" and "playing the right way." 

What was left out of these dispatches was the rest of the story - the actual things that happened on the field. The Grasshoppers had been jawing at Harper throughout their recent series and on Sunday their pitcher hit him in the knee in the first inning, which removed him from the game. Harper's kiss-off homerun was a response. If it happened in the context of a major league playoff series, it would be hailed as a deserved celebration and part Harper's intimidating gamesmanship. 

Here is a pre-smooch profile of Harper from the AP.