I played softball for about 8 years throughout my childhood, so naturally, I am a huge baseball girl. My dad is from Pennsylvania, so my family was, by default, always routing for the Phillies. But, when we moved to Northern Virginia and got to personally know first baseman (former third baseman) Ryan Zimmerman, we became hybrid Phillies-Nationals fans.
Obviously, Bryce Harper was on our radar, considering he came to the Nationals as a nineteen-year-old kid, during a time where we were attending every Nationals game we could. He is amazing to watch, no matter who your team is. Hitting and fielding, Harper has rarely let down Nationals fans, let alone Harper fans. I even wore jersey number 34 during my last season of travel softball as a tribute to him becoming free-agent.
When Harper became free-agent, my dad, little brother, and I had extensive conversation and debate about where he would go. Yankees? Dodgers? He was spotted wearing a Texas shirt… Rangers? We joked about how cool it would be if he went to the Phillies, because then we could stay fans without being considered "bandwagon" or "traitors" to our team(s). We never seriously thought the Phillies would give him the money and contract he was looking for. But they did, and he finally signed!
I am very, very excited to see what big things Harper does while part of the Philadelphia Phillies. I'm extremely glad he just went from one of my teams to the other, but I would have stayed a fan of him personally no matter where he ended up. It is very enjoyable to watch him play, no matter what kind of fan you are. It will be a little weird seeing him wear jersey 3 instead of 34, but I guess I can get used to it.
