PHILADELPHIA — After the hugs and the high-fives, the handshakes and the pats on the back, the Phillies pulled on gray T-shirts with ‘NLCS’ printed across the chest and gathered in front of the mound for a team photo. It was shortly before 6 p.m. Saturday, and the party was just getting started.
That was when Bryce Harper mentioned to Zack Wheeler and a few other teammates how happy he was to finally still be playing beyond his birthday.
“Really all year he’s said it. He’s been talking about wanting to play on his birthday,” Rhys Hoskins said over the roar of another raucous clubhouse celebration, the Phillies’ third in a span of 13 days. “And here we are.”
Yes, here they are. Harper turns the Big 3-0 on Sunday — can you believe he’s only just 30? — and wouldn’t you know it, the Phillies’ season is still going.
There’s no actual game Sunday, although Harper can’t be disappointed about that. The Phillies vanquished the defending World Series champion Atlanta Braves, 8-3 in Game 4 and 3-1 in the best-of-five divisional round, and advanced to the National League Championship Series for the first time since 2010. Heck, Harper even chipped in two hits, including an eighth-inning home run against Braves closer Kenley Jansen.
But for the first time in his career, Harper’s season will extend beyond his blowing out candles on a birthday cake. He reached the playoffs in four of seven seasons with the Washington Nationals but never won a round or played beyond Oct. 13. He signed a 13-year, $330 million contract with the Phillies in 2019 and didn’t go to the playoffs in his first three years here.
It’s no wonder he has been walking around each day, like a man possessed, telling anyone within earshot that the Phillies aren’t going to lose and setting a goal of getting his first at-bat as a 30-year-old before spring training.
And Harper isn’t any old 30-year-old. He has been in our lives since the 2009 Sports Illustrated cover that pronounced him “the most exciting prodigy since LeBron.” He made his major league debut in 2012, at age 19. He won his first MVP award in 2015, at age 22. And he has 285 career home runs, tied for 19th among all players through their age-29 season. For context: Babe Ruth had 284 homers. Willie Mays had 279.
Maybe that’s why it feels like he should be so much older.
“Isn’t that crazy? That he’s only 30,” Schwarber said. “I’m about to be 30, too. The guy’s been in the league since I was in college.”
Said rookie Bryson Stott, who has known Harper since their days growing up in Las Vegas: “We always joke, he was in the major leagues and I might have been in middle school. Maybe?”
And Hoskins: “It’s amazing. I mean, maybe a Hall of Fame career already? There’s more to come, I could tell you that. It’s just the kind of player he is.”
But there’s something missing. The Nationals won the World Series in 2019, a year after Harper left Washington. The Phillies went 191-193 in his first three seasons. They were 32-20 during the two months that he missed with a broken thumb and 17-20 after he returned.
“He wants to win,” said J.T. Realmuto, the first catcher (and first Phillies player) to hit an inside-the-park homer in the postseason. “There’s one thing on that guy’s mind at all times and it’s winning a baseball game that day. All he cares about is winning. You hear him talk. You see the actions on the field and it’s real. If he goes 0 for 4, it doesn’t matter to him. If the team wins that’s all that matters.”
There were a lot of 0 for 4s down the stretch. Harper came back from the injury and searched for his timing at the plate. He conceded to being late on fastballs and jumping at breaking pitches. Over the final 16 games, he went 12 for 60 with two extra-base hits.
But since the playoffs began, Harper has been, well, Harper again. He homered in a series-clinching Game 2 victory over the Cardinals in the wild-card round and went deep in Games 3 and 4 against the Braves to help fuel a delirious atmosphere that ex-Cub and ex-Red Sox Schwarber said was “by far the best Division Series I’ve ever seen at a home field, just how electric it was.”
“When I think back, all the way through, Jayson Werth said, ‘There’s nothing like Philly when it’s winning. It’s what it’s all about,’” Harper said. “When you see the alumni coming back, all they talk about, from the ‘80 and ‘93 team, they talk about what this city does and how they get behind you, how fiery and passionate they are. I think every single night we see that.”
The Phillies couldn’t have gotten here without Harper, who bats in the cleanup spot and provides thunder at the plate and energy on the bases (sometimes at the expense of running into an ill-advised out). And to hear Schwarber tell it, the Phillies never doubted that Harper would regain his swing in time for a postseason run that he’s been waiting for since he was 19.
“He’s one of the best in the game for a reason, and I know for a fact, no one in this room is worried about Bryce,” Schwarber said. “Obviously we’re all here to support him when he was going through when he felt like he was off. Just to see where he’s at now, he’s going out there and he’s doing unbelievable things that some of the best players in the game only do. It’s really cool to watch.”
So, Harper will get the day off for his birthday again. This time, though, his party began with champagne, beer, and Harper in the middle of a clubhouse mosh pit, jumping up and down to the chorus of “Dancing On My Own,” the Phillies’ postseason anthem.
And it will continue with a flight to California to face either the San Diego Padres or Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLCS.
“He said he hasn’t played on his birthday,” Schwarber said. “We said, ‘You know what? It’s a football Sunday. We’ll have a little off-day, but we’ll keep playing past your birthday. How’s that?’”
Surely Harper will take it.
