It wasn’t exactly Yankees icon Babe Ruth pointing two fingers to Wrigley Field’s center-field wall, then belting a homer on the next pitch in Game 3 of the 1932 World Series to shut up hectoring Cubs players, but it was as close as we’ll get in these gentler days.
The top of the seventh inning was a two-run, wild-pitch calamity that cost the Phillies their one-run lead, and they couldn’t punch back against the Padres despite getting a leadoff double. Now, trailing by a run as the eighth inning began, his team reeling and the crowd at Citizens Bank Park windless and subdued, Bryce Harper grabbed his bat, approached the stairs to the on-deck circle, and looked pitching coach Caleb Cotham in the eye and said:
“Let’s give ‘em something to remember.”
