Baseball: Phillies' Harper, Mets' Matz donate to virus relief efforts

Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Bryce Harper and New York Mets left-hander Steven Matz have stepped to the plate by making donations to coronavirus relief efforts.

Harper and his wife, Kayla, are donating $500,000 to Direct Relief and Three Square in his hometown of Las Vegas and Philabundance in Philadelphia.

Direct Relief in Las Vegas is a nonprofit humanitarian aid organization that assists people affected by poverty or emergencies. Three Square and Philabundance are both food banks.

"Now is the time to come together and adhere to the guidelines of medical professionals! We are wishing the best to all with our prayers during this time," the Harpers said in a statement Thursday.

Matz, who wears jersey No. 32, is donating $32,000 through TRU32 charity to New York City first responders and hospitals.

"Thanks to those who support & contribute to the program all year. Partially because of your generosity, we're able to pitch in now," Matz wrote Friday on Twitter. "The first of three donations just went out to one of the hardest hit hospitals in NYC, Elmhurst Hospital in Queens, so close to our Mets Citi Field."

--Field Level Media

Take me out to the brawl game as Harper erupts

SAN FRANCISCO -- Washington Nationals Bryce Harper could be facing a suspension after his part in a spectacular bench-clearing brawl against the San Francisco Giants on Monday.

Harper unleashed a flurry of punches after appearing to be deliberately targeted by Giants relief pitcher Hunter Strickland in the eighth inning of the Nats' 3-0 win at AT&T Park.

It was the first meeting between the two men since the 2014 playoffs, when Harper blasted Strickland for two consecutive home runs.

In Monday's Memorial Day game, Strickland made his intentions plain with his first pitch, plunking Harper with a stinging ball to the midriff.

Harper immediately responded, ripping his helmet off in disgust and charging the mound to exchange punches with Strickland.

As the two players slugged it out, both benches cleared and Harper was eventually pulled away as the ugly melee continued.

Both Strickland and Harper were ejected from the game and are now likely to face disciplinary action from Major League Baseball chiefs.

Last year, Baltimore Orioles slugger Manny Machado received a four-game suspension for charging the mound after being hit in the back by Kansas City Royals pitcher Yordano Ventura, who died in January in a car accident.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Cole Hamels 'fake tough' and 'gutless,' Nats GM says

Philadelphia Phillies lefthander Cole Hamels’ admission that he purposely hit Washington Nationals phenom Bryce Harper in Sunday's game drew a harsh response today from Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo, the Washington Post reported.

Rizzo, calling out Hamels as “fake tough,” told the newspaper this morning: “I’ve never seen a more classless, gutless chicken(bleep) act in my 30 years in baseball.

“Cole Hamels says he’s old school? He’s the polar opposite of old school. He’s fake tough. He thinks he’s going to intimidate us after hitting our 19-year rookie who’s eight games into the big leagues? He doesn’t know who he’s dealing with.”

Rizzo went on to talk with the Post about maintaining player safety, saying that's what should be most important, even drawing a link to the New Orleans Saints and so-called "bountygate" in the NFL.

“With all the bounty (stuff) going on in professional football, the commissioner better act with a purpose on this thing,” Rizzo said, according to the Post. “Players have a way of monitoring themselves. We’re not here to hit people and hurt people.

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“He thinks he’s sending a message to us of being a tough guy. He’s sending the polar opposite message. He says he’s being honest; well, I’m being honest. It was a gutless chicken(bleep) (bleeping) act. That was a fake-tough act. No one has ever accused Cole Hamels of being old school.”

The Nationals had made a point going into the weekend series of saying a new rivalry was building between the two NL East teams. Rizzo said the intensity between the teams reached a new high but that Hamels’ intentional beaning of Harper was a different matter, entirely, one that should cost Hamels at least one start.

“This goes beyond rivalry and all that stuff,” Rizzo said. “This points to, you take the youngest guy in baseball. He’s never done a thing. And then Hamels patted himself on the back. Harper’s old school. Hitting him on the back, that ain’t old school. That’s (bleeping) chicken(bleep).”

Harper, who after the game said, “Hamels threw a great game tonight,” walked to first base without any action toward Hamels. Two batters later, he stole home.

“I knew how he was going to respond,” Rizzo told the Post. “I’m sure he won’t be happy that I’m sticking up for him.”

source: http://aol.sportingnews.com

Phenom not fazed, shows hype might be on target

LOS ANGELES—Bryce Harper missed the prom. He didn’t get to experience senioritis or have a ditch day at the lake with the rest of his class. He didn’t walk across a stage and receive a diploma while his family snapped pictures.

Bryce Harper gave up the final years of his childhood willingly and specifically to expedite the journey to this day.




“Bryce has made a lot of sacrifices,” agent Scott Boras said.

A few ticks before 4 p.m. at Dodger Stadium, Harper squeezed his way through a tightly knit media hoard and sat in front of it to answer questions for 10 minutes. He smiled and said the right things, nothing controversial and nothing to ignite criticism.

Two hours later the sacrifices paid off. The player with more media attention, hype, promise and critics than any player to never play a major league game before him, debuted for the Washington Nationals.

At 19 years old, Harper is one of the youngest players in all of professional baseball, including the minor leagues. He brought with him a couple of bags of luggage, a gray outfielder’s glove, a handful of slick-looking silver Marucci bats, a documentary film crew and a personal photographer hired by Under Armour, one of Harper’s endorsers.

Harper also carried in about as many expectations as anyone to ever put on a baseball uniform. Those expectations were born because he skipped his final two years of high school to play junior college ball and became the No. 1 overall pick in the 2010 draft, a path never traveled before.

Harper had 29 family members and friends in attendance, many making the dusty, four-hour drive from his hometown Las Vegas to Tinseltown, and as always, his father Ron was the one delivering the simple advice.

“He told me to just go have fun,” Harper said. “He told me it’s the same game I’ve been playing my whole life, so go enjoy yourself.”

It would be difficult not to enjoy a debut that included a go-ahead sacrifice fly in the ninth inning, a screaming double off the center-field wall for a first hit and a missile of a throw to the plate that showed the league they should expect stop signs when the ball is hit to Harper.

Harper also had a Dodger fan moon him during his first at-bat and a fan in a Nationals hat run onto the field pointing at him before the fan was pummeled by security.

None of that was worse than Matt Kemp’s walkoff home run in the 10th inning.

“That sucked,” Harper said.

Overall, it was a strong debut. Harper showed the attributes that made him the game’s top prospect coming into this season.

“I wasn’t nervous, but right before the game I was sitting in the dugout,” Harper said, “and I was thinking to myself, ‘Wow. I’m in the big leagues.’”

He received big league boos each time his name was announced. Dodgers fans are normally not a surly bunch, but their reaction to Harper was understandable and it’s going to be like that at visiting ballparks for a while. Harper rubs some people the wrong way, what with his arrogant persona and wild Mohawk/mullet hairdo. If he’s on the other team, he’s easy to despise.

“If you’re going to mess with my team, I’m going to come right back at you,” Harper said when asked about some of his on-field antics. “That’s how it’s always been and I’ll leave it at that.”

The boos, the attention, the constant Twitter updates on his stirrups, hair and play, all of it is a product of how Harper got himself to the big leagues, starting with him skipping his final two years of high school and earning a GED so he could play college baseball.

Harper, his family and then-advisor Boras wanted the game to be competitive, and it just wasn’t at the high school level. It actually wasn’t at the junior college level, either. Harper was intentionally walked, pitched around and feared whether he was at the plate or squatting behind it because base runners didn’t dare steal on his cannon arm when he was a catcher.

From the time Boras presented the Harpers with the idea of skipping high school years, Harper’s path has been set. This day was inevitable in everyone’s mind. Harper was going to be a major league baseball player, and it was just a matter of when.

If he stays with the Nationals for the rest of the season is up to Harper, but it’s not like he’d be the only teenager ever to be sent down. It happened to Alex Rodriguez, Ken Griffey Jr. and plenty of other guys who have had stellar careers. Harper is just the latest of his kind to make his debut, although in a much different time and under much different circumstances.

Harper said he wasn’t nervous before the game, and that’s because this is just the culmination of everything he’s already gone through. He is a big leaguer now.

Boras met Harper outside the stadium when he arrived, and as the two walked through a tunnel and the Dodger Stadium turf presented itself, Harper put his debut, the hoopla and craze into perspective the way a baseball player does.

“Yep,” Harper said. “The grass is still green.”

source: http://aol.sportingnews.com/mlb/story/2012-04-29/bryce-harper-washington-nationals-stephen-strasburg-matt-kemp-los-angeles-dodger