Bryce Harper of the Washington Nationals has some serious personality issues. And emotional issues.
A gifted player who was on the cover of Sports Illustrated at 16 years old and labeled as the ‘next big thing’ has been under the baseball microscope for 10 years. And it has been intense – not Tiger Woods insane intense with sycophantic, knob-polishing media fan boys lining up to pay homage, but intense. Harper has, due to his generational talent, been playing with the men since adolescence essentially. If not playing with all star teams, he’d be practicing endlessly at the batting cages tutored by his father. Harper never complained, and it seems he loves the game. We say ‘seems’ because there is compelling evidence it is not the game he loves, but the attention and the emotional need for adulation.
Harper has been regularly quoted over the past few years about ‘having fun’ and ‘expressing myself’. Notwithstanding these two amorphous desires, one as to wonder that, at least with the former, playing in the Majors and making serious coin per year along with serious endorsement gelt, that the vast majority of mortals would be manifestly happy and secure with that life. But, hold on, it ain’t enough.
Being able to express oneself is, in our opinion, the most catastrophic modern-day ethos to ever be embraced by mankind. While it seems benign in and of itself, it is being used for people to use as a crutch, a limitation, an excuse, a restriction on top of some perceived inner desire to do something, get something, achieve something. What that ‘something’ is, is anyone’s guess. However, it seems to be want of some type of ego stroking and an attempt to garner recognition as opposed to a desire to achieve. There is monumental gap between these two and profoundly dangerous. For if ‘expressing oneself’ for some undefined reason other to stroke ego is blocked, then it is fate’s fault or someone else’s or the entire world. And much of the genesis of this pablum comes from entertainers and the entertainment industry. Some talentless ‘star’, or ‘artist’ will opine how important it is for people – when they really mean kids – to ‘express themselves’ for whatever nebulous reason. And that the reason for the ‘star’, ‘artists’ success is, indeed, this chimera. Since kids are impressionable with underdeveloped brains and life experiences – hereinafter called heads full of mush – that leads to the inevitable cultural hoola-hoop of the day – tattoos; multi-coloured unnatural hair colour; goofy haircuts; taking up the bongos; dressing in the latest goofy styles; rebelling against parents and anything else; drugs and alcohol; etc. All in the desire for the child of ‘expressing oneself’: being different; being an individual; yada-yada. They think anything else is ‘conforming’ when they have no clue about anything. No understanding of achievement vs recognition. Total mush and pablum that has been going on since the beginning of time
Well, that is where Bryce Harper is at 26. He missed growing up and went straight to adult hood and while he ‘wants to have fun’, he seems to be acutely unaware that he is. He has money, fame, and is one of the greatest in baseball today. But something is missing for him
Now, we don’t profess to be psychiatrists – thank heavens – but the obvious is the obvious. Mr. Harper seems so emotionally needy that we are embarrassed for him. Whether this means he is a narcissist – not like the brown clown, Barack Hussein Obama, who is the greatest narcissist of all humankind – is debatable, but there has to be some in the mix. He cannot be unhappy because he doesn’t have any money or is not doing what he loves. So, it must be something else. Something mere mortals find objectionable.
If Mr. Harper is so unhappy or so emotionally needy that unless he gets adulation like he did in the Home Run Derby, we suggest the following for him – a modern day pilgrimage of sorts. And there are choices and they all involve taking a year off:
Go work in a leper colony
Go work in the poorest parts of the world to help the sick, undernourished, poor, disadvantaged
Go to a monastery in Tibet
Go to India like Larry Darnell
Go live on the streets
Go roll around in the mud; sloth around at home; play video games in your jammies and housecoat; get drunk and throw up all over the place – every day
Go live like a mountain man
Go live in the ‘hood’
Go live in the rainforest with just a knife, matches and a tarp
Go work in a steel mill on top of the coke ovens, or in the open hearth – if any of those technologies are still used
Go work in Haiti
Go work in the circus
Go live in the Urals or just east of it in a Russian village – you can only take 1 roll of toilet paper with you
Go work in the WWE – there you can express yourself however you want
Yep – grow your hair out, colour it whatever colour, get you nose pierced, get multiple tattoos, wear what you want all the time
There ya go kid – knock yourself out. Go find yourself. Go have fun, go express yourself.
Do it for a year and then let’s see if playing baseball as it is now is so unhappy for you and you need to ‘express yourself’.
