Eventually, baseball will evolve into a sport where home run bat flips do not spark angry debates.
Where pitchers gesture enthusiastically after strikeouts and batters strike poses after run-scoring singles, and no one gets upset.
Where players do not take offence every time an opponent celebrates a little bit too much.
When that happens, maybe people will remember that it was Bryce Harper who first insisted that shows of emotion shouldn’t be criticised or punished, but encouraged.
The Washington Nationals centerfielder and the National League’s reigning Most Valuable Player already finds himself among the league’s leading hitters the first month of the season.
He also finds himself leading a movement, as he puts it, to “Make Baseball Fun Again”.
The mission is a simple one: let players express themselves during the game without having to listen to some old-school, first base coach yell at them to “play the game the right way”.
Harper has a powerful voice because he has emerged as a superstar.
He also happens to be a guy who has stood in the box to admire his home runs, celebrate them with his notorious “hair flip” and criticise his own teammates (say, pitcher Jonathan Papelbon, for example) for drilling with a pitch an overly enthusiastic opponent.
Since he entered the league as a precocious 19 year old in 2012, Harper has embraced the notion that players with flair are good for the game, and has been nurturing his own stylistic approach.
He added a verbal assault over the winter when he told ESPN the Magazine that baseball was “tired” and that the sport didn’t attract younger fans because baseball players were discouraged from being as expressive as basketball and football players, who strut, dance, laugh and talk trash.
Harper said he had no problem with a pitcher celebrating after striking him out.
“I’m going to go, ‘Yeah, you got me. Good for you. Hopefully, I get you next time’,” he told the publication.
Baseball, of course, has always had personalities with few inhibitions.
But on-field displays are labelled as “showing up” your opponent and dealt with.
Nearly 30 years ago, when Jeffrey Leonard of the San Francisco Giants introduced his “one-flap down” home run trot, the St Louis Cardinals pitching staff did what was expected – nailed Leonard with a pitch his next at-bat.
In the 2013 post-season David Price, then of the Tampa Bay Rays, was burned by notorious home-run gloater David Ortiz of the Boston Red Sox. Price did not face Ortiz again until seven months later but on his first pitch, Price tattooed Ortiz in the back.
Harper says punishing players who emote is punishing the game.
Let Yasiel Puig clap, pound his chest and yell after a double. Let Jose Fernandez pump his fist after striking you out.
Do not tell them they disrespect the game. Tell them they are enhancing it.
So Harper wears a cap that reads, “Make Baseball Fun Again”, and the Nationals are selling merchandise with the slogan. Last week Commissioner Rob Manfred backed Harper, more or less.
“A player of his stature starting a dialogue about what the sport’s going to look like will produce a positive result for the game,” Manfred said.
Ultimately, the players will decide.
The American League’s established young star, Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels, says he prefers the old-school game – hit a homer, put your head down and let everyone else celebrate.
But Trout is a more reserved personality. His fans love him for it.
Obviously, the fiery, excitable Harper has his followers, too.
Surely there is room in the game for both – without one of them having to take fastballs in the ribs for it.
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