High Hopes: A Phillies Podcast - High Hopes Chapter 1: Bryce Harper Is Already An All-Time Phillie

Episode Date: August 31, 2023

James Seltzer and Jack Fritz react to Bryce Harper's heroics and the Phillies' historic month of August. Presented by Miller Lite. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All-star closer, Kenley Jansen, we have a question. What's the best podcast of all time? Baseball Isn't Boring, baby. I'm Rob Bradford, and every single day I'm sitting down with the biggest names to show you this great game is the greatest game. It's my podcast. It's my passion. It's a cause I started more than two years ago and is now the most prolific national daily baseball pod there is.

Another fact, so jump aboard the B.I.B. Express. Follow and listen to Baseball Isn't Boring, presented by Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. He's putting together an all-time, all-time Philly resume. And the part that makes it so interesting and different than almost anyone else, right, is he's a free agent.

Yeah. No, it makes it different than anyone else he didn't start his career here yeah he started here as a rival cole hamels hit him in his first year and now he's like like dude he's gonna be like when again when we eventually put it to put together the wip mount rushmore and we we have it erected somewhere down in south philly sponsored by wip that's right it's gonna be schmidt dawkins jaylen harper love it oh yeah like can you i like the jaylen harper having them both here i mean they're just like they're too perfect like in so in different ways but they're just like hard to believe that this human being is here and ours as a as a but um some of the stuff with Bryce I mean to your

point like first and foremost for the the most famous player in the world to choose us like that alone just the fact that that happened in the first place I know right the fact that happened like that's so absurd that he chose to come here in the first place. And then for this guy to embrace the city this way. Dude, he's shouting out WIP. He's shouting out Chuck. Are you freaking kidding me? Are you serious?

In my life, I actually asked Joe Wechter about it. And no one has been at WIP longer than Joe Wechter. Not even Angelo. Not Howard. Not Howard, not any of those people. Wechter was here the longest. I said, have you ever,

ever heard a Philly athlete Did you say it in this way? Yeah. Like such an intense I was like very intense. Joseph! Pretty intense way to do it.

I called him Joseph. That's intense. I was like, have you ever in your life here seen a player shout out a caller? Shout out WIP like that.

He said, nope. He's like, it's never happened. It's awesome, but think about the show he's on. No, I know. They're hiding from that. But regardless, point being, this is unique, man. And we've talked about the love affair between the two, but Bryce Harper is the conduit for it.

Bryce Harper is the face for it. He's the guy who just tells us how much he freaking loves us all the time, man. You know I'm an attaboy guy. We've talked about this. If you yell at me, you're not going to get a lot out of me. I'm going to get mad at you. I'm going to turtle up, whatever. If you tell me I'm doing a great job, I'm going to run through a wall

for you. Hey, you're doing a great job. Thanks, buddy. You can run through a wall. I'll run through a wall for Bryce Harper. Yeah. It's a combination of a lot of things with We can run through a wall. I'll run through a wall for Bryce Harper. Yeah. No, he's, yeah. So it's a combination of a lot of things with Bryce. It's a combination of he's freaking insane, dude. Like with like the amount of, and the good part about Bryce,

when we're talking about resume stuff and not even just Philly, I'm just talking like Hall of Fame stuff, is that he's given how good this team is, and we think they're only going to get better. He's going to be in a lot of postseason moments. Yep. And he's going to have a lot of these kind of opportunities. And it is funny. I remember when we were doing the whole Bryce sign-em thing.

Oh, yeah. People were like, whoa, does he have a good postseason? Has he ever had a big postseason hit? I remember that really well. And, yeah, of course there's a part of me like, well, what if he's not a winner? You never know until you get in those moments. Exactly.

It is nice that that is gone. But, so he's going to keep racking up those. So it's not only like, there's such an interesting combination with Bryce. It's like all-time moments, all-time great player, you know,

bedlam at the bank at this point is a Mount, we're doing a lot of Mount Rushmore talk. Yeah, it's a Mount Rushmore day. Yeah, but it like, dude, people crap on Mount Rushmores,

but like, it's interesting. It's such a good way. It's an easy way to try and encapsulate what you're doing. Yeah, so it's a deep breath. It's not lazy. Anyway, but like...

It's not like a top five or something. Yeah, why would you ever do a top five when you can have four? But do you like that I keep hitting this wall, by the way? You're really into it. It's good. You're like Bryce

when he's running around the bases. But like, Bedlam of the Bank is a Mount Rushmore Phillies moment. I mean, other than winning the World Series, actually the final out. Two of them. Yeah. No, I'm talking my lifetime. I was about to say, other than winning the World Series,

the one that I won. And you were in there in 1980. Yeah, Bedlam at the Bank's my favorite moment. It's my number one moment as a Phillies fan outside of actually winning the World Series. Bedlam at the Bank is my favorite. It's up there with

Pavetta's complete game against the Reds. I was going to say, Pavetta's complete game against the Reds. I forgot about that. I mean, the holiday no-hitter against the Reds. Yeah, the holiday playoff no-hitter is right up there. That would be certainly in the short list. And look, we were in the building for Bedlam at the Bank,

so that obviously, I'm a little biased. I was there for it. It was the coolest thing I've ever seen live. Has your ankle recovered or no? A little bit, yeah. You milked, dude. I swear to God, you milked that thing for four months just to say I was in-

But it wasn't from Bedlam at the Bank. It was from the Harper Homer in the World series. That's when I hurt my ankle. No, it wasn't. Yes, it was. Would you like to bet my life? Because I was the one who went through it. I thought it was Bedlam at the Bank.

No, it was the Harper-Homer in the 7-0 game was when I hurt my ankle. In game three? In game three. Off of McCullers? Where we were there, too. Yep. Really? Yeah.

I told everyone this the whole time. You did it for Bedlam. Yeah, no. You should change it. I know. It's better. You should change it. Yeah.

That's personal advice to you. You should change it. I know. You should change it. Personal advice to you, you should change it. Say it, I'm doing bad looks. Think about how way better of a story that is. Just saying. It's a way better story that I injured my ankle

and limped around for months complaining about it. I did limp around for months. Because of Bryce Harper. It's still like, there'll be mornings where I wake up and I just- A little creaky?

Yeah, not just creaky. It's like, oh, that hurts. That is painful right now. You get up and you stand on your leg. Is my leg about to snap underneath me? It's great. It would have been a great story

had they won the World Series. Yeah. Because that would have been the moment you were like, they're going to win the World Series. Yeah, exactly. You know what I mean? So, again,

just trying to help you out. Thanks, buddy. I appreciate it. People helping people. But yeah, it's just like, yeah, bedlam at the bank By the way, I meant to Before we start talking about your ankle again

Yeah, where did that come from? It's just like You start thinking about This is why we love this team It takes you back to exactly where you were For the moment I love this baseball team Now I watched the holiday no-hitter with my parents So that's sick, right? The fun thing about that Yeah, it's just like i just i love i just i love this baseball team now i watched the holiday no hitter with my parents so that's sick right well the fun thing about that yeah it's

super cool um but the fun thing i was i was a grown adult with a job um yeah but a job you hated yeah i did and i was home for it but the cool thing that for me what it always is with the holiday no hitter the coolest part of it is like it's you know unless you're like us and you watch every single baseball game in a season, and then you get one every, when was the last one before Lorenzen? It's like Hamels, so whenever, like five to seven to ten years, whatever it is, if that, but it's rare

that you sit down and you watch every single pitch of a no-hitter. You'll miss something. Playoff games, you'll miss a pitch. It was so cool because that's the only no-hitter I've ever seen where I could say I didn't miss one freaking pitch of the no-hitter because it was a playoff. Like, that was awesome.

Yeah, I remember I had to go to, like, a meeting that night for something. And I was like, yeah, I mean, I'll get there. After this. I think the game started at, like, 4, right? It was an afternoon game. Yeah, it started at, like, 4. And obviously, you know, it was just, yeah. So, but yeah, bedlam at the bank is, I still can't believe it happened.

I can't believe it. I don't think Bryce could. Again, Bryce in the moment. It was like, I can't believe that happened. Yeah. Meanwhile, Hoskins is slamming the bat and sprinting around. Let me tell you. Hey, fantasy football owners.

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Follow and listen to Reception Perception on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. But the other cool thing, too, to your point about Harper and the history, and we saw it when he talked about that moment, and we saw it with the excitement with 300, and we saw it after the game when he talked about, you know, what does this 300 mean to you? He's like, hopefully 300 more.

Like, this is a dude, because of what we talked about, like how he's, like, obsessed with baseball and is just the biggest baseball not ever that it's like even more impactful. Cause it feels like to him, he cares so much about these things. Like he wants to be remembered historically. Great.

He wants to be a part of the 500 home run club. He wants to win world series and all that. And when like, he cares so much about it when these things happen for him, like obviously cause we love him, but it makes it even more meaningful. You know what I mean? Cause you feel like he appreciates cares so much about it when these things happen for him like obviously because we love him but it makes it even more meaningful you know i mean because you feel like he appreciates it so much dude if he gets the 600 600 i mean that's a small list dude there's like 10 guys or something like it's and like half like like half of like the assos is in there and bonds and a rod and all that stuff you know like yeah which is like the old school i was gonna say when we

were growing up i can't when you were growing up, I can't say. When you were growing up. When I was growing up, it was like, it was like, Ted Williams, that's great. No, he wasn't even, he didn't make it, he would have if he hadn't gone to war. But when I was growing up,

the 600-home run club was Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, and Willie Mays. Done. Wow. In the list, you know? Wow. Yeah. And now Bonds, A-Rod, Sosa, Tomi,

Griffey, you know, like those guys are all in there now. Yeah. And again, if Bryce gets in there. That's like rarefied. Oh, Pools is in there now. That's like rarefied air, man. Yeah, it's insane.

It's insane. So, I mean, I would be pretty shocked if he gets a 600. 600 seems like a stretch. I would be happy with 500. But the thing with Bryce is like, I was like like well, I mean, I've kind of doubted him. Not doubted him. I've had questions of a lot of things, like can he come back from the Tommy John and develop power? Last year before

the playoffs, remember? We almost all forget because of how brilliant he was in the playoffs, but the month before the playoffs when he came back from the wrist injury, he was a disaster. He stunk for a month. Then the playoffs start, it was like oh yeah, boom, best player in the world. I was talking to someone yesterday at the game, and I was like,

you realize there were like four games under.500 in September last year? I know. I was like, really? I was like, yeah, dude. We were sitting here saying, like, if it weren't for the Brewers, they might not meet the playoffs. Thank God the Brewers lost games down that stretch, too. Hey, hey, just a little PSA to this Phillies team if you're listening.

Don't do that again. Don't do that again. Don't do that again. Like seriously, no. Just don't do that again. Can't do it. I need Craig Kimbrell to get some rest down this stretch. I need you to be able to set the rotation the way you need it, all that stuff.

I, if I could, I would gladly fast forward to this month. I know. Like I just, I wanted to go, like I don't want another month of baseball. I want August to live in my mind. I mean, that's in Bryce. Yeah, but the Trey style. I mean, what a month. It's one of the best Augusts of our lifetime.

In the history of the Phillies. Without a doubt. Honestly, I'm sure there are other Augusts. We'll all remember the September of 07 is the best September and that kind of stuff. But I don't remember an August with the moments like this. I mean, yesterday was the anniversary of the Utley comeback. Sure, yeah, there have been moments, but we're talking about not just the ovations thing

and then these Harper moments. The no-hitter. The no-hitter, but then also... 59 home runs in a month? Yeah, the most ever. And then also our role in it. It feels like we actually helped our team. We actually played a role in this season turning around.

That's crazy. And the best part about it is that it was catch with a win yesterday. Yeah, exactly. A walk-off 300 home run. Wow. I mean, could you script it any better? Can't. That's why he's the best.