Bryce Harper Gone: Eating Cheese Steaks

BRYCE HARPER SWEEPSTAKES

Photo of Bryce Harper as Phillie from Sports Illustrated dot com

And the Winner of the 2019 Bryce Harper Free Agent Sweepstakes is the ...Philadelphia Phillies! For only $330 Million over 13 years the biggest contract in MLB history and of all sports for that matter. No Opt-Out Option and a No Trade clause. He will finish out his career as a Phillie at age 39. So sadly for us Nationals fans that may mean if he does make the MLB Hall of Fame he would most likely go in as a Phillie since he would have been with them for almost twice as long as he was a Nat (13 years vs. 7)

I am very mixed on the news. As a fan of Hawper as a player I am glad he will still be playing, however he is playing for Philly which is a division rival. The closest division rival geographically.

Does the addition of Harper to Philly's line-up insure them championships? Maybe. It certainly puts them in the running to be contenders to be the National League East Division Champs. Some have said it practically insures them to get it, others say it doesn't guarantees but does increase the possibility. I agree it will help them in the long run to continue to be contenders. That is if Harper stays consistent and/or actually improves during his career. He is the all time leader in slugging percentage at their park.

I think I will get used to the situation. I won't like it but I will have to get used to it.

When I got a notice that there was a Topps Now card of Bryce in his new Phillies Uniform (The first official card of him in a Phillies Uni) I decided to jump at it. I ordered two copies of it today (Monday 04 Mar 2019) from the Ebay seller toppsnow for $5.99/each Free Shipping. I got a discount of 60¢ off so the total was $11.38 normally it would be $11.98 The estimated arrival date range is April 16-29 often times things will arrive a bit early. I hope so. Well since I was wondering what sort of Harper card I would show for this post I'll show the card images from the Ebay listing I am expecting to receive it from.

2019 Topps Now: ST-3 Bryce Harper Phillies

Related Articles:

BarStool Sports Shut Up About Bryce's Contract Nothing That Happens 13 Years From Now Matters Anyway

CBS Sports What Bryce Harper's Numbers Tell us About How He'll Perform at Phillies Citizens Bank Park

ESPN What Sealed Bryce Harper's Record Deal with the Phillies

Sports Illustrated Bryce Harper Finalizing $330 Million Deal With Phillies
Washington Times Bryce Harper And Scott Boras Twist Narrative
Washnigton Times (27 Sept 2018): Bryce Harper Had Keys To The City But Never Fully Opened The Door

Why SI Why Oh Why?

NOTE: This post may or may not contain any card images.

My copy of SI March 26 - April 2, 2018 issue Yankees Cover
(I cropped out/color dropper mailing address)
They also made an Angels cover

As the 2018 MLB Season is about to begin* Sports Illustrated got out it's crystal ball and made their annual prediction for this season's World Series.

Who did they pick? I'll give you three guesses and the first two don't count because I'm writing this post about the silly thing. Yep they picked the Nationals to win it all over those Damned Yankees. Oh and they also predict the Nats will go 100 - 62 this season.

Now just last year (2017) SI was very wrong with their pick of the Dodgers over the Indians as the actual result was of course the Astros over the Dodgers. Strangely enough though SI had a correct prediction back in June 2014 when their cover sported Astro George Springer and predicted The Astros to Win the World Series in 2017. Hmm I wonder why they had randomly picked three years in the future? However as I said they then in 2017 actually picked the Dodgers over the Indians. The 2014 Astros prediction was just an off-the-cuff statement as it related to the team rebuilding scope of that article.

The Nats fan in me wants a World Series win sometime soon preferably sooner than later and preferably several times over in my lifetime (which is at least half over and getting shorter all the time). The last time a DC baseball team won the World Series was 1924 with the Original Senators and their last appearance was in 1933 the same franchise that would become the Twins. That is two teams/franchises ago with a 33 year gap between the current team and the previous one. This, however is not the first time that SI has predicted the Nats to Win or at least go to The WS. Their first wrong ProgNATStication (play on the word "prognostication") was in 2013 when they picked my beloved Nats to win the whole enchilada over The Tampa Bay Rays the actual series was The Red Sox over the Cardinals (a rematch of the 2004 WS). The next year 2014 the magazine picked the Nats over the A's reality said it was Giants over Royals. Then the very next year 2015 they picked the Nats to go to the Series but picked the Indians over them the real result was Royals over Mets.

Related Articles:
Astro-Matic Baseball: Houston's Grand Experiment - SI.com
Sports Illustrated Picks Nationals to Beat Yankees in 2018 World Series - SI.com (has video):
Sports Illustrated predicts the Nationals will beat the Yankees in the World Series - Washington Post

All images in this post are from the March 26 - April 2, 2018 issue of Sports Illustrated

*The 2018 season has started. This post was originally drafted only a few days to maybe a week before the season began and is being published sometime in the afternoon of Saturday 31 March 2018 to barely make my personal posting quota of one post a month for each of my blogs.