The Phillies Are All Sorts Of Pissed And That Should Scare The Heck Out Of The Rest Of The League
A lot of people out there have no idea what it’s like to be a part of a team, and it shows. It’s especially showing after Bryce Harper got tossed from last night’s game against the Mets, and the subsequent calling out of by Jake Arrieta after the game. If somehow you didn’t see/hear what Jake had to say after the game, here ya go.
Now when you look around on social media today or you listen to Philly sports talk radio, you’re going to get people in one of two camps. You’re either going to have your people who agree with Arrieta and think that Bryce Harper was selfish for getting himself tossed in a 1-run divisional game. In which case, you are probably already biased against Bryce but that’s not the point. And then there are going to be people out there who think it was messed up for Jake Arrieta to get up in front of the media and not only put a teammate on blast, but to also start blaming everybody besides himself for a loss. In which case, you’d have a point but you also need some semblance of vocal leadership on a team and sometimes that vocal leadership can’t take everybody’s feelings into consideration.
What I’m here to say may not be the hot take or the sexiest take, but it is undoubtedly the correct take. Because neither of these guys were totally right in this situation, and neither of them were totally wrong. This is just a thing that happens when you have a group of ultra-competitive dudes who are playing 162 games in about 6-7 months together, all trying to achieve a common goal. You try spending that much time with the same group of guys and never once having a disagreement. And this isn’t like you’re just hanging out with your buddies for 7 months just drinking beer and smoking weed. No. These guys are all out there to compete and they’re out there to win. If you had a team that didn’t have a single disagreement like this throughout the entirety of the season, there’s a good chance that everybody on that team just doesn’t care enough to be great. I’m not saying that guys need to have arguments or disagreements every single night. But some moments like what happened last night with the Phillies? Those tensions get high because everybody wants to win and everybody wants to be great. So shut the fuck up about Bryce being selfish or Arrieta being a bad teammate for not just handling it in the clubhouse.
Besides the fact that they lost, it was the best possible thing to happen for this team. Bryce made it clear that he wants to win every single game he plays and that he’s going to get heated if some shit bag umpire is out there not giving them a fair chance to do that. Arrieta made it clear that he wants to win every single game he plays and that he doesn’t want his $330 million teammate to lose his composure and put his team in a bad spot. So now Bryce Harper knows exactly what Jake Arrieta expects out of him. And now the Phillies know exactly what to expect out of Bryce Harper. It happened, and now everybody can move on and get on the same page as each other. I just feel like so many of you goddamn idiots out there treat these moments like they’re way more than just a single incident that happen every once in a while throughout the course of a season when you have a bunch of incredibly passionate and competitive guys trying to be great.