At Long Last, Don Cherry Has Chimed In With His Thoughts On Pap-Harper

Well now we can finally move on, as Don Cherry has chimed in on the Papelbon vs Harper fight. This is the equivalent of Jon Gruden chiming in on a fight between two players on the Maple Leafs…so you know, extremely necessary. Cherry pretty much says, in so many words, what most people think– if Papelbon wanted to go after Harper, it should have been in the clubhouse, not in the dugout where cameras would catch it. I don’t think anyone is “blaming” Papelbon for confronting him though. Now he is wrong at 2 parts though:

1) Papelbon CLEARLY didn’t have the respect of anyone on the team BEFORE he threw at Machado. Harper is the leader, he speaks for the team. He called Pap’s act “tired” and was worried about his own safety because of what Papelbon took it upon himself to do. This is a very important factor that is going way under the radar. Bryce wouldn’t have called out Pap if anyone on the team fucking liked or respected him. Must have been extremely frustrating for Bryce knowing that the Orioles could retaliate and put him in danger. Thankfully the O’s didn’t even want to give Papelbon that gratification. Tip of my cap to them.

2) The whole hustle to first base rhetoric has been blown up by every baseball player out there. Was Pap trying to fist fight Ortiz in Boston every time he walked out of the box? That would have been a whollllle lot of fighting. Bryce hit a routine pop up, took 2 seconds to be pissed at himself 42nd HR of the season, and then still made it to first base. Obviously Don Cherry doesn’t realize it’s as routine as the pop fly itself not to sprint down the line.

And anyone calling Bryce’s hustle into question is a jabroni to begin with. The last 3 years the media gets on him for trying too hard, diving into bags too much, putting his body on the line to catch foul balls too often…and now he doesn’t hustle enough? He turns more singles into doubles than anyone without elite speed in the league. Not to sound too Brian McCann, but if there is one guy who does give it everything and play “the right way”, it’s Bryce Harper.