Bryce Harper Opens Up About Charging The Mound Against Hunter Strickland

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE FULL TWO-HOUR INTERVIEW WITH BRYCE HARPER ON STARTING 9

We all know the history between these two -- Bryce Harper vs. Hunter Strickland. We've never heard Harper talk openly about it before until he sat down with Starting 9 for a two-hour interview.

I mean, you just couldn't have handled it better than Harper did. We've seen guys get thrown at for a multitude of reasons. Harper himself got thrown at in his rookie season by Cole Hamels (also discussed in the interview) just for being who he is. No other reason than that. But in this case, Strickland drilled Harper because he hit a 600-foot bomb off of him in the postseason half a decade prior. Just a dumb fuckin' reason to peg someone if you ask me, but Harper handled it appropriately. We also acknowledged how much we respected Strickland's pettiness to hold onto that moment for as long as he did.

You want to hit me? I'm coming out there. They have their exchange and then it's over. As Harper said, he holds no ill will towards Strickland for what went down. You have the homer, you have the HBP, you have the brawl, and then it's done. That's how guys handle things. No cold war. No chirping through the media. Just man vs. man and then you move on.

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