Wednesday’s Hot Clicks: Bryce Harper Had So Much Fun Beating Up on the Nationals

Bryce Harper’s return to Washington absolutely lived up to the hype.

Scott Taetsch/Getty Images

He treated this like a World Series game

Bryce Harper’s return to Washington absolutely lived up to the hype. The atmosphere at Nationals Park was electric right from the jump, even though fans had to sit through a 45-minute rain delay. There was a sizable Philadelphia contingent that made its way to D.C.—including entire sections of the rightfield seats—so the reception was a little mixed. But every Nationals fan was on their feet showering Harper with boos when he came to the plate in the first inning. 

Now batting, number 3, Bryce Harper.

Nationals fans welcome Harper back with loud boos. pic.twitter.com/COaXf2ubmF

— NBC Sports Philadelphia (@NBCSPhilly) April 2, 2019

Washington fans have never cheered so loudly for a first-inning April strikeout as they did for this one. 

Nats fans erupt in cheers as Max Scherzer welcomes Bryce Harper back to DC with a strikeout 😬

(via @MLB)pic.twitter.com/aXIlzSqml9

— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) April 2, 2019

Scherzer struck Harper out again in the third and the roar from the crowd was just as intense. But then Harper turned the tables. 

He had a double in the fifth and an RBI single in the sixth, celebrating the first with a Fortnite wave and the second with the kind of fury you never see in a team’s fourth game of the season. 

Harper has been doing that wave since spring training but I doubt Nationals fans knew that, which makes it that much more funny.

The real fun came in the eighth, though, when Harper crushed a deep, deep home run and celebrated it with an emphatic bat flip. 

Just take in that bat flip...

(via @MLBNetwork) pic.twitter.com/gevyoW4rnI

— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) April 3, 2019

I just want to see every angle of that bat flip. 

LET. THE. KIDS. PLAY. pic.twitter.com/BkfOaSmt7g

— MLB (@MLB) April 3, 2019

And when I say he crushed it, he crushed it. The ball left the bat at 112 mph and traveled 458 feet, making it his fifth-longest homer since MLB started publicly releasing Statcast data in 2015.

Bryce Harper's first home run as a visitor at Nationals Park is 458 ft, the 5th-longest HR he's hit tracked by Statcast (since 2015).

Only 89 HR left to tie Babe Ruth vs the Red Sox for most HR vs a former team at 90 (h/t @EliasSports) pic.twitter.com/1SJ7qdtDDf

— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) April 3, 2019

This is Bryce Harper at his best, and not just in the 3-for-5 with three RBIs sense. Harper’s intensity rubs some people the wrong way but there’s no denying that last night’s game was one of the most entertaining April games in recent memory. Harper added to that sense not only by stepping up in the clutch but by playing into the crowd’s hate with his celebrations. 

Check out the full highlights here:

The AAF is dead

It turns out the owner of the AAF was not bluffing when he said he’d shutter the league this week. Just eight weeks into its inaugural season, the league is done. The league was even more of a clown show than we could have imagined, according to SI’s Robert Klemko.

Source says AAF teams making players pay for their own flights home. What a clown show this was.

— robertklemko (@RobertKlemko) April 2, 2019

The best of SI

We got the first look at the new NFL draft hats and they’re uglier than ever. ... What’s next for the Wizards after firing longtime team president Ernie Grunfeld? ... Russell Westbrook had the first double triple-double (that would be a 20-20-20 game) in 40 years and dedicated it to slain rapper Nipsey Hussle. 

Around the sports world

LeBron wouldn’t let Odell Beckham borrow his house in Cleveland. ... Draymond Green got fined $35,000 for some weird tweets. ... A former Jets linebacker signed a contract with the AAF just 24 hours before the league folded. 

Zion needed his dunk fix

Zion back at it! 😱 Please tell me that goal is still attached tho... pic.twitter.com/veMhSzMZhp

— SLAM (@SLAMonline) April 3, 2019

Shoutout to the Wizards’ sales staff

lmfao she remembered and called me and now i'm going to the Spurs game on Friday. FUCK ERNIE! https://t.co/7uG4r1XAg4

— @pyke.bsky.social (@PykeA) April 2, 2019

He might have to buy his own trophy, though

The Bruins scored on a pop-up

Don’t be fooled by the NHL’s hollow gesture

this is a rounding error for one NHL team. it's like $3200 per club. it's .015 percent of the seattle expansion fee alone. it's .0022 percent of league revenues this year. pathetic. https://t.co/5jtEcDpY9Q

— 🦖 ryan lambert 🦕 (@twolinepass) April 2, 2019

The human side of a trade

“It’s all I’ve ever known.”

An emotional Kevin Pillar opens up about being traded to the #SFGiants. pic.twitter.com/aZGqELgfzV

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) April 2, 2019

A day at a weed-themed curling tournament

Not sports

A Lithuanian man had a commercial flight to Italy all to himself. ... A new study says the music of Skrillex works as a mosquito repellent. ... An off-duty policeman in Sweden recognized a fugitive and arrested him—while they were both naked in a sauna. 

This is believed to be the only albino penguin

Who knew icebergs could cause waves like this?

New Game of Thrones trailer

How they put together dinosaur skeletons

A good song

Email dan.gartland@simail.com with any feedback or follow me on Twitter for approximately one half-decent baseball joke per week. Bookmark this page to see previous editions of Hot Clicks and find the newest edition every day. By popular request I’ve made a Spotify playlist of the music featured here. Visit our Extra Mustard page throughout each day for more offbeat sports stories.