The entire city of Philadelphia was prepared for war on Tuesday night, up in arms after arch nemesis Spencer Strider drilled Bryce Harper in the elbow with a 95-mph fastball. There's zero reason to think the act was intentional — for starters, it was the top of the first inning of a game the Atlanta Braves desperately needed to win as they look to crawl back into the NL East picture — and Strider was more than apologetic after the game. Phillies fans, though, had already made up their minds, filing this away as just one more article of evidence against the most hated man on arguably their most hated team.
Fans holding grudges is one thing; Philadelphia adores Harper, rightfully so, and an injury scare to a star player is exactly the sort of incident that produces some clean, old-fashioned sports hate. But there's a big difference between that and what former Phillies GM Ruben Amaro Jr. did on NBC Sports Philadelphia's postgame coverage.
Amaro didn't just criticize Strider. He issued a warning: "Someone will pay for that," he said, predicting that a Phillies pitcher would "do the job" by drilling a Braves hitter in retaliation — something that he deemed "the right thing to do."
It's at this point where what began as normal rivalry tips into something else, something far uglier.
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Ruben Amaro Jr., Phillies fans need to get a grip about Spencer Strider
No one is saying that Phillies fans have to like Strider or the Braves; heck, they don't even have to accept his apology. But what are we doing here, exactly? What does Amaro's brand of justice accomplish beyond further escalating things and running the risk of more players getting hurt — not just on the Braves, but on the Phillies themselves once Atlanta inevitably decides to retaliate to the retaliation?
Even if you subscribe to the notion that grown men should be throwing fastballs near people's heads in the name of settling petty scores, this feels like a stretch. No one can seriously argue that Strider hit Harper on purpose; again, the Braves are desperate for wins, especially in games where Strider's pitching, and it seems far more likely that a guy still knocking off the rust after a year off due to elbow surgery simply let a fastball get away from him.
Strider offered the necessary apology, and Harper appears to be out of the woods after X-rays revealed only an elbow contusion rather than something more serious. If Philly wants to let this fuel them to a win on Wednesday night, more power to them. But calling for a beanball war doesn't help anything, and is just a way for a former executive to puff his chest out and relive the glory days.