Bryce Harper, hardly recognized tourist, wants to win over fans in London, and in the Olympics
Harper enjoyed the sights, food and relative anonymity touring London, but this is not just a business trip. “This is for the game, this is for the fans.”
LONDON — So, you’re in London on business, but have two days before work really gets busy.
What do you do?
If you’re Bryce Harper, you sample the food. And after the Phillies finally touched down at 10 a.m. Thursday and checked into their hotel, it was lunchtime. Harper hit up Borough Market, one of the most famous fresh food markets in the world with more than 100 vendors.
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“Just tried a bunch of different food,” Harper said Friday after the Phillies worked out at London Stadium in preparation for two games against the Mets this weekend. “I really enjoy food, so being able to pick and choose what I wanted — and we chose a lot of stuff — it was just a lot of fun to go in there and walk around.”
And not get recognized.
Stateside, Harper is among the most identifiable athletes — in baseball, but also professional sports. He’s a two-time MVP, a seven-time All-Star, a future Hall of Famer, and before all that, a phenom who was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated at age 16.
It’s different in London.
“I’ve actually enjoyed people not really realizing who I am,” Harper said. “Being able to walk around and be kind of just another person out there, it’s been great.”
OK, to be fair, there are a lot of Phillies fans, in particular, who made the transatlantic trip, and Harper said he was stopped a “handful” of times around town Thursday. But it isn’t anything like back home, which speaks to how far MLB still has to go to match the NFL and even the NBA in popularity in the soccer-crazed UK and around the world.
It should come as no surprise that Harper has thoughts on that.
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But Harper also doesn’t mind blending in with the crowd, or showing off his knowledge of the sports that matter most to Londoners. He knew, for instance, that the United States upset Pakistan this week in the T20 World Cup of cricket — yes, cricket.
“That was legit,” Harper said. “That guy rakes. That captain [Monak Patel], he can, damn, he can hit a cricket ball.”
Turning his attention to soccer, Harper joked that he admires the look of Manchester City star Jack Grealish.
“I love his hair,” Harper said. “He’s got a really good mop, man.”
When someone mentioned that Grealish was left off England’s roster in this summer’s European Championship, Harper said, “Oh man, that’s a bummer.”
Back to baseball, though. Because while adding two wins to the Phillies’ second best-in-the-league 44-19 record is Harper’s top priority, he’s also eager to win over a few more fans in a place where baseball is still a largely foreign concept.
“Obviously we have really good players in our game from all over the world,” Harper said. “As we come into the U.K., I imagine we’d probably go into a lot of other places just like the NFL has, as well. I think that’s going to help put our game in front of [new] fans.
“But also fans are going to have to want to watch us play. Other countries are into different sports and things like that. As much as you put it into people’s faces, the Premier League is still going to be bigger [in England]. There’s certain things that are bigger than baseball.”
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Growing up, Harper played other sports, too, including football and basketball. He doesn’t believe in specialization in youth sports. During a conversation in spring training, he said he wants his 4-year-old son, Krew, to grow up playing multiple sports because “that’s why they have seasons.”
Harper also doesn’t mind waxing poetic about the sport he enjoys most.
“I love the grass, I love the leather, I love the dirt,” he said. “The wood bat, man. I remember the first time I wore metal cleats. It was like click-click, click-click. The whole thing. The tradition of Major League Baseball, as well. It’s been around for a long time.”
And with MLB attempting to attract new fans over the next two days, Harper took the opportunity to lobby once again for something he’s passionate about: Major leaguers being allowed to compete in the Olympics.
Last October, the International Olympic Committee readmitted baseball and added it to the program for the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles. Harper will be 35 then and in the 10th year of his contract with the Phillies, but he already has his hand raised for Team USA.
As he sees it, the best way for baseball to increase interest in other parts of the world is to put the sport on display in the Olympics — and to allow the best players in the world to play, even if it means stopping the MLB season for three weeks in the middle of summer.
“There’s nothing more worldwide than the Olympics,” Harper said. “I watch the most random sports in the Olympics because it’s the Olympics, and that’s really cool. I love hockey. It’s one of my favorite sports to watch. To see [the NHL] take that three-week break and let those guys go play, that’s another big goal that we should have as Major League Baseball.
“I’ve talked to numerous people with MLB about it. I would love to be a part of that. We have the [World Baseball Classic], but it’s not the same. It’s not. The Olympics is something that you dream about playing in.”
With that, Harper went out into the London afternoon, maybe back to Borough Market, maybe to do some more sightseeing, maybe to catch some soccer or cricket on television in a pub, one of the biggest sports stars in the U.S. roaming the capital of another country without fanfare until the Phillies get back to work on Saturday and Sunday.
“It’s not just another series,” Harper said. “‘Business trip,’ it’s not that. This is for the game, this is for the fans. You want to win and do everything you can to do that, but at the same time, it’s tough to come all the way over here and not try to enjoy it.”
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Join us on Phillies Gameday Central as The Inquirer’s Scott Lauber brings you live coverage at noon Saturday from London, where the Phillies face off against the Mets. He’ll be joined by Phillies beat writer Alex Coffey, while he shares his adventures in the city along with the latest news on the team. Be sure to tune in for this special international edition of Gameday Central!