Rant #1,521: Rev Up, You Run Too Slow

As the baseball season winds down and moves into the playoffs, an interesting scene happened the other day with a team not making those cherished playoffs.

The forever under-achieving Washington Nationals have some type of curse hanging over the team, brought with them from Montreal when they were the Expos, mixed in with the curse of baseball teams that have played in Washington.

It is a potent mix, and one that showed its ugly head during a game this weekend.

The Nationals have been out of it for some time. The New York Mets, a much hungrier team than the Nationals, ran away with the National League East title, even though, once again, on paper, the Nationals have perhaps the most talent of any team in that league.

They also have the league's best player in Bryce Harper, the true face of the league and probably one of the two or three best players in the overall game today.

Harper is treated like royalty by the Nationals, and they really let him get away with just about everything.

In the game in question, Harper hit a lazy fly ball, and he didn't really bust it out of the gates to first base.

Things do happen, fly balls are lost in the sun or as any good Little League player will tell you, you can't catch everything.

But Rule 1 in Little League is that you run everything out, no matter what, because once a ball is in play, anything can happen.

Well, Harper ran, but he didn't run hard to first base, and the issue was taken up by forever disgruntled relief pitcher Jonathan Papelbon, who has been with the team about two months.

When Harper came back to the dugout, Papelbon ripped into him about his hustle, one thing led to another, and the two started fighting in the dugout, throwing haymakers at each other.

The scuffle was quickly broken up, and Papelbon later entered the game and was awful.

The manager of the team, Matt Williams, claimed he did not realize the two were fighting, and that whatever discipline handed out would be done behind closed doors.

Papelbon was suspended by the team--he was already suspended for hitting a batter in an earlier game, so this effectively ended his season--and Harper sat for a game.

That is it.

What led to the confrontation might have been Harper going to the media a few days earlier--rather than to the manager or Papelbon--bemoaning the fact that Papelbon's recent head hunting might have put a target on his own back.

Everybody is wrong here. Harper should bust it out of the gate. He is the National League's best player, and he sets an example for the rest of the team.

He gives off the smell of a spoiled brat, who is protected by his team no matter what the circumstance.

Papelbon should not have aired this dirty laundry in the dugout during the game.

As a veteran, he could have taken Harper aside and told him what he felt, but as I said, there was some bad blood between the two players to begin with.

And manager Williams, I mean, give me a break. You don't know that a fight is going on on the other side of your dugout?

On the other hand, Papelbon wasn't totally incorrect in his assertion to Harper. I mean, Derek Jeter ran out just about every ball that he hit for 20 years. Harper doesn't do it. Melky Cabrera doesn't do it. Heck, Jeter's teammate, Bernie Williams, didn't do it.

But Harper really should, as should the others. They are getting paid ridiculous money to play a kid's game, and running out a hit baseball really is a no brainer.

The end result of all of this is that Harper will still be the golden child--even though his team had an extremely poor season, he will be voted the league's Most Valuable Player--and Papelbon and Williams will probably lose their jobs.

Papelbon will end up elsewhere, as he is talented, but has the reputation for having a really big mouth, something he earned while the closer for the Red Sox for several years.

Williams will almost certainly be fired. He was probably going to be fired anyway, but this was the proverbial nail in the coffin.

Big guys playing a little guy's game ... major league players should be forced to watch Little League games as part of their contracts, and see how the game should be played, the right way, by kids not earning one cent as they play the game they love.

That is real baseball. What happened the other day was not.