This story was excerpted from Todd Zolecki’s Phillies Beat e-newsletter. To learn the total e-newsletter, click on right here. And subscribe to get it recurrently in your inbox.
Bryce Harper walked by the Phillies’ clubhouse late Monday, when someone requested him concerning the inside-the-park dwelling run he hit earlier that evening in opposition to the Giants.
Harper positioned his palms collectively, seemed upward and stated, “Thank goodness for Mr. Montgomery.”
Harper’s inside-the-park homer was the 14th within the historical past of Citizens Bank Park, which opened in 2004. Nine of them hit the tall, angled wall simply to the left of straightaway middle discipline, together with Harper’s on Monday evening and J.T. Realmuto’s in Game 4 of the 2022 National League Division Series. A tenth deflected off the angled wall adjoining to it.
Former Phillies president David Montgomery imagined pleasure and motion when he designed these partitions greater than 20 years in the past. Montgomery, who died in 2019, obtained what he needed.
“We didn’t want to replicate the Vet,” former Phillies basic supervisor Ed Wade stated Tuesday. “But those walls were David’s idea. His attention to detail was always present, and it was certainly present in the construction of the ballpark. Everything was designed with a purpose.”
Harper has a well known appreciation for baseball historical past, but it surely was stunning to listen to he knew such an obscure piece of Phillies historical past.
“We were talking about it a couple years ago,” Harper defined Tuesday. “A few players were wondering why they made the walls like that. Why? What’s the reasoning? I heard [John] Middleton said [Montgomery] was the reason why. I guess he liked the craziness of it, the idea that if a player hits a ball off there that he has a chance at an inside-the-park home run.”
The Phillies have hit eight of the 14 inside-the-parkers on the Bank.
“I saw J-Roll do it,” Harper stated. “I saw [Chase] Utley do it a couple times. Being able to be part of that is pretty cool.”
Jimmy Rollins hit the primary inside-the-park homer on the Bank on June 20, 2004. Utley hit the following two on July 9, 2009, and July 26, 2011.
“I was 11 in 2004,” Harper stated, when requested about Rollins’. “I can see J-Roll running around second.”
Harper beat himself up attempting to consider the staff Rollins hit it in opposition to. He saved coming again to the Rockies. It was the Royals, however they had been sporting sleeveless grey jerseys with black T-shirts, much like the street jerseys the Rockies as soon as wore.
“I remember — golly — I want to say one of Utley’s, he was facing [Barry] Zito?” Harper stated.
As a matter of truth, sure, Utley confronted Zito when he hit his second in 2011.
“I remember a lot of Utley’s at-bats just because I just loved watching him play,” Harper stated. “It wasn’t because of the Phillies or anything. I just really enjoyed watching him play. Just the way Utley would run, too.”
Harper then mimicked the best way Utley chugged his arms when he ran.
If you’re questioning how Harper remembered the Rollins and Utley dwelling runs within the first place, you must know he has great recall on the subject of baseball. He routinely remembers performs from the previous. Earlier this season at Wrigley Field, he in contrast a play Realmuto made up the first-base line to Carlos Ruiz’s play for the ultimate out of Roy Halladay’s no-hitter within the 2010 NLDS.
“Scott [Boras] would always say that to me, when I was younger because I’d pull out some stuff,” Harper stated, when requested about his baseball reminiscence. “Even when we were going through our free-agency meetings, I would say some stuff to teams, and they would be like, ‘What?’ Scott would talk to them a couple days later and they’d be like, ‘Did he study for our meeting?’ He was like, ‘No, his recall is insane. You ask him a question about baseball, and it just pops in.’ There are just certain times and moments that get in my head because I’ve watched them so many times. I’ve seen them. I just have so much respect for the guys that played before me.”
And to the man who designed the wall that helped him get his second inside-the-park homer on the Bank.
“I remember [Montgomery] showing me the design,” Phillies managing companion Middleton advised Jim Salisbury after Realmuto’s inside-the-parker final fall. “I said, ‘What’s this notch in center field and why is the wall so high?’ David said he thought it would create excitement. He thought we’d see some inside-the-park home runs.”
You can try the listing of the final 10 inside-the-park dwelling runs on the Bank right here.
Content Source: www.mlb.com