Bryce Harper gets ejected after telling ump to be a professional, a breakdown
What Happened
On September 6, 2020, the Phillies hosted the Mets at Citizens Bank Park and trailed 2-1 in the bottom of the fourth when Bryce Harper loafed in right field on a fly ball. Instead of charging it, Harper drifted and let Neil Walker make an off-balance catch on his heels, which let Todd Frazier tag from third and score to make it 3-1 Mets. An inning later Harper smoked a ball down the line that the umpire ruled foul, and he eventually grounded into a 1-5-3 double play. Between innings he asked the ump about the call, got told the conversation was over, and after telling him to 'be a professional,' Harper got ejected.
Why This Matters
The ejection is the punchline, but the lazy defense early is the real story. Watch Harper hang back and force Walker into a throw he can't make, and you see why Joe Girardi looked physically pained in the dugout. The blown foul call gave Harper a legit gripe, yet the rule here is simple: an umpire can run you for arguing balls and strikes or fair-foul calls, and there's no obligation to keep chatting once he's done. Telling a guy to 'be a professional' reads as polite, but it's the kind of jab that gets you tossed. Context matters too. This was the shortened 60-game 2020 season, every game mattered for a Phillies team chasing a playoff spot, and they'd just handed the Mets a run on a mental lapse. Philly missed October by a hair that year.
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Key Moments
Who / What Is Involved
Players: Bryce Harper. Teams: Phillies.
Key Terms Mentioned
Full Transcript
Click timestamps to jump to that momentBryce Harper had a pretty eventful night
over the weekend
playing the mets the mets are up two to
one
philly trying to keep it right there
bottom fourth neal walker going back
waiting for bryce to call him off
because now the runner can tag
up Todd Frazier scores extends the lead
by one little jersey fist pump for the
boys
i mean look at bryce bryce is just
chilling back there never once had like
a moment of i should charge this
and catch it so he doesn't if he catches
this Todd Frazier doesn't run
and that's just kind of obvious because
now neil catches it
on his heels while bryce is just hanging
out in the background
and then he's got to throw it completely
off balance can't get anything on that
neil looks back at him like
dude what the hell where were you
that's your ball not mine shaking his
head
Joe Girardi slowly dies inside because
that's not his style of baseball bryce
harper it looks like what happened i
don't know
and then kneeling the dugout after the
inning looks around and he's like yeah i
mean come on now i'm going back on the
ball you need to come in
he's talking about it we all know that
harper comes up with two outs
in the next inning and he rocks this one
down the line fair ball no ump says that
was foul
real hard call i mean yeah it looks like
it could have gone over the base depths
reception is kind of hard with this
camera angle so
maybe maybe not you would need a lot
more angles and a lot more replays and
the umpire doesn't get any of that
but he calls it foul Bryce Harper says
oh my god
and then he grounds out to lugo who
punches it to frazier and they
tag team him for the old one five three
now in between innings Bryce Harper goes
to the ump and he says i just want to
talk to you about it
hey um says i'm not talking to you he
says why
come on i'm just trying to talk to you
about it that's all i'm trying to do
be a professional and that's when the
ump
tosses him out and he says are you
[ __ ] kidding me
now you can hear him here
i really like the the little the little
to Neil Walker right here
when he goes like no seriously dude i'm
i got this let me go
then he goes up to the ump and he says
how do you throw me out right now
i'm just asking about the play one time
be a professional oh i just wanted to
talk to you um says yeah i told you i
didn't want to talk and you kept talking
and Bryce Harper says that's not
professional now he's going to go to the
dugout and he's going to tell everyone
what happened
and plead his case to his teammates
don't seem that interested
i didn't say one cuss word i said be a
professional and talk to me please
that's all i said he said i'm not gonna
talk to you
that's that's no that's really bad
i said nothing i might have talked back
but i did not bait him to that
i did nothing bad
that's so bad right there
i did not i didn't say anything i didn't
cuss at him
i didn't say a bad word to him just
talk to me that's all i wanted him to
talk to me
so bad and then bryce goes on his way
and that's kind of it
not a fun night for Bryce Harper
just wanted the ump to be a professional
as Neil Walker wanted him to be oh
burn