Harper does football celebration as Phillies beat Mets in London Series game 1

Bryce Harper is baseball’s ‘showman’, and he proved why in the fourth inning of game one in the 2024 London Series.

The Phillies talisman not only got the game’s first hit and later the game’s first homerun, he then pulled off a football-style celebration in a nod to the stadium they were playing in.

West Ham’s London Stadium has been completely transformed for the third edition of MLB‘s trip across the pond.

And Harper, the showman he is, wanted to pay tribute to the UK’s leading sport by performing a knee slide on his way back into the dugout after rounding home plate.

It was the first of three homeruns for Philadelphia, who claimed a commanding 7-2 victory over their National League rivals the New York Mets – with SIX of their runs coming in a fourth inning blowout.

Whit Merrifield adding the second homer during that fourth inning, with fan favourite Nick Castellanos adding a third at the top of the eighth.

But Harper’s was the perfect way to really get the London Stadium crowd roaring, with the homerun hero rounding the bases to a cacophony of sound as he fist pumped and saluted all his way round the three bases to home.

“It was fun, being able to put people on their feet and put joy in people, that’s what it’s all about, so being able to doing that today was a lot of fun,” the Phillies star said after the game.

“As a team we all had a really good time out there. That’s just Philly baseball and the way we play.

“The atmosphere really erupted in that inning, and then it was another guy, another guy, another guy – we were able to score six and get ahead. It was a lot of fun.”

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On his football-style knee slide, he explained: “I didn’t tell any of my teammates because I wanted them to all be pretty surprised.

“And I was laughing because I looked at all their faces and they were like… ‘What is going on?’ Then everybody kinda understood. They understand who I am.

“I was in the training room this morning talking to our trainers and I said, ‘If I go deep I’m going to do the football celebration’. I loved the moment, I loved the opportunity, so I was able to do it.

“I was talking to myself about whether I was going to do as I crossed home plate, my only fear was if I got caught on the turf with my knees but it didn’t happen.”

Replays of Harper’s celebration did show his teammates not quite knowing how to react, while his coach had no reaction at all.

That coach, Phillies manager Rob Thomson, revealed just what was going through his head at the time: “Just don’t get hurt. He didn’t discuss that with me… but he’s a showman.

“He’s just done it so often [performed when the pressure’s on] that you sort of think, ‘This is his time’, and it doesn’t always happen, but it happens a lot. It’s amazing.”

Harper is one of the MLB’s top stars and has been a baseball phenomenon since his collage days.

As mentioned, he goes by the nickname ‘The Showman’ and was a first overall draft pick for the Washington Nationals before signing a gigantic $330million 13-year contract with the Phillies in 2019.

Asked to describe the player Harper is, Thomson said: “He is a superstar.

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“People come to watch him play, watch him perform, and he understands that. He’s a perfectionist. I think that Bryce feels that every time he goes to the plate he should get a base hit, and if it doesn’t, it upsets him.

“That’s what makes him great. He’s a student of the game.

“And it’s the 15-year anniversary of him being on the cover of Sports illustrated when he was 16 years old. Anyone else ever do that?

“The fact he delivers so often tells you a lot about his toughness and about his make-up. He’s incredible, he really is.

“In this environment, the London Series, the World Series, the Play-offs, the All-Star game, wherever the spotlight is really bright, he tends to perform and not many guys can say that.”

Harper himself had a message for any UK fans who were at the game, experiencing a baseball game for the first time and were left impressed by the show the Phillies put on for them: “Jump on the bandwagon, come home!

“We’ll take everybody, I don’t care where you’re from, who you are, what you do, man. I’ll take anybody you got.

“You wanna wear Phillies stuff, you’re part of our family, you’re part of Philadelphia… just make sure you show up!”