In the past, the face of baseball was scattered but pretty easy to find.
We’ll start this in the ‘90s—because that’s when I was born, so yes I’m a millennial and like the bat-flip—but I’ll talk about that later.
Let’s start in the ‘90s where baseball was quote, unquote reborn with Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire hitting a homerun every other time they stepped to the plate.
You had a couple faces at that time, with the longest lasting face being Derek Jeter who first put on the pinstripes in 1995.
From ’95 to ’14 Jeter was no doubt the face of baseball for those 20 years. Did he meet all the credentials? Absolutely.
Perennial all-star? Check. Make that 14 trips to the Mid-Summer Classic.
Appealing? If you make a back handed jump throw to
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Did he have a farewell tour where 30,000+ fans made it a point to watch number two every single night? He did, for people that don’t know. So there was your face of baseball. Starting in the 1990s to 2014.
Since Jeter’s farewell we’ve tried to find a new face of baseball in Mike Trout and Giancarlo Stanton. Even Pablo Sandoval tried for a little bit, but it didn’t work.
Pujols thought to have a hold on it around the late 2000’s, but LA apparently was the absolute wrong move for him, so not Pujols either.
We thought it might be one of the Cuban missiles in Puig and Cespedes. Nope.
Would it be a pitcher this time? Pitching is running this game and Clayton Kershaw and Madison Bumgarner are two of the best. But they’re not your face either.
So ladies and gentlemen, meet your new face of baseball. Old people apparently don’t like him because he’s fun and old people, I’ve learned, don’t like fun in sports.
BRYCE HARPER.
Sorry Mike Trout. Giancarlo, you had a shot too, but it’s Harper, and at this point in time I don’t think it’s really a question.
At 23 years old Harper has taken over baseball, end of story.
In the right fielder’s not even five years in Major League Baseball, he has put together a resume that most 10 year veterans don’t