Four years before he was on the cover of Sports Illustrated as a teenager, a 12-year-old Bryce Harper was a man amongst boys. And his current Philadelphia Phillies teammate David Dahl was there to see it.
In an appearance on MLB Network Wednesday, Dahl — a native of Birmingham, Alabama — recalled seeing Harper flash prodigious power nearly two decades ago.
“I actually, I have a funny story, Dahl said. “He was 12, I was 11. And his team was playing in Huntsville, Alabama. And he went 12-for-12 with 11 home runs. I remember telling my dad like ‘Hey, I need to get in the weight room. This guy is really good.’ So it was actually pretty cool to see.”
Fast forward 19 years and Dahl has had an even better view of one of the best stretches of Harper’s career.
The Phillies selected Dahl’s contract from Triple-A Lehigh Valley on June 3. That was just in time for him to see Harper potentially win his second consecutive NL Player of the Month Award. After going 1-for-4 in Wednesday’s win over the Detroit Tigers, Harper is hitting .384 this month with seven home runs, 15 RBIs and 13 walks.
Harper is competing not only with Los Angeles Dodgers’ DH Shohei Ohtani for NL Player of the Month, but also possibly for NL MVP now that Mookie Betts is out for an extended period with a left hand fracture. Both players are aiming to win their third career MVP. Only 11 players in MLB history have won three or more league MVPs. Among those, Mike Trout is the only active player.
So if Dahl is able to stick on the Phillies roster for the remainder of the 2024 season, he might get to see Harper pull off the most incredible thing he’s done on a baseball field since he was 12 years old and playing in Huntsville.
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