A little more than nine years ago, Phillies pitcher Cole Hamels drilled up-and-coming Nationals star Bryce Harper. There were two outs and nobody on in the first inning. The pitch didn’t slip away from him. Hamels knew what he was doing.
“I was trying to hit him,” Hamels said after the game. “I’m not going to deny it.”
It was Hamels’ old school way of welcoming the then 19-year-old to the big leagues. Two innings later, Harper responded by stealing home on a pickoff play.