Bryce Harper and the Nationals' ticking clock

ANALYSIS/OPINION

This is how the season began for Bryce Harper.

“Make baseball fun again,” read the hat he wore while talking to reporters after hitting a home run on Opening Day for the Washington Nationals.

AUDIO: Baltimore Orioles legend Cal Ripken with Thom Loverro

He had declared in ESPN the Magazine that “baseball is a tired sport, because you can’t express yourself. You can’t do what people in other sports do. I’m not saying baseball is, you know, boring or anything like that, but it’s the excitement of the young guys who are coming into the game now who have flair.”

Then he had to go out and play the rest of the season. That wasn’t much fun.

Harper may have been hurt for much of the…