Philadelphia Phillies star first baseman Bryce Harper batted third during the team’s Spring Training contest against the Detroit Tigers on Sunday afternoon.
Just a few hours earlier, according to USA Today’s Bob Nightengale, the 32-year-old slugger had “passed away,” however.
The MLB columnist had a very unfortunate typo on social media on Sunday morning in a eulogy to San Diego Union-Tribune sports columnist Bryce Miller.
Nightengale corrected his mistake by editing his post just four minutes later, but as everybody knows, the internet never forgets.
“Awful news: Bryce Harper, the talented and sharp-witted columnist for the San Diego Union-Tribune, has passed away at the age of 56 from bladder cancer,” he initially wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
While the USA Today scribe made a prompt edit by replacing “Harper” with “Miller,” he’d made no acknowledgement or apology related to his miscue as of mid-afternoon. In fact, Nightengale moved on later on Sunday, making multiple other posts in the aftermath of the mistake.
San Diego Sports Columnist Was Who Actually Passed Away
While many baseball fans and experts were baffled and amused by Nightengale’s premature Harper eulogy, others took the time to properly honor Miller, who passed away on Saturday.
According to Ryan Finley of the San Diego Union-Tribune, Miller “told stories of San Diegans’ successes and failures, trials and triumphs” for a decade.
“An avid outdoorsman since his childhood in Iowa, Miller viewed San Diego first with an outsider’s awe before becoming a true local. He fished off the Coronado Islands, stalked the backstretch at Del Mar and was as comfortable in the Padres’ clubhouse as he was at an outdoors expo,” Finley wrote. “His coverage of the 2017 Lilac fire, which killed at least 46 horses at San Luis Rey Downs and burned their caretakers, earned Miller the 2019 Eclipse Award, given annually to the best horse racing writing by the National Thoroughbred Racing Association.”
Per Finley, his colleague “told stories of San Diegans at their highest — and lowest.”
“Miller stood on the White House’s South Lawn last July, when Point Loma Nazarene’s women’s soccer team was hailed by Vice President Kamala Harris for winning the Division II national championship. Days later, he was in the Nationals Park press box as Dylan Cease threw the second no-hitter in Padres history,” the sports editor wrote. “Miller was in the champagne-soaked clubhouse after the Padres slayed the Dodgers in the 2022 National League Division Series, and again when they beat the Braves in October’s wild-card series.”
Harper Enters 14th Season Searching For Elusive Championship
Harper finished Sunday afternoon’s exhibition tilt 0-for-3 to move to 12-for-39 across 13 contests this spring. The Phillies have one more Spring Training game on Monday before beginning their 2025 regular season on Thursday against the Washington Nationals.
The 2010 first overall draft pick has put together a Hall-of-Fame caliber career during his 13 seasons but is still missing one massive thing — a World Series championship.
Harper, fellow No. 1 overall pick Stephen Strasburg, three-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer and two-time All-Star corner infielder Ryan Zimmerman were the core of the Nationals for much of the 2010s but only made it as far as the NLDS during “Harp’s” tenure in the nation’s capital. Harper spurned Washington to sign with Philadelphia in March 2019 and less than eight months later, behind the new franchise’s new superstar outfielder Juan Soto, the National won the World Series.
Since arriving to the Phillies, meanwhile, Harper has added a second NL MVP award, three Silver Slugger awards and two All-Star honors, but has still yet to win a Fall Classic.
Philadelphia missed the playoffs from 2019-2021, before winning its first pennant in 13 years in 2022. Harper had a massive 2022 postseason (including a NLCS MVP honor), but the Phillies fell to the Houston Astros in six games in the World Series after holding a 2-1 series edge.
Harper and company then advanced to the 2023 NLCS against the Arizona Diamondbacks and held 2-0 and 3-2 leads in the set but ultimately fell in seven games. The Phillies won their first NL East crown in 13 years in 2024 but were upset by the New York Mets in the NLDS, 3-1.
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