'It’s OK for everyone to be happy': Nationals welcome Bryce Harper back to D.C. in Phillies uniform

WASHINGTON — Bryce Harper has always seen the big picture, ever since he was a teenage phenom in Las Vegas, garnering YouTube fame with his slugging, meeting an agent named Scott Boras before he had a driver’s license, and graduating early from high school to position himself where he is today.

That place is the richest free agent in baseball history, a 13-year, $330 million contract that will give Harper the fortune he always envisioned, to accompany the fame that’s shadowed him years before he debuted as a 19-year-old.

At 26, though, Harper is old enough to know unconditional love is never guaranteed to extend beyond his family and tight circle of friends. That by leaving the team that drafted him – the Washington Nationals – for a Philadelphia Phillies team that made him rich beyond his wildest dreams will leave a mark for many fans.

So as Harper entered Nationals Park as a visiting player for the first time on Tuesday – clad in a hat with a “Positive Vibes” message that might merely be wishful thinking - he was firmly aware that in the end, his stint as a Phillie will be almost double the length his time as a National.

He expects boos, even if he’d prefer a unanimous show of support.

He wants it to be normal – but knows it will never be the same.

“I don’t want it to feel like it’s weird or crazy walking in here,” Harper said four hours before facing Max Scherzer and the Nationals for the first of 19 meetings this season, and a possible 247 times over the life of his contract. “But it’s definitely going to be like that. For me, I want to understand and know the good times we had here and remember those good times and I think the fans will as well.

“I hope they can.”

HARPER'S RETURN: Outfielder thanks D.C. 

BOO BIRDS?: Nobody sure what to expect from fans

Not so much.

Harper was booed by a crowd thinned by a pregame rain delay as his name appeared during the Phillies' lineup announcement. Then, a short tribute video aired that culminated with a simple message: Thank you Bryce. 

The boos only kicked up from there, and Harper stayed in the Phillies dugout rather than appear for a curtain call. He was booed solidly when he came up for his first at-bat, which culminated after six pitches in a Scherzer strikeout.

The reaction - perhaps more negative than Harper anticipated - only confused his legacy as the most prominent player in Washington’s history.

He smacked 184 home runs, won the 2015 NL MVP award, made six All-Star teams and was ever the good soldier in his dealings with area youth and time off the field.

The divorce of franchise player and franchise seemed amicable enough, though maybe far from warm and fuzzy.

Any text messages from former teammates leading up to tonight?

“No,” Harper said. “Not really.”

Greatest memory as a National?

Harper searched his mental hard drive for a moment before offering up Jayson Werth’s Game 4 walkoff home run in the 2012 NL Division Series, the first playoff series for the team.

Sure, he appreciated the standing ovation after his first at-bat in Nationals Park ended in a strikeout. Yet Harper wasn’t about to get overly wistful in this return.

The end was accelerated after Harper and wife Kayla traveled to Palm Springs to meet with controlling partner Mark Lerner and father Ted, “two days before Christmas,” as Harper easily recalled.

The meeting went great, says Harper, but as the Washington Post reported, the Nationals offer subsequently dropped from 10 years and $300 million, much of it deferred, to 10 years and around $250 million – even more deferred.

Team and player mostly ghosted each other from then until Harper’s Feb. 28 agreement was struck with the Phillies.

“I thought on both sides, it was kind of mutual, and didn’t really bother me,” Harper said Tuesday. “It was, ‘OK, they have two great young outfielders (Juan Soto and Victor Robles), a great plan for what they want to do with their organization.’ As I said all last year, if I’m part of it, great. If I’m not and they want to move on, then OK, I’m probably fine with that as well.

“I have no hard feelings against the Nationals or the Lerner family. They’ve always treated me with the utmost respect. It’s fun to play with an organization that really cares about their players and the fans as well. I’ll always respect the Lerner family in whatever they do.”

Could that mutual respect extend to an entire fan base? 

Ryan Zimmerman certainly wishes it could. The longest-tenured National and the franchise's first true "face" when he was drafted during their inaugural 2005 season, Zimmerman, 34, wonders why there must be rancor every time a player exercises his rights to become a free agent.

"I hope he goes and is a Hall of Famer and breaks home run records," Zimmerman said Tuesday. "I’ve said that from the beginning. I’ve been with him since he was a teenager. I think I’ve seen him grow up as a person – I won’t say more than as a player because he has become a way better player – but seeing him grow up as a person being married now and having a kid on the way … it’s cool to see that kind of stuff. 

"It's OK for everybody to be happy. Someone doesn’t always have to be mad. It seems like that nowadays that there’s always someone that needs to be upset, but it’s OK for everyone to be happy." 

Harper has many reasons for happiness after a whirlwind several months. He and Kayla found out she was expecting their first child "November-ish," he says, followed by the darkness of free agency and, eventually, a firm offer from the Phillies in late February. 

Harper endeared himself quickly to his new fans in Philadelphia, donning a pair of Phillie Phanatic-themed green cleats on Opening Day, and then hitting mammoth home runs in his second and third games over the weekend.

Harper and Kayla drove down I-95 yesterday and he made a beeline for The Italian Store, a deli/pizzeria in Arlington, and had dinner at Acqua al 2, another of their faves. His voice caught just once on Tuesday, when discussing his impending fatherhood.

"I think he’s experiencing, now, a lot of emotion," Phillies manager Gabe Kapler said. "I think he’s sorting through that emotion. And I think he’s played really well with a lot of emotion. Sometimes that can hurt someone’s performance. But I think we’ve seen throughout Bryce’s career that the bigger the moment, he just kind of embraces it, and uses it as fuel."

Part of that compartmentalization is seeing longtime mates as NL East enemies.

He said it will certainly be weird seeing Anthony Rendon and Trea Turner in the infield, Scherzer on the hill, without himself behind them. He says this two-game series will indeed be strange, “but I think for the next 13 (years) we’ll get used to it.”

And he’s excited to see Soto’s career transpire; Harper was a key mentor for the rookie slugger in his final year in D.C.

"He was the first person when I came up here," Soto said Tuesday, "who told me, 'Hey, anything you need, I’m going to be here.' I feel grateful (for) him and thanks for everything."

Beyond that? 

Well, Harper is a Phillie now, and made good on his destiny to cash in bigger and bolder than anyone who ever set foot in free agency.

Those seven years in Washington? They’ll look smaller and smaller as they fold into the tapestry of a two-decade career.

Harper hopes he can still be loved in D.C. He’s fully prepared for the alternative.

“I hope I get a great one,” he said of his Tuesday night reception. “I’m sure there’ll be some boos; it’s part of the game. I’ll always remember the memories we had here, all the excitement, the screams and cheers.

“I’ll always remember that.”

Contributing: Steve Gardner