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PHILADELPHIA -- For seven years, Bryce Harper played baseball in the same city Capitals superstar Alex Ovechkin played hockey.
Harper met him briefly in 2018, after the Capitals won the Stanley Cup. But Harper said Wednesday afternoon at Truist Park that he admired Ovechkin¡¯s career and how he passed Wayne Gretzky to become the NHL¡¯s all-time goals leader, scoring his 895th career goal in Sunday¡¯s 4-1 loss to the Islanders in Elmont, N.Y.
¡°Amazing,¡± Harper said. ¡°What an incredible scorer. I like the way he did it, too.¡±
How so?
¡°He didn¡¯t want to do it on an empty net,¡± Harper said, referencing Ovechkin passing up the chance in Washington¡¯s previous game. ¡°I respect that completely. It¡¯s out of respect to the sport and everything. It¡¯s just him doing it the right way. You don¡¯t want to pass Gretzky on an empty-netter, and say, ¡®Whoa, this is great!¡¯ But he¡¯s pretty incredible. It just goes to show how hard work and dedication to your craft works.¡±
Harper has met his share of world-class athletes over the years. He has played with them on the Nationals, Phillies, NL All-Star teams and elsewhere. He has played against them. He has met greats outside of baseball, such as Michael Jordan, Peyton Manning and Mia Hamm as part of his work with Gatorade.
¡°I don¡¯t really ask them, ¡®Hey, why were you great?¡¯¡± Harper said. ¡°But obviously, I feel like when you¡¯re at that level, everybody kind of has that same killer instinct, I guess you could say. Some are more killers than others, right?¡±
But no question each of them had the drive to be the best.
Harper has that drive. He is a two-time NL MVP with 51.1 career WAR, according to Baseball Reference. He has talked in the past about how he wants to play into his 40s. There is no reason to bet against him.
Harper is on a clear Hall of Fame track. Through Harper¡¯s age-31 season, Baseball Reference¡¯s similarity scores have him most closely aligned with Cooperstown-worthy talents like Barry Bonds, Carl Yastrzemski, Freddie Freeman, Duke Snider, Reggie Jackson and Mike Trout.
¡°It¡¯s trying to be perfect at your craft,¡± Harper said. ¡°It¡¯s trying to get better at your craft as you go. I think if you look at the greats in a lot of the sports, that¡¯s kind of how they are, you know?¡±