Ron Harper vowed to be ready.
In 2015, his son (and Nationals star), Bryce, mulled participating in the league’s Home Run Derby, but decided he didn’t want to do it without his dad throwing to him. At the time, Ron Harper was recovering from shoulder surgery.
After that, Bryce Harper made a decision: the next time he would enter the Home Run Derby would only be in 2018 — when Nationals Park hosted the event — and if his dad was healthy.
“He took a few years and that’s what he wanted to do,” Ron Harper said Monday, “and I said I’d be ready.