The Boston Red Sox will kick off a seemingly run-of-the-mill interleague series against the Philadelphia Phillies on Friday night.
The matchup will likely be forgotten by everyone in a few weeks time, as it’s too early in the season to have any real repercussions on either team in the long run. Well, everyone but Masataka Yoshida.
This series means much more to the Red Sox rookie, as he will be taking the field alongside his favorite player: Bryce Harper.
The admiration for Harper goes back a long time. Yoshida not only wore No. 34 in Japan for Harper, who wore the number with the Washington Nationals, but he also named his French bulldog Harper and uses an Instagram handle (BH_Masataka34) with Harper’s initials and number. In fact, when Nippon Professional Baseball had a game where players wore nicknames on the backs of their jerseys, similar to what Major League Baseball does on player’s weekend, Yoshida chose “Harper” as his nickname.
On Friday night, the 29-year-old will realize a long-time dream.
“I’m really honored to play against him,” Yoshida said through interpreter Keiichiro Wakabayashi, per Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic. “Also I’ve heard that surgery usually takes a year to come back to play, but he’s come back to play much quicker than usual. I’ve experienced some injuries, so I know it’s a lot of work to come back, so that part I really respect.”
“… He’s a really great hitter and swings aggressively and is powerful. I was watching him since he was with the Nationals as a rookie, I really respected how he played.”
Harper, of course, recently made his return from Tommy John surgery and did so in record time.
The respect that Yoshida has for Harper was worrisome for the Red Sox at one time, as they believed the Phillies might have an upper hand at inking the top free agent due to a perceived desire on his part to play with Harper.
Luckily, Philly didn’t have a need for an outfield bat and Boston is now home to the favorite to win American League Rookie of the Year.
