Grant Brisbee at SB Nation is having fun with the notion that “Bill Maher, comedian and talk show host who has built a successful, lucrative career based on a smug, arrogant brand of comedy, apparently thinks that Bryce Harper is too arrogant.”
“There are villains, and there are villains,” Maher said on WOR radio in New York. “Just something about him that is very arrogant, and of course that’s important when you’re facing a 100-mph fastball, you have to have that. But some guys, the confidence, which is the element we’re seeking, tips over into a kind of unattractive quality.”
Brisbee argued:
There are two ways to look at this. The first is something like, "Whoa. If Bill Maher thinks Harper is too arrogant, maybe Harper has crossed some sort of line." The second is, "I sure get the impression that Bill Maher lacks self-awareness."
“I’m not a big Bryce Harper fan,” Maher said. “There are a couple of words that I really can’t say on public radio that I think apply to him. But next to those words in the dictionary, I see a picture of Bryce Harper. I really do. I just don’t like that guy at all. It’s not surprising to me that he’s flirting with Donald Trump’s candidacy.”
The Trump flirtation was Harper wearing a “Make Baseball Fun Again” hat — a play on Trump’s “Make America Great Again” hats — following the Nationals’ 4-3 victory over the Atlanta Braves on Opening Day.
“He’s a (d-bag)!” Maher said. “He looks like a (d-bag)! I just don’t like him.”
Maher, a part-owner of the New York Mets, is perhaps just talking trash since the Nats are a divisional rival in the National League East.
“Of course if he was a Met, I’d love him,” Maher said. “I could learn to love Bryce Harper, let’s put it this way. In a few more years, Bryce Harper, I think, will mature. When you’re that good, when you’re that young, you’re going to be a dick."
Perhaps the gibe "takes one to know one" kicks in.
