There’s nothing like the power of radio, and Bryce Harper proved that on Tuesday.
The Phillies star clobbered his ninth home run of August in the Phillies’ 12-7 win over the Angels, and the 30-year-old gave the credit for the homer to an unlikely source.
Harper told reporters after the game that he hit the home run for Chuck, a caller into Philly sports talk station 94WIP.
“I was driving in today and I was listening to WIP, like I do a lot in the two o’clock hour,” Harper explained. And a guy named Chuck called in and he calls in a lot, it’s hilarious. He was talking about our team and talking about me and stuff. I walked into the training room and I was like, ‘I’m going to go deep tonight for Chuck!’
“That guy had me fired up, man.”
Chuck is apparently a well-known caller to the WIP audience and the Philly sports crowd, dialing into the station as “Chuck from Mount Airy,” a neighborhood in northwest Philadelphia.
The funny part of it all was that when Chuck first called in on Tuesday, WIP host Jon Marks said that Harper could very well be listening.
“Bryce Harper, listen, man, before I die I am going to shake that man’s hand one day. He’s the best ever,” Chuck said on the show. “But Bryce Harper, Bryce Harper man, might go down as one of the best Phillies ever.
“And I’ll tell ya, I don’t want to see nobody else win a ring more than I want to see that guy win a ring.”
The Phillies have now won five straight games with Tuesday’s victory after they bashed five home runs.
The team has now hit 57 long balls in August, a new franchise record.
Philadelphia is 74-58 and five games up in the final National League wild card spot as Harper looks for his first World Series ring.