I hate Bryce Harper. As a Mets fan he tortured my team for seven years as the star player for our division rival, the Washington Nationals, only to abscond from D.C. to join our even more hated rivals the Philadelphia Phillies and continue torturing me for another five and a half. But I’ve got to admit, what he did for a young high school kid in New Jersey makes me like him just a little bit.
Harper, who’s earned 78 outfield assists in his 13 year career, earned an assist off the field when he helped Haddonfield Memorial High School senior Jake Portella get a date to his school’s prom.
The teen told Fox 29 he knocked on the player’s door to make his request. They initially planned to ask the girl later, Portella told the outlet, only for Harper to ask, “why don’t we do this right now?”
Harper, rocking a Phillies hat, showed up with Portella to a girls house to help him ask her to prom, a video Portella posted to Instagram shows. MLB’s official Twitter account republished the video.
He got Bryce Harper to help ask a girl to prom 😭💚
(via jportella10/IG) pic.twitter.com/YesGpP66dG
— MLB (@MLB) May 21, 2024
“Hi Julia!” Harper greets a visibly stunned girl at her home’s doorstep. “Jake wants to ask you to prom, so I thought I’d help him out” he continues. (RELATED: Former MLB Infielder Collapses And Dies While Coaching Son’s Little League Team)
“So will you go to prom with him?”
“Yes!” the girl replies.
She then, somewhat hilariously, hugs Harper before her new prom date before eventually embracing Portella as well.
I guess I can’t blame her. As a northern New Jerseyan, I despise Philly sports and their fans but I also know how seriously those folks take their sporting teams. This chick was starstruck and spellbound all at once.
I’m sure the pair will remember the prom itself for years to come. But the promposal? That memory will last decades.
